After a bit of a bummer of an end to the May Long Weekend it looks like at this the next few days should bring us some nice warm weather. Up into the 20s again with very little chance of precipitation.
We managed to finally get our garden squared away, it’s all tilled and mostly planted. Too much procastination this spring but luckily we had some potatoes and lettuce that came up on their own out of last years dregs without us needing to lift a finger so that was a nice little surprise. Next it will be time to plant the grape vine and maybe find a home for another fruit tree.
Gardening season means watering season. I will have a look at the river forecast center report on water resources for the summer later this week but we all know that water is becoming a lot more precious in the summer months around here. And if you live in Port Alberni, you pay for every drop as well.
We’ve done a few things to limit our water use that have been successful.
- – Two Rain Barrels from Home Hardware, we hand water as much as we can. They are 40 gallons, you’d be surprised how fast they deplete once you start using them, but on the other side, it only takes about 5-10mm of rainfall to completely fill them.
- – We were passed a box full of “RainBird” watering system components. I’ve installed pipes that will service our main garden, our biggest flower garden, and our front yard gardens. These systems are very easy to install and I managed to install most of it in only about 2 or 3 days of work. They’re really nice because you can both be sure what you want watered has water, and you only water what you want. We used about 15% less water last year and I credit it mainly to the watering system. I have yet to combine it with a water timer, but that will be the next thing… then it will be fully automated and we’ll be able to water in the early morning hours when there is the least amount of evapotranspiration.
- – We don’t water our lawn. Aside from any residual it might get from the gardens, we never water our lawn. Generally the backyard doesn’t suffer too much, but the front yard does dry up. Oh well.
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3 responses to “Warm Week Ahead!”
Chris, sounds like you got things squared away nicely. We’re going to use the warmer weather to go camping. But I know that when we return home I do need to mow the lawn. Darn stuff grows like a weed! And no, I don’t water mine either. Mother Nature does that job for me nicely.
Ya the lawn is a challenge this time of year. We have my parents 20 year old Honda mower that fires up every time we ask it to. Only use it twice a year though, once in the spring and once in the fall… in between we have a nice rotary push mower that works very nicely as long as we’re not too lazy and let the grass go crazy!
I’ve used the old rotary push mowers before, and even with a freshly sharpened blade, I found they aren’t quite as good as electric or gas powered mowers. And you have to be moving at Mach 200 for the blade to have enough speed to do anything worthwhile. Seems to me the gearing in the wheels isn’t quite right. And yes, you have to keep right up on mowing with one as well, else it chokes real quick!
For real light grass, they appear OK, but for what I have in the backyard, uh…….no. Even an electric mower would burn out in short order! Heck, my 4.5HP gas mower struggles on occasion!;)
Cheers!
Mike