Dying for some rain

Every morning for about a month the weather  has been cloudy and cool with high winds.  Even on the days we have been warned that violent thunder storms are coming we haven't gotten but a few drops of rain.  The dark clouds just don't open up and let it out.  The good side is that with the wind the heat and humidty are tolerable, but the bad side is that the garden is requiring a lot of water.  I decided that since this may keep up I should try to get ready to increase the amount of rain I can use at once buy setting up a rain barrel.
For twenty bucks at the feed store I got this plastic barrel that is labeled Diet Coke Base.  There is also a CORROSIVE  label, but since I couldn't survive without diet coke I have been pretending I didn't see that one.  I rinsed the barrel and left the caps off to let the smell evaporate.  I put the barrel under the eave of the house and cut out a ten inch hole to let the rain flow inside.  I drilled a 1/2 hole in the bottom side and threaded in a PVC spigot. The next ones I buy I won't cut out a hole in the top.  I will figure out way to get the water to flow through the holes that have caps so that I can reseal the barrel.

Unless the electricity were shut off there is no way that rain fall would become our primary source of water.  We are so lucky when it comes to access to clean fresh water when other people have only access to unsafe water or have to pay a price that forces them to choose between food and water.  I know in some states and worse in some countries where the world bank has privatized water it is illegal to collect rainwater.  I know I would break that law in a heartbeat if I needed the water.  I can't imagine depending on a product like the Watercone to have some clean fresh water.

The value of water from rain barrels

last year I would estimate that I used around three thousand gallons of rain water just to water my blueberry bushes, two fig trees, peach tree, pear tree and the four raspberry plants that died. This year I am looking into buying a large rain barrel to increase the amount of water available to us. The lower the amount of rain you receive the larger tank you would need to hold the water for longer periods of time between rain falls. You have to have sun and water to grow anything and there isn't much we can do about the amount of sun, but using a large rain water tank for rain water harvesting we can be prepared to save some money and resources.

We live on a well so we don't pay for the water directly like we did living in Las Vegas, but we do pay for the electricity to pump the water. The garden also puts a strain on the amount of water coming out of the well and during the extra dry summer last year we were unable to water as much as we would have liked. Simply Rain Barrels has a huge selection of rain water barrels and tanks for watering a back porch full of plants to a few acres of garden. Since we have lots of space we would probably go for an above ground tank, but using an underground tank or the square tanks that could mount to a wall or under your deck you could save space in an urban yard.

This year I am going to try to figure out how much water it takes us to water the garden while increasing both our collection and efficiency . If the summers are drier and drier this will become more and more important. We get large amounts of rain at once so if I can create a system to collect it we won't have to drain the well water in order to keep the garden going. This year we hope to add around ten more trees so we will need another 3000 gallons if we have a dry year.
Right now SimplyRainBarrels.com has some free shipping offers and discounts so we are going to try to get our system set up before the summer hits.



This brought to you by http://www.simplyrainbarrels.com

Weekend gardening plans

Collected about fifty gallons of water from this morning's downpour. At our house, the rain started pounding about 7:30 this morning (just in time for me to try and load the kids in the car, thank you very much) and was done by 8:30 or 9:00. In just that short time, the buckets filled up with about fifty gallons of water. I definitely need to refine this system so I can get more water collected and stored. We are trying to begin planning now for next year's planting, which will hopefully include a lot more fruit trees and berry bushes.

The quick rain clearing into a nice sunny day seems to be a great trend for the garden. Everything is growing well except for one type of corn, but it was seed we bought several years ago so a I am not suprised that it has not come up. My wife has bought some more tomato plants to put in place of the not-corn. We have big plans for the tomatoes. Should be putting up lots and lots of sauce this year.

The weekend will really consist of just Sunday since we have a soccer game for the kids and a parade to go to on Saturday. Here're a few things I hope to get done:

• clear more away from the pear tree to keep the squirrels off
• clean more of the dirt around the peach tree and possibly use some extra to form a little well around it
• strenghten the fence with some extra wire that is out by the old garage.
• plant the okra that I started in the house with the girls
• plant the seeds from the cantaloupe we ate yesterday around the garden

To do in the coming weeks

• plant some garlic
• get mulch for around the blueberry bushes