Watering the Garden

Water. What a precious commodity that I too often take for granted. All I have to do is forget to water my tender seedlings on a hot afternoon to be reminded that every living thing needs water .... and in the proper amount. Neither withered nor drowned is good.

My wonderful husband has designed and built a new irrigation system to deliver water to each square inch of my garden. Furthermore, he placed it on a timer so that a sufficient amount is supplied regularly and consistently. His first design was to deliver the water to the roots, which is preferred. But due to the lay of our land, we could not dig the right depth for a gradual slope down the rows. So Plan B, pictured above, is sprinklers on 6 foot poles in the back and 4 foot poles in the front.

It is helpful to know that most plants require about an inch of water per week. A rain gauge is a vaulable tool for keeping up with that as is the Almanac page of wral.com which gives yesterday's precipitation totals (http://www.wral.com/weather/almanac/).

I hope to plant my seedlings in the garden on Friday, waiting until after mid-April. The potatoes went in yesterday.

I am enjoying my azaleas in full bloom ...

and can't wait for all these Don Juan long-stem red rose buds to open!

 

Spring, my favorite time of year!