Veggie Garden Info

The Watering Can

Original post from May Dreams Gardens.

I’ve wanted one from the first time I saw one in a catalog. A Haws watering can. Preferably green. Definitely metal. With the brass rose. No cheap plastic knock off’s, please.

This is the ultimate in watering cans.

To the non-gardener, it may not look any different from any other watering can.

But it is different. A gardener can tell that it is special, just like a golfer knows which putter is the top of the line or a fisherman knows about the ultimate in fishing poles.

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Trickle, trickle, splash, splash

Original post from In the Charamon Garden, April 16, 2008

 

Here in the semi-desert of West Texas, we have to depend on irrigation. The Charamon Garden is watered by infrequent rain and water from my well. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, the water is not all that great. It is full of minerals (gypsum mostly) and, at times, sand and clay. The plants seem to thrive on it. The major problem is not the water but the system used to deliver it: drip irrigation. I never hook up my supply to the irrigation lines without having to clean one or more emitters. This involves flushing the line by opening the end and then pulling the blue “flag” out of each clogged emitter, using the water that sprays out of the top to clean the emitter and replacing the flag. A real pain in the…well, you know. I plan to get my humongous filtration system up soon but, in the meantime, I am depending on the small filters at the head of each distribution manifold. They filter out the sand easily enough, but the clay is finer than talcum powder and eventually clogs the emitters.

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Wicking Boxes and the Heat

Original post from Scarecrow's Garden, March 22, 2008

                                                                                  The great news with these Wicking Boxes is that despite that record heatwave they are going great. I've only watered them once at the beginning of the last weekend when I was going to be too busy to keep a close enough eye one them. I've been picking Kale leaves for about three weeks now and the trimmings from the broccoli and cauliflower have been relished by the chooks.

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Watering tray

Original post from Tiny Farm Blog, March 13, 2008

 

It’s funny how almost random objects can become practically indispensable tools. Like this rigid gray tray, given to me a while back, just the one, amongst a mixed bunch of plastic flower pots from bedding plants, passed along by a local gardener. For four seasons, I’ve used it to water the seedlings (all parsley in the pic): in goes a plug sheet in its webbed tray, sit for 10-15 minutes, then out to drain for a bit over the sink, and it’s back to the grow racks, good for another few days. I’ll keep this up until the seedlings are well-established, three weeks or more, depending on the crop.

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Wicking Box Gardens

Original post from Scarecrow's Garden, February 11, 2008

Wicking Box Gardens

I had to plant some of these rapidly growing brassicas so I decided on a few wicking boxes.
The concept of these is the same as the in ground Wicking Beds.

You need a container without drainage holes, it's sides need to be at least 30cm tall.
Here in Aust broccoli is packed in polystyrene boxes that are just about right for this.
They are 600 mm x 300mm in size and will need a hole made in the side about 100mm high for drainage. Experiment with the height of this hole.

If you only have boxes with holes in them use these but line the base with plastic. Only the bottom 100mm needs to be covered as it's only to this height that will need to hold water.

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Face the Dryness

Original post from May Dreams Gardens, August 17, 2007

I've avoided posting views of my garden this summer that show how dry everything is. Today, however, I'm facing the dryness, showing the dryness, writing about the dryness, embracing the dryness. I'm allowed one post about the dryness, aren't I? 

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Rain Barrel In The Rain

Original post from My Skinny Garden, August 15, 2007

Imagine if you were to come home after a long day at work to find a great big awesome Rain Barrel like this just sitting on your patio.

Garden Buddy alerted me a while back that the City of Chicago was offering rain barrels to encourage water conservation and to help keep the sewers from getting clogged. This is a real problem in these parts - my basement flooded because of this the first weekend that we moved to this house. Anyway, GB is on vacation and today she picked one up for me and dropped it off in my backyard. GB - I love it when you are on vacation!

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Water in the air!

Original post from Tiny Farm Blog, August 14, 2007

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow… I’m as skeptical as ever, still, as illogical as it is, you figure it’s gotta rain EVENTUALLY, so the longer it’s been, the more accurate the latest “60% chance of showers” forecast must be. Until then, we continue the piecemeal irrigation effort, with a combination of sprinklers and soaker hoses. The pond level is noticeably down, but bottom still isn’t in sight…and it’s gotta rain soon, right!?! :) Here, the latest beds of mesclun and spinach get their daily sprinkle. You can see by the fine mist in the air how easily much of the water can be lost to even a slight breeze, and to evaporation under a hot sun. 

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