Re: No water. No shade. No hope?

Here's my tale of woe. The seedlings were planted and begining to

> grow, the seeds I planted were starting to sprout, then the water tap > broke! > > First I should explain my situation a bit. I have two plots in a > community garden about six blocks from my home so the broken tap is > more than just an inconvenience. I do not drive, so the only method of > getting water to my garden is on foot carrying two watering cans and > making probably 15 round trips inorder to moisten the soil. > > Other mitigating factors are: > Did not mulch. > No significant rainfall. > Relentless heat. > It's now been three weeks! Apparently a part had to be ordered and > that was the last we heard. > The building we get the water from is not ours, so we have no control. > > By the time I thought of laying mulch the soil was bone dry, so I did > not think that it would do much good. On the other hand, having never > mulched before I have no actual knowledge to draw from, just ignorant > logic. To be honest I have avoided going over for the past week, it's > too depressing. > > Does anyone have some advice or even words of encouragement? I know > that there are lots of gardeners here who are probably quite used to > these conditions. Is it too late in the game for me to salvage this > situation? > > Thanks for any help! > > jcm

Joanne ... mulch. Heavily. Make any water you ARE able to provide work harder. Mulch will collect the dew better than bare ground and channel it down toward the ground. Moreover, having mulch piled on helps keep the soil cooler and that is good for the roots.

It is almost always a good idea to mulch all the soil in the garden except the paths and there are even good reasons to mulch them, too. Just grab whatever is available and get a thick layer of it down. (NOT plastic!)

Clearly, until you can get water to the ground, no answer is going to provide complete relief ... but mulching the beds will be a huge help!

Bill

Reply to
Noydb
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I would focus on that "part that had to be ordered." Nail someone down and find out what part ordered from where. Obviously the water-suppliers aren't among the gardeners and may have no clue how critical this is. If you have a lot of money, hire a plumber to check out the situation. If you don't have a lot of money, ask everyone you know if they have a 2nd cousin's nephew who's a plumber or knows

*anything* about municipal water, and might take a look. Promise tomatoes or whatever you're trying to grow. If it's not a highly-specialized industrial fitting that's needed, perhaps someone in the newsgroups could help.
Reply to
Frogleg

so I won't bore you with the details.

You could put containers out to collect rainwater (unused garbage bins, pails, buckets) and use that on the plants... in order to collect and keep as much water in the container as possible, you want to lid them with something like a funnel. Old garbag bins work well for this as their lids can be used upside down with a 1" to 2" hole punched in the center.

or get a reeeeeeeeally long hose.

L.

Reply to
Lynda

We have about 10 large rain barrels, which is where we usually store water, but (and I thought I mentioned this in my original post, but may have forgotten to) we have had no significant rainfall for more than a month ( finally had some last night!). The barrels dried up weeks ago. Mother Nature is a cruel mistress, there have been several rainstorms in my city lately but they all just miissed us.

We thought that this year our "big" issue was going to be West Nile Virus Mosquitoes (as we have so many rain barrels) but to hell with that!

jcm

Toronto, Canada Canadian zone 6, U.S. zone is apparently 4b

I'm just trying to find my way amongst the forest of diverse information. Thanks to global warming it's bloody hot here!

Reply to
Joanne

Mulch with something called Soil Conditioner. It helps with dry soils. Then on top of the soil conditioner, add some shredded newspaper or just lay it flat. Add a few rocks if you can to hold it down if you choose to do flat method.

To get more water there, buy a couple of those 3-gallon water bottles. If you have a way, get a wheel barrow, kid's wagon, or some method to transport the water. If you cannot pick up the 3-gallon bottles, buy lots of 2 liter soda bottles and put those in a wagon to transport. Also, you can use the 2 liter bottles, cut the bottom off. Bury these bottles in several places in your plot leaving about 2 inches of it above ground. Do not fill the bottle with dirt. Fill the bottle with water. It will slowly leech out around the roots where plants need it. Water will last longer this way. I just read about it in a Gardening magazine and maybe it will help you too.

I live in a hot dry climate and we have to water every other day here. Luckily I have lots of shade so I can get by with every 2 days in portions of my yard.

Carla

Reply to
Carla

WOW! you have your own tap for each plot, that IS luxury!

The good news is that for the past two days it has rained off and on consistantly (woo woo)! Good news for me (us), bad news for the Molson Indy time trials (aww), which are taking place mere blocks away. They'll survive, my lemon cucumbers probably won't. :-(

jcm Toronto, Canada Canadian zone 6, U.S. zone is apparently 4b

Thanks to global warming it's bloody hot here!

Reply to
Joanne

Hi

Annuals have shallower roots, perennial type veges are nothing like so susceptible to these problems. With pernennials I've always found the water issues are gone after year 1.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

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