It has been an annoyingly dry September here in Michigan. According to the National Weather Service, we've had a measly .42 inches of rain, when we should have gotten closer to three and one-half inches by now. Of course, this wouldn't matter as much if I weren't coddling my fall seedlings along. The spinach, turnips, beets, kale, peas, lettuces, radishes, and chard I planted in late August and early September have needed constant watering. And it's been fairly hot -- the first batch of spinach bolted almost as soon as it had germinated.
Which leads me to think about the things I can do a bit better, water-wise, in my garden. I already mulch everything in sight, so that has helped quite a bit. We have one home-made rain barrel, but when it's dry like it has been, that one barrel of water gets used up pretty quickly. We're going to make another one to put under the garage downspout. This will make watering the beds behind the garage much easier.
I'm just happy I don't worry about watering my lawn. It has started to turn a bit brownish, but it's still much greener than it was at this time last year (last August was a killer!) I don't think I've watered my lawn (other than a few areas that I overseeded) in a few years. And I can't say that I've missed it!
What do you do in your garden to conserve water? And how is your garden faring on this, the very last full day of summer for 2009?
Comments
We use the rinse water from the washing machine (we use minimal soap and cold water) as well as water we catch in the shower and the water from the canners after it cools off. It is safe the local HMO checked my produce last summer and it was “cleaner” than the organic stuff in the market, if you are worried about using this type of gray water. We also use drip technology during the hottest part of the summer, because we don’t have enough other water. We get very little of our water during the summer so rain barrels are not useful here at all, unfortunately.