Rain, Rain, Don't Stay Away!

[Eddy-Smiles]

Here on the west coast of Florida, like much of the US, we've seen our share of drought this year. Even now, when we're in the midst of our rainy season, our thunder storms seem to be hit and miss.

I recently took a week off from carving and implemented a water savings feature so that my wife can water her butterfly garden guilt free and at way less cost than using county water. The idea came from a seminar hosted by our county agricultural extension service. In fact, the rain barrel in picture #3 was purchased at the seminar. The other two barrels we purchased from a Greek import company who sells them after re-packaging the greek olives and peppers that are shipped in them.

Each plastic barrel has to be washed thoroughly to clean out the oil and lessen the smell. Believe me when I say it is strong.... when the barrel is first opened it's almost overpowering. Talk about a Greek salad! Then the barrels are painted with a plastic spray paint and a hose bib installed near the bottom. The rest just entails hook-up to the rain gutter and the installation of an overflow pipe. We try to direct the overflow to an area that needs extra watering.

Now that we have three barrels in the front we plan to install three more in the back of the house. I'm trying to figure out a way to connect a barrel to a drip watering system for my raised garden bed.

[gene-messer]

Now Eddy .. That is a unique idea ... A wonderful way to conserve ...

I wish I would thought of such a thing .. we ahve had so much rain down here this year ..

Beside's being practical .. it saves on cost alot .. down here in Texas .. the water dept charges for every drop of water that you use as a sewer charge .. so if you water your grass .. your charged sewer cost even though it didnt go down the sewer ..

They get you coming and going ..

Thanks for the idea ..

Gene

[Joy]

I like the way you matched the shutter paint...it makes a very attractive water saver. Don't forget the mosquitoes killing pellets!

Save water! Shower with a friend.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Joy.... No need for the pellets. What you can't see from the photo is that I have a foam seal at the inlet that prevents the little buggers from getting in or out!

Gene... same here. Sewer charges equate to 125% of your water bill. We do have recycled (brown water) here but we refuse to use it. A lot of plant life can't handle the chemicals that they put in it and it's also our understanding that some of these antibiotic resistant infections that folks have been getting have been linked to recycled water usuage in public parks and such. That and if you do water with it you have to either install a filter on the sprinkling system or periodically clean your heads of trash and debris that build up in them (toilet paper and such). The city charges $8.00 a month for all you can use but we just don't feel comfortable taking the chance..... We have our grandkids over and they get in the yard.....

[kitaye]

We've had to do the same thing here. June rained constantly and rotted half the garden in the ground. July has been hit or miss on the rain. When we get it though, wow, does it ever rain.

August is looking to be a scorcher too. 35ºC(95F) today with humidex of 45C(113F). We were picking veggies at 7am to try to beat the heat and it was already 25ºC(77F) then. Not a cloud in the sky and nothing showing on radar either. Gonna be glad to have those rain barrels this month.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Kitaye... In regards to your temperatures, those are standard fare around here. The last couple of days some of our normal summer showers have showed up and when they stop it actually gets foggy from all of the steam rising up off the asphalt and concrete surfaces. Even the privacy fence looks like its on fire.

As for your rotting garden I solved that problem this past year by building a raised bed vegetable and flower garden. It has positive and controllable drainage. When it's really wet I pull the drain plugs. If I know that it's going to cycle wet and dry I generally leave them in. Works like a charm.

[kitaye]

We have raised beds but they are build on the ground which is pretty heavy clay. How did you set up your drain plugs? Are your beds completely off the ground?

Btw, I know those temps are normal further south but here in Canada they seem very out of place. I like warm days of 22-25C and cool nights 15-17 the best. Watching our weather channel though, it looks like it is above average temps for the whole country including further north.

Only good thing about the heat is my hot peppers are doing better this year than any other. Now if the tomatoes will survive to ripen we have a decent salsa for the fall

[susieq]

Nice Rain Barrels, Eddy,
They should be quite full after the storms we had last night....had to jump out of bed at 2am and find the car keys with the remote to turn off the car alarm which had been triggered by the lightning and thunder. I am sure our neighbors loved that.

I know Home Depot stocks all kinds of drip system components and also the real small soaker hose. I have a drip system for my bonsai collection but it isn't hooked to rain barrels. My office manager at work, has an orchid house that he waters with a drip system using a rain barrel and I think the barrell may be up high to help with gravity feed. I also think he may have gotten one of those little submersible pumps like a sump pump from the old basement days???? You can put one of those into the bottom of the barrel and attach the outflow to your spout from the inside, to pump the water out if gravity feed isn't enough. What are you going to grow in that garden of yours, anyhow????? Fresh veggies???? yummmmmm
Home Depot carries those little pumps too.
susieq

[Eddy-Smiles]

Kitaye.... Here in Florida all that most of us have is sand and this sand is filled with all kinds of nasty plant sucking bugs. I've seen absolutely beautiful cucumber and watermelon plants turned from a rich green to withered yellow almost over night. Now I know that everyone has problems with insects in their gardens but Florida because of it's climate seems to have more than their share. I tried for years to grow a ground level garden with little or no success.

Then we started growing things in buckets and things strated to turn around. But after a year or two our hot Florida sunshine literally cooks the plastic and they have to be replaced. At $3-$5 a bucket this starts rapidly eating away at any gains made by growing your won veggies!

Then last year I ran across a copy of the book, Gardening By The Yard, and decided to build a totally elevated garden. It's built from P.T. lumber and is 9-1/2 inches deep by 4' wide by 8' long. I lined the wood with one of those blue fiberglass poly tarps and installed three low point drains of 1/2" cpvc. I simply run them out of the bottom and with an elbow shoot them out of the side of the box. I keep caps handy in the event I want to trap a rain fall to allow more time for the bed to absorb the moisture. The tarp separates the garden from the wood so there is no fear of chemical leaching. Then I placed a 1" layer of rock on top of the tarp followed by a layer of geo (ground) cloth. On top of this I placed a mixture of a good vermiculite laden topsoil, mushroom dirt and Black Cow.

We laid string at 12" centers to organize planting and then planted cabbage, brocoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, green onions and marigolds. We only eat the green of the onions so that at the end of each growing seasons I can pull the bulbs, let them rest and then replant the following season. We save the marigold seed pods and replant them year after year. The rest of the veggies are from sets although this coming Fall I'm going to try some seeding. Although we love green onions and my wife loves the marigolds the main purpose of them is for insect control. We try to really minimize applying and garden insecticides.

SusieQ... Right you are. The barrels filled up and then my wife and i cried watching all the overflow run out onto the yard, across the sidewalk and down in to the gutter. All that rain just flowing away.

Good idea on the mini-pump. When we install some barrels out back this winter I'll have to keep that in mind. I don't have any rain gutter on the back side of the house so that will be my first priority.

I've pretty much described what we grow. The first photo is of the garden after I first planted it. The next is a shot showing the square yard method of layout. The last was taken back in February when things really were taking off. In fact as you can see the lettuce was starting to go to seed. I'm still doing buckets but I believe that this Fall when I get back from Tennessee I'll build another raised bed, perhaps half the size of the first one and then get rid of all the buckets. We still have some things to learn about plant placement. For example, we planted the tomatoes on the wrong end so that they shaded the peppers. The good thing is that after the tomatoes died off the peppers have gone completely bonkers and my wife picks a full dozen plus almost every week. We planted two squares of marigolds and one would have done. These are the big marigold plants and they grow 2' high. Fortunately they didn't really take off until after the rest of the garden was through. This past April before we left for our trip I planted peanuts and they've just about taken over the entire bed. There's just enough room for a second plants of green onions and for the pepper plants.

As far as I'm concerned a raised bed is the only way to go for a residential Florida farmer! Just call me Farmer Eddy!

[susieq]

Hi Farmer Eddy,
I am envious of your setup. For twenty years or so I have had a nice veggie garden annually, here. But my back is so bad I can't do much bending over to work and I had been thinking of giving it up. Which is a shame since I love to grow all of my favorite Chinese veggies in the winter here. Also Broccoli, Kale, Spinache, etc.... I like the idea of a raised bed just so I wouldn't have to bend over so much. I may have to look into your setup a little more.
What kind of dirt did you start out with in your raised bed? Bagged potting mix? Did you doctor it up any? That mushroom dirt is great stuff....

I have all kinds of large nursery pots that would probably work too if growing in a bucket worked out.

Regarding bugs, you are right about Florida bugs. We have spiders large enough to eat small birds here..... Florida bugs are on steroids. But for keeping catapillars under control you use Thuracide. It is not a chemical. It is germ warfare against catapillars. It only kills them and nothing else. When a catapillar ingests this stuff, they stop feeding right away. In 4 days they are dead. I think it is a fungus that only affects this bug and nothing else.
You mix a tablespoon or so with a gallon of water in your pump up sprayer and spray your veggies. When it rains, you have to spray again. But it works.

Thanks for the idea of raised bed and bucket gardening.
susieq