Sub-irrigation, also known as self-watering, is an irrigation technique that mimics the natural water tables found in all of nature's most bountiful growing environments. The basic concept behind sub-irrigation involves utilizing capillary action to allow the plants to draw water as needed from a hidden reservoir below the soil - providing a consistent and efficient water supply. The GardenWells Sub-Irrigation System is what we use to make all LifeSpace Gardens self-watering. 1. Step one is installing the food safe waterproof liner. This is cut and folded perfectly to size and installed into your garden to create the water reservoir. In doing so this also protects the woodwork from rot and eliminates all leaking and mess. 2. The GardenWells are then clicked together by the square foot and installed into your garden. This creates a platform that supports the soil on top while creating the hidden reservoir underneath. In the middle of each GardenWell is a cup that once filled with soil or a wicking medium such as coconut coir, vermiculite or hemp hurd - will allow water to wick up from the reservoir into the soil consistently and evenly overtime. 3. An overflow is installed in each garden to control drainage and regulate reservoir height. This means that you can never really over water your garden and that all access water can be controlled, and will only come out of the overflow valve. 4. the WaterStem is used to water directly to the water reservoir and also functions as a float gauge to indicate your reservoir capacity. When the indicator is floating up the garden is good to grow, when it's down it's time to fill up. It's really that simple