What a good idea! I mentioned it to my husband and he kind of smacked himself on the head and said "Why didn't I think of that!?"

Edited to ask: What is that lovely plant in the article photo?

Woofie, the plant in the photo is Rosa 'Veilchenblau.'

Rose (Rosa 'Veilchenblau')

I actually feel a little jolt of surprise every time I come to the home page and see this because it's my photo and I'm not expecting to see it in a tip.

Good tip, Doug!

Once of the best watermelon plants I ever grew was watered with a five-gallon bucket in this manner! Yummy!~

Zuzu, great pic! I love it!!

Shoe

I wondered if that was Veilchenblau! I was supposed to have gotten a couple from someone on DG, but she sent the wrong plant and I never got around to fussing about it. Yumm, I'd forgotten how lovely that little rose is!

I drill my buckets 2" from the bottom so that the weight of that couple of inches of water makes the bucket more stable if not on perfectly flat ground and if windy. Also, we use buckets by the dozens and I spray paint the drilled hole inside and outside the bucket with fluorescent paint - much easier and quicker to tell which buckets are for watering and which are not.