Rain Barrels and Updates

I know that I have mentioned these in passing a couple of times through the first few weeks, and I wanted to go into a little bit of detail about what we are doing with them. Our contractor came over and put two of these in (one on each gutter in the back) so we could collect a portion of the rainwater we are getting. I was hoping to replace the watering I was doing on the garden with the neighbors hose (they know we are using it, we are bartering with produce :) Pretty simple concept: barrels have connection points on the gutter that divert about 1/3 of the water flow through the gutter into the barrel. The barrel then has a spigot 3/4 of the way that you can use to take the water out. So after the first rain, which wasnt very hard, I went out to see what had collected, and there wasnt much. Over the next week, we did get a decent amount of rain, and the barrels were chock full 'o free water. On Friday I went ahead and tried to see how much water was in the barrels. So, I decided to give each plant one full watering can (I estimate at 2 gallons or so) and see how far it lasts. After i did all of the first row of tomotoes and part of the second I noticed the water pressure in the first barrel starting to wane a bit. Realizing I didnt have nearly as much water as I needed, I moved to two plants per can. By the time I was done I ended up using almost all of the water, and got the garden enough water to last a few days.

In the end, I am sure that I wont be able to water my whole garden soley on rainwater, but I am guessing I will be able to supplement at least 35% of it with rainwater, not too bad for $200. That brings my total up to just short of $60o if you include the tomato cages. Not horrible.


You might be wandering why I posted this picture. Well....there used to be 1 promising strawberry at the end of each of these stems. However, it seems as though the squirrels are treating the fence adjacent to this plant as the sidwalk to the buffet.


Whats interesting is these tomatores are in the pot right next to the aforementioned strawberries, and nothing. They are just chilling getting bit. The plant actually is so heavy on the east side, that it tipped over on Friday. This specific heirloom tomato plant is supposed to be bushy, and not need support. I now have it supported....


Some close ups of the white grapes. We have having great weather for growing grapes so far.


The grape vines are finally starting to spread out and move into the fence. I think its possible that it wont work out this year, but next year we could have quite a few grapes coming on on the fence. I am just going to have to work hard to keep them from getting into my neighbors flower beds right on the other side of the fence. Nevertheless, its really cool to watch this plant reaching for the fence to find a way to spread out the way it likes.