Water Barrels

The City of Saskatoon has been experiencing problems at its water treatment plant since early June.   A mandatory ban on outdoor water usage was put into place for a few weeks, with a $300 fine to be levied on anyone breaking the ban.  Now, we are allowed to use sprinklers for a few hours a week (or we can fill a pail or watering can at any time and water that way).  The City has been encouraging people to use water barrels.

At the School of Yard Knocks, water barrels are a way of life.  The ones I use were cheap to buy and no-frills (no screen, no tap).  My parents always stressed that rain water was better for plants than the chlorinated water from the sprinklers.  It's "free" too - other than the cost of setting things up.  I have four 60-gallon water barrels - two off one downspout at the garage and two off one downspout off the back of the house.  I am currently down to about 30 gallons.  It's been hot and dry for a couple of weeks.

Usually, when all four barrels are bone dry, I will fill one each at the house and the garage with water from the hose, and let that sit for a few days.  My parents said the chlorine would evaporate (is that true?  I don't know).  I'm hoping we might get an unexpected rain shower before the weekend.

Do you use rain barrels?  How many do you have in your garden?  I'm considering getting a few more.

Yay! A rain day!

I'm kinda disappointed. I had garden plans for today - I wanted to get my pole and bush beans planted (and make a support for the pole beans); my tomato seedlings transplanted; and at least one more of my raised beds weeded. But we really need the rain.

My Auntie Mary (my mom's sister) stopped in yesterday, as she usually does on Saturday mornings. She said that according to the moon, yesterday was the day to plant anything that produces a hanging "fruit" (eg cucumbers and zucchini). Oopsie. I had been weeding bed by bed, not really paying attention to which bed got weeded first. The bed for the zucchini was done, but the bed for the cukes was not. I managed to get that bed weeded, and all my cuke and zuke seeds in yesterday. Whew.

As far as the veggies go, I have this left to do:

- weed last veggie bed

- plant pole beans and bush beans in the same bed and create a support for the pole beans

- transplant tomato seedlings into raised bed

- figure out how to plant onions and garlic - I haven't planted either before and there are no instructions on the seed packages regarding row spacing or bulb depth

- plant sugar snap peas and beets in the same raised bed

- transplant hot pepper seedlings into barrels

- decide if I want to remove one row of zucchini from the zuke bed (there are two rows planted) and plant two rows of kohlrabi instead

All in all, not that much left to do to finish up the veggies. Hopefully, I will get them done on Tuesday.

Then I can start transplanting the flowers :-)

I'm not even going to think about the weeds in the ground right now :P

Flowers, baby, flowers :-D