Self-watering planter - filling it with soil

The drain pipes are loose in the tub. 

To keep them from shifting, soil is packed around the pipes to just over the top of the pipe. The soil helps to wick the water through out the bottom of the planter.

Next a layer of low density fill is placed on top of the layer of soil. In this case we used a product made out of coconut husks. This layer is where the bulk of the plant lives, while its roots dive into the moist soil layer to drink.

On top of this layer is placed wood chips to act a mulch, and to help reduce evaporation. 

We will see this summer how well this works.