by Greg Alder | Jan 19, 2017 | Watering, Weather |
This morning I awoke to the sound of rain. It’s the most pleasant sound, a muffled pecking on the roof. This is the first storm in a series of four that the National Weather Service says will give us three to six inches by Tuesday, an event with more potential...
by Greg Alder | Oct 20, 2016 | Vegetables, Watering |
My short answer is: Start with 45 minutes, observe, and adjust. But there are a lot of variables, which is why observing and adjusting is necessary. Of the many factors that affect how long you should run a drip irrigation system on vegetables, one is the...
by Greg Alder | Oct 7, 2016 | Avocados, Watering |
Let’s say you just planted an avocado tree from a five-gallon container, the typical size available at nurseries. How should you water this tree? First, immediately after planting you should water lavishly, making sure that all of the container soil is wet and also...
by Greg Alder | Jan 4, 2016 | Watering |
It’s January 2016, and according to plan, we’ve got a new rain tank for the new year. Our idea has been to install one new tank each year and make improvements wherever possible regarding the size, location, and distribution of the collected rainwater. We...
by Greg Alder | Nov 8, 2015 | Watering |
I just picked up our new rain tank from the Bushman factory, and I chose to size it like our first one because that one worked very well last year. (I suppose I got lucky in sizing that first one.) In other words, I chose a size that would hold between three and four...
by Greg Alder | Sep 30, 2015 | Watering |
We moved in to our new house with the goal of spending no more than $50 per month on water while growing 80% of our fruits and vegetables. Last summer (2014) we got close to getting 80% of the produce we eat from our yard, but each time a water bill came I was...
by Greg Alder | Jun 26, 2015 | Watering |
Last winter was my first with a 530-gallon rain tank. I did not buy it because I thought it would save me a bunch of money on my water bill. I bought it because rain coming off my roof and running down the driveway irritated me. It seemed wasteful....
by Greg Alder | Jun 8, 2015 | Watering |
This is Puleng, one of my former students in Lesotho. I learned to wash by hand from her and other students at Ngoana Jesu Secondary School, and I also learned from them to reuse my laundry water on my vegetable plots. I adopted that practice in Lesotho, and...
by Greg Alder | May 16, 2015 | Watering |
Yesterday, we got an unusually strong storm for mid-May. My yard received 0.7 inches; but the San Diego Airport got 1.84 inches! For San Diego, that’s the wettest day in May ever, according to the National Weather Service. For the whole Southern...
by Greg Alder | Mar 29, 2015 | Watering |
Looks like the rain’s over. April is around the corner, and if we get anything more it’s likely to be only showers. Still, I’m starting the dry season — the season of irrigation — with a full tank of 500 gallons of collected rain. Now the...
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