help for keeping it watered

I thought I'd share this, just for fun...It drives me nuts trying to keep things from drying out in the late summer, especially when/if I go to the beach or something and can't keep on eye on things. One helpful thing I finally hit on was taking small 3"-4" terra cotta pots and the matching tray and turning them into slow waterers. What I do is cork up the drainage hole in the bottom, then sink them up to the rim in several places in my garden. Once they're corked and sunk, I fill them with water and set the tray on top, like a lid. Since the terra cotta is porous, the water seeps through the walls into the soil, and the lid on top slows evaporation (I tried the cheaper plastic trays, but the wind blows them away). It really helps my garden, and its pretty cheap, since the pot and tray set is just a few dollars. It doesn't even matter if they have hairline cracks, the water just seeps faster! Its the same idea behind the watering stakes garden stores sell for indoor plants.

really a neat idea to take the properties which can make clay pots less than wonderful to plant and use outside and turn the negative into a positive attribute!


cool!
Mark

Thank you for sharing, now if I could do that for our livestock, I could go camping for a weekend, and not in my back yard.

When I was a kid in Saskatchewan prairie with no running water or lawn sprinklers, etc. my Mom and Grandmother had an ingenious way of watering. It also kept little kids busy and out of mischief. They saved all the tin cans from store bought canned food. It was the job of us kids in summer to rinse out the cans and with a nail and hammer we made a couple of rows of holes all around the bottom edge of the can. These cans were sunk in the ground spaced between the plants. Water from laundry, dishes, bathing was poured in the cans and it slowly leaked out the bottom right down to where the root balls were. No wasting of water by putting it on pathways or areas where it did not need to be. The leaves did not get wet and precious water was not wasted. The soap that was in the water did not contain bleach so did not harm the plants but helped keep bugs under control.

Gwynn

Gwynn, I think I will try that. I love reusing things and on hot days here I some times have to water twice. Water is so valuable we should not waste it. Smart people, the old timers.

Weren't they though? Poverty and necessity gave them some amazing survival skills.


Gwynn

So I've learned. Not true poverty but as close as I want to get.

OH when you shared that a memory light bulb went off, I got to spent time with both sets of my grandparents, and knew moms-moms parents (not well) but also knew my dads-moms parents (the Cub fans) all of them used to wash their dises in the sink, but in a tub in the sink, the water went out to the garden. They too had fe bugs. I once again stressed the importance of getting our gray water run out to the garden, hopefully this year.

Our water is on a meter so we use gray water on the flowers and rainwater off the roof for the edibles. Before we got our rainwater barrels I had containers of all shapes and sizes scattered round the garden to collect rainwater.

Yup, Shannon. Been a lot closer to that poverty line more times than I care to experience.

My DH is working on a system for us to use our laundry water as well and water from the tub. We are trying to get our yard here in the city to run almost completely off the grid. Using city water in the house for normal daily living is still on the grid, so to speak, but outdoors we are trying to stay away from using city water.......unless it is recycled grey water from the house. We are planning to get solar panels on the garage and house eventually for anything extra that we add. No motorized lawnmower, any pumps and lights outdoors will be wind or solar powered. Eventually most of the garage, except for DH's compressor and welder will be solar powered.

We aren't doing nearly as much as some people do, but it is amazing how small changes make a difference. The amount of things we waste in our society really does disturb me.

Gwynn

What great idea in this thread! Thanks guys. I'll have to give them a try!