Footnote: Rain

 We got three tenths inches of rain last night which put about 50 gallons of rain in my tank and I am set for the week!  It was a very isolated little rain storm so we were super lucky that it chose us. I only had to water one plant today.  

The Cracks of Doom

 The Drought Monitor has our area down as "excessively dry".  This is as dry as I have ever had to deal with in the garden.  I cleared the strawberry bed in preparation for transplanting the new plants next month.  Since the bed receives no water it is a good indicator of how dry our soil is.

Strawberry Bed

But some crops do very well with constant moderately warm temperatures, sunshine and carefully monitored watering.  Here are some comparison photos from the blog last July.  Last July was our wettest July on record and it rained 14 out of 16 days in a row in mid-July.  My July rainfall total was 10.1 inches.

Cucumbers July 2021

Cucumbers 2022

Pole Beans July 2021

Pole Beans 2022

Sweet Potatoes July 2021

Sweet Potatoes 2022

Cantaloupes July 2021
Container experiment outcome: Fail

Cantaloupes 2022
I remove this row cover every morning and replace it mid-afternoon
to retain heat over night

But not everything has been watered.  I can see some fatigue in the perennials but my in-the-ground annuals have not had any supplemental water at all.  As they say... "Marigolds (and Geraniums etc.) are popular for a reason."    The Dahlias are also soldiering on and budding.  Being tubers they are more prone to rot anyway so the dry conditions are OK for them too.

Dinnerplate Dahlias bordered by Marigolds and Celosia

Marigolds, Snapdragons, Celosia

Naturally I cannot expect my container plantings to deal with no rainfall.  I water them about once a week.  The planters are large, the plants are drought tolerant and I used Moisture Control soil in them so they are doing well with normal maintenance.  

Geraniums, Papyrus, Ivy and Euphorbia

Some of my perennials do not look as lush as they might with more water, but they are still doing outstanding.  One thing I was looking forward to is the Rudbeckia Sahara that I mail-ordered last fall.  These need to be reseeded so some people grow them as annuals but I am hoping to get these clumps established as self maintaining perennials.  I an quite pleased with the variety of colors I received.

Rudbeckia Sahara

Rudbeckia Sahara

Rudbeckia Sahara

Rudbeckia Sahara and Happy Returns Daylily

Coral Bells

Celosia

Peachy Keen Verbena

We have a weather forecast of a front of passing thunderstorms passing through tonight into tomorrow.  I only have inches of water in my rain tank.  I am hoping the lawns and trees get a good soaking and I get some free water in my tank.

Past Projects Update

For Throwback Thursday I think it's time for a Past Projects Update.

First is the Rain Barrel.  We have this garage downspout routed into a salvaged barrel with a refurbished oil barrel hand pump.  We use this to fill the watering can to water the landscaping on the far side of our property.  But this downspout with it's huge roof footage is under utilized. Tim had dreams of stockpiling water so if our main reclaimed water tank runs out we can refill it with more captured rain water.

My company was discarding this used water tank which needed a new lid and fitting, both available at Tractor Supply, so for $20 in replacement parts we tripled our water storage.  Tim put a pipe which takes the over flow off the top of the 55 gal drum and forces it over to the second tank through sheer hydraulic pressure.  Half an inch of rain more than fills these tanks.  Now if the big tank runs out, Tim can pick the tank up with the tractor and gravity feed the water into the underground tank that runs the garden hose.

Another successful project is  The Tree We Planted Twice.  This little London Plane Tree was one of three we planted two years ago.  The other two didn't take off and the Nursery replaced them with bigger better trees.  This one looked like the roots were going to rally so we re-planted it nearby.

The little tree has taken off and is beautifully shaped and growing fast.  Soon it will be nearly caught up to the larger Plane trees.

Speaking of trees... we cut an awful lot of them around here.  I lost count around 220.

This massive Larch tree (messy old thing) was part of the tree clearing for Tim's new garage.  It was on the edge of our front yard and it was much more picturesque after it was cut than before.  One thing we try to do when we're murdering large trees on a grand scale is try to put them to good use.  The hemlock logs were given away to be used in building a barn.  The Red Oak and Larch we are using here.  Larch is similar to Cedar.  Tim had it milled into wainscot.

This week it has finally made it to it's final destination.  Tim is using it for the ceiling of his garage.

We have a "thing" for bead board ceilings around here.  This beautiful Larch is making quite a dramatic effect.  A good use for a beautiful old tree.

The Rainmakers

It was bound to happen sooner or later... On Friday morning, the 500 gallon rain water tank ran dry. I had been watering every morning since July 3rd. It was full at that point, and we have only gotten half an inch since then, which filled it most of the way. Luckily, the raised beds and intensive planting make water conservation a way of life. Everything is planted so closely together that if you water tomatoes, the run off is not wasted on the path, it waters the onions and peppers instead. We had been watching the water level closely all week, but when I heard the pump reverbing through the ground, I knew it had hit rock bottom and I'd better turn it off.



Tim took the opportunity for some annual tank maintenance. He hooked the shop vac up to the hole we keep the "dipstick" in, to pull fresh air through the opening, and went in to scrape and clean. That probably isn't OSHA's idea of correct "confined space" safety, but it kept him from asphyxiating.

There was a pretty good coating of rusty, organic sludge which he scraped off with a putty knife.

Then, using a Cool Whip container (an indispensable tool around here) he bailed about 15 gallons of dirty water out leaving us with a clean tank.

Then came the task of filling it. We do have a rain barrel full of water, but neighbor Mike, who does maintenance at a local company, has been collecting water for us. There is a cooling system at the shop which runs tap water through a coil and down a drain. Seems like a waste, so Mike brought a rain barrel to work with him, and recycled the water. We just wheel it up the walk on a dolly, and run a hose into the tank. At first, the water level is too high for the vent, so Tim keeps his finger in the dam.

Then Mike showed up with more water, and things became more streamlined. He just parked his truck up hill from the tank, and we got a longer piece of hose. They went back for another load, taking the opportunity to flush all the eye wash stations too, and recycle that water. They even rigged up a little chimney to screw into the vent hole, and began engineering other glitches out of the system. Next spring we will just stock pile rain water in barrels over at the down spout collector on the big garage, and fill and save them in case of draught.

Pretty soon our tank was full again. And guess what happened? Like today's title implies... it began to rain.

Spring Garden Project #1 Rain Barrel

We are experiencing an unusually wet and gloomy Spring. Soooo, we have advanced on our rain collecting equipment. The barrel is a donation from neighboring gardeners Bob and Trish. The fuel hand pump was lurking about. Tim surfed the net comparing down spout diverters and watching installation videos until he settled on this model.

And he installed it on the back of the big garage. That is over 1250 square feet of collection area. The barrel filled up in a matter of minutes! Tim is considering putting a second one in next to this one because he hates to miss out on free water.

And now, I can fill my watering can here instead of from the garden hose, cutting my walk to the far side yard landscape area by more than half.