When I read about people who let the hose run all night, I feel like saying, “There isn’t that much water in the world.”
It is a sure thing that there isn’t that much water in our immediate neighborhood.
We had a space under the living room windows on the south side of our house that refused to grow anything. The soil was clay and resisted all efforts to make it arable even when we used loam, sand, and humus spaded into it.
Last spring, we built a retaining wall 10” inches high and about 40” inches from the house. We made it of native limestone and filled it with good soil.
Still, the combination of direct and reflected sunlight was too much for our plants. No amount of top watering seemed to do them any good.
Buried Gallon Can On The Ground
One day I remembered how my grandmother used to water her cucumbers to coax them through the dry days of July. Then, she would bury a gallon tin can with holes punched in the bottom and sides.
With it set 7” or 8” inches in the ground, she planted the cucumbers in a circle around it and not farther than 12” inches away from the can.
Buried Gallon Plastic Bottles
I already had plants in the bed, but I buried gallon plastic bottles about every 3’ feet of the length of the bed, beginning within a foot of the end.
These cans are easy to fill. There is no wasted water from run-off. A little water goes a long way because the moisture is down where the roots are.
There is no burn from the hot sun on wet foliage. The plants soon cover the cans.
44659 by Na