The self-watering container garden is a practical idea introduced to the RMI by the Wellness Center. In 2012 the US Embassy gave the Wellness Center a grant to put the plan in action, and on May 8, Dan Larsen, the Director of the Department of State office that covers the Marshall Islands visited Wellness Center to view the instructional poster project sponsored by the U.S. government.
The purpose of this grant was to demonstrate to the local people in the Marshall Islands the concept of self-watering and self-weeding gardens to encourage home gardening and vegetable production and use as a way to reduce NCD’s (non communicable disease) here in the RMI.
The Wellness Center secured land between the wards in the hospital and constructed two types of self-watering container gardens. Twenty 18-gallon containers have been installed and planted and three 4×20’ commercial demonstration self-watering boxes are currently in use.
The large posters are designed to show step by step how to construct home style gardening boxes that Marshallese can use on their own to grow items that are local, cheap, and healthy.
