A soda bottle isn't the prettiest irrigation system you can install in a container garden, but it's got three things going for it that the pretty ones can lack:

1. It's free.

2. You can recycle the bottles.

3. It works. This system will carry your container gardens through hot summer days and weekends when, for whatever reason, you're not able to water them.

About "free": OK, the system isn't quite free. You have to buy 1-liter soda bottles. We drink a lot of seltzer water, so that's not a problem for us or, for that matter, for friends and neighbors who have no 1-liter bottles and want to copy our system. They get them from us.

If you come up short in the 1-liter bottle department, then surely you have friends or neighbors who will share.

About recycling: Our bottles used to go into our recycling bin and then out to the curb twice a month. At the end of the growing season, they still do.

About how the system works: This is a lot easier to show than it is to tell, so it's a good thing we've got photos for you to study.

All you need are empty bottles -- with their caps -- and one safety pin. Use the pin to stick three holes in the bottom of each bottle. Stick the pin into the part of the bottom that will touch the surface of the soil in your container.

When it's time to set up the system, fill each bottle with water and quickly screw on the cap. Turn the bottle upside down. Repeat until all the bottles you'll need are filled.

We put them in an old milk crate so they'll stay upright. The milk crate also works well for corralling empties till you need them again.

A 1-gallon container needs one bottle. A big planter such as the one in the photograph needs two to four, depending on how long it has to go without watering.

Before you put the system to work in your containers, water them thoroughly so the soil is uniformly moist. Put the bottles -- bottom end down -- into the containers. Make sure the bottom of each bottle makes contact with the soil. The water will drain out slowly.

That's all there is to it. We've used this system for a couple of years and swear by it for all the times we can't water.

Who cares if it's ugly? Dead plants are uglier. Contact Jann Malone at (804) 649-6820 or jmalone@timesdispatch.com.