Thursday, October 25, 2007

CAPTURING THE RAIN


We got one of the 275 gallon rain collectors set up just before it started to rain earlier this week. It is now full so we have 450 gallons of rain water stored for the future. We are now eating turnips, lettuce, radishes, tatsoi, cilantro and basil from the garden. We are still getting tomatoes from the community garden as well. We won't starve for a little while longer.
The pond keeps getting lower and lower though. Hope the fish will be alble to survive. No chance of any serious aquaculture until it rains a whole lot .

Friday, October 12, 2007

Making Progress at The Funny Farm



I planted some top hat blueberries this afternoon. They are a dwarf variety developed at Oregon State U. They are self-fertile so they will produce fruit on their own without the need to plant a second variety. They will grow about 2' tall and wide. It will take about 3 years for them to start producing a significant crop.
Behind the beautiful tomato plant that may or may not produce ripe fruit before frost (think fried green tomatoes though) is a nice cover crop stand in the flower field. We planted annual rye grass and red clover.
It has rained just enough that we have been able to water everything with rain water except for a couple of days a couple of weeks ago. We purchased 2 275 gal. tanks really inexpensively and are in the process of getting them set up which will increase our rain water harvesting capacity to over 700 gallons. With the complete ban on outdoor watering that is a blessing.
Lets do a rain dance so we can fill those puppies up!