Watering Made Easier

If you already know that I have two gardens in two different community gardens spots and each in a different neighborhood, it probably doesn't surprise you that I've been looking for easier, more efficient ways to water.
Several different, yet similar methods for making self-watering drip systems using recycled plastic bottles were found by searching the Internet, so I tested three different ways. First, I punched several tiny holes in the bottom of a bottle, filled it with water and set it in the garden. Second, I punched a hole in the cap of a bottle, filled the bottle with water and placed it cap side down in the garden. And third, I punched one hole on each side near the top of a bottle, filled it with water and placed it top down in the garden. Unfortunately, the water in all the bottles drained out within ten minutes of my placing them on the soil. Recycled plastic bottles would NOT make watering my garden any easier.

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Then I remembered how one of the other gardeners at the Happy Valley Community Gardens had told me how she used old wine bottles to help water her garden. Not only did the bottles look pretty scattered throughout her garden, she said they actually worked.

There were no wine bottles in my recycle bin, so thank goodness I have friends with empty wine bottles. One gave me a bottle to try. I filled it with water and turned it upside down in my garden one evening. Then I went back 24 hours later and discovered that only half of the water had drained out. Sure enough, this method would work! So, it was back to my friends for more old wine bottles - thanks Ken and Gwen and David. Now I have two dozen recycled wine bottles in my garden slowly releasing moisture near the roots of some of the most tender plants.

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Watering the Happy Valley garden made easier with recycled bottles.

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Meanwhile, back at the Cordata Community Gardens, they seem to have developed a system to help people keep their gardens watered even when on vacation. They placed a supply of bright pink flags in the garden shed and instructions on the bulletin board. Seems if you are planning to be gone or will be unable to make it to the gardens to water your spot daily, you can sign up to let someone else know that you will be away and place one of those pink flags in your garden spot and volunteers will help you out with your watering. A most clever idea, thank you very much. You, too, have made watering easier.

And how are the Cordata gardens growing? Pretty good actually. The plants in most of the middle square-foot sections seem to be suffering a bit from some kind of dwarfism (perhaps in part due to the beds being somewhat shallow and so full of cardboard underneath the topsoil). The plants in the square-foot section nearest to the boards seem to be more normal in size (yet somehow I find that just a tiny bit scary due to the fact that the entire garden was built using treated lumber). All in all, it's been a good experience, and we are beginning to harvest sugar snap peas and have been eating plenty of tender salad greens from our garden for several weeks now.

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Green grape tomatoes on the vine in my Cordata garden.

More pics from the Cordata gardens.

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