How the water reservoir nearly drove me mad, why extremely difficult challenges can still be worth it, and where we are now.
Friend and foe: the MM water reservoir
Really looking forward to next year
"Huh? Weren't you going to talk about this year?"
Yes, but that has everything to do with next year. This certainly wasn't the most enjoyable year for me, or for the rest of the team.
But I'm very proud of what we achieved, because it will make next year much more enjoyable. I know that sounds rather vague, but I'll explain everything.
So today's email is a personal one.
Making Makkelijke Moestuin even easier
That's what we're always working on. That's why we created the app to help new gardeners, the community where people can meet and ask questions, and why in 2022 we solved the slug problem with our own electric slug fence:
Makkelijke Moestuin raised beds with an electric slug fence
Over the past few years, our main focus has been watering. Water isn't just essential for plants; making sure they always have enough is also a lot of work, especially during hot, dry spells.
So we'd already tried all sorts of things: upside-down bottles, leaving the garden hose in the MM-mix for a while, a ready-made system with small tubes, and watertight trays with gravel tiles beneath the raised beds:
Tests with upside-down bottles, a hose in the MM-mix, irrigation tubes, and pond liner with gravel tiles
But none of those options gave us what we wanted: something that worked well and was easy to use.
Then we saw something very simple: a container with a shallow layer of water and a pot of compost above it. A wick hung from the pot, drawing the water upwards and keeping the compost nicely moist, but never soaking wet. The compost also stayed loose and airy, which is important too.
It looked something like this:
A container of water, a pot of compost and a wick between them
Brilliant, right?
I wanted the same thing for our raised beds. So in my own garden, I stacked two 8-square MM-Hero raised beds and turned the bottom one into a water reservoir. It was watertight, with an air layer and wicks.
The result? Fantastic. Because the plants always had water, never dried out and the MM-mix stayed beautifully airy, they grew better than ever. Seriously, we had more tomatoes than we knew what to do with.
Gardening became much more relaxing too. I only had to check now and then whether there was enough water left. During dry weather, I no longer had that constant little voice in my head saying, 'You still need to water!'
The first test raised bed, with an MM-Hero used as a water reservoir
All right, so it worked perfectly. But what should a reservoir like this look like, and could we make one at a reasonable price?
The search - and a shattered dream
Reservoirs made from steel or aluminium would be far too expensive. With injection moulding, the separate parts would have to be welded together, which wouldn't be strong enough.
Eventually, I came across rotational moulding. This technique is used to make hollow products that need to be strong and resistant to heat, cold and UV light, such as kayaks and large underground water tanks.
But when I took our design to manufacturers who used this technique, that dream quickly fell apart. At the prices they quoted, a raised bed with a water reservoir would simply be far too expensive.
The smartest idea, or the stupidest?
But we didn't want to give up just like that. So after a while, we said to each other: what if we just do it ourselves? We'd build our own electrically powered machine.
We thought that was very clever of us. But everyone we told said, "You'll NEVER, ever manage it."
That reminded me of our neighbour Gerrit, a professional grower. When he saw me working on my first raised beds 16 years ago, he said exactly the same thing.
You'll NEVER manage this, Jelle!
That was when I knew for sure: we simply HAD to do this. Looking back, though, it was a fairly absurd idea.
Just imagine me saying to you, "You're going to build a machine. No one has ever built one like it before, so you'll have to design it yourself." But you have no technical training, know nothing about electricity and only have a vague idea of what the machine should look like.
That was exactly our situation. And yet we did it.
From nothing to machine experts
We soon discovered that everything was far more complicated than we'd expected, and that the knowledge we already had wasn't nearly enough.
So we had to learn all sorts of things at breakneck speed:
drawing in 3D
building the machine frames, including welding
how electric motors and pneumatic components work together
electrical engineering and building control cabinets
and thousands of other things
Our world over the past few years - very different from a vegetable garden
Was it fun? At first, yes, but not for long.
Suddenly, we were spending all our time on wires, electrics and machine parts instead of plants.
It was often complete madness. One thing would go wrong, then another; as soon as we'd fixed something, the next challenge was already waiting.
But because we were already in so deep, and wanted SO badly to make this product, we stubbornly carried on. We went from the first version to the second, and then on to a third.
Fortunately, that third version increasingly did what we wanted it to do. In autumn 2024, the first genuinely usable water reservoir was born.
Yes: the very first water reservoir from our self-developed machine
From then on, one reservoir came out of the machine every four hours. That was still far too slow, of course, but we started selling them anyway.
And the response? Exactly what we'd hoped for: the plants grew better and gardening with the MM became even more enjoyable. Bingo: the reservoirs did exactly what they were meant to do.
They're also top quality: strong enough to hold hundreds of kilos of moist MM-mix, resistant to heat, frost and UV light, and built to last indefinitely. And of course, they're 100% food-safe.
Healthy plants in SonjaMM's MM-Hero raised beds
Looking back on the past year
For me, 2025 will go down as an extremely strange year.
Alongside the 'usual' things - sending emails, tending the garden so we could take photos, sawing raised beds, sending parcels and running the company - we were also working on the machine day and night. It needed to become faster and more precise, and that certainly didn't happen by itself.
It also seemed as though every change we made immediately caused ten new problems. The reservoirs regularly sold out, so we had to disappoint a lot of MM gardeners.
But along the way, we became very good at upgrading our machine. It now produces a brand-new water reservoir every 30 minutes, ready for us to send out.
And now everyone says, "Wow, Jelle, how did you manage THAT?"
Despite everything, we did it after all :-)
Onwards to the future
That turbulent period is behind us now.
And yes, we're tired, but above all we're proud. I've never been more eager to focus fully on the garden again next year, WITH the new reservoirs that make gardening a dream - and those are your words, not mine 🙂
They mean we can now make your gardens just as enjoyable and easy as ours: full of vegetables that grow better than ever, without you ever having to wonder whether they have enough water.
Yes: this is why we do it
Was the water reservoir worth all that effort after all?
Yes, 100%. It makes the MM system more complete than ever.
To grow really well, plants need these six things:
A Makkelijke Moestuin gives them all six: the raised bed, MM-mix, square layout, sowing system and the right care, plus regular watering.
But a water reservoir gives your plants not only water, but air too. That's important because plants don't just breathe above ground; their roots need air as well.
Here's a diagram of a raised bed with a water reservoir:
That's all for today
Right, I'll stop there. It's been a long and personal story, but I wanted to share it with you.
Most of all, I want to thank you for your enthusiasm, for continuing to read our emails, for joining in with the community and for trusting our company. And for supporting us through thick and thin again this year, even when I sometimes felt I hadn't been in touch with you enough.
You know what? When I look back on this strange year, I simply feel incredibly grateful. For this unusual adventure that is Makkelijke Moestuin, for the wonderful hobby of growing your own plants, and for the people who make it all possible. That includes you 💚
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