An oft forgotten task:cultivating and lessons learned

 We have been blessed with quite a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks yet when I checked on some of the plants they are dry several inches below the surface. An Oh My moment hit. We mulched with compost and have not cultivated it much since it went on weeks ago. It has a wonderful crust to keep the moisture below but is not letting rain soak through  well enough. Soooooo.... I spent a hour out in the bed this morning cultivating the top layer, adding a bit of bone meal around the eggplant, tomatoes, and okra,  and watering the plants good from my rain water stash.

The eggplants are blooming again and so are the okra. Peppers have buds and we have had a constant supply of peppers--not enough to put up but enough to eat every day or so. Lots of little beans setting on the plants and blooms. Now if some will get big enough to pick again. Oh, the heat!


The malabar spinach (left) tower has taught me another lesson--do not make the tower higher than my fingertips as it is hard to pick the leaves when I cannot reach them!  I am finally seeing a few more bees around the Mexican petunias too--not nearly like last summer though. 

Rainwater harvesting and rain barrels with Hari Krishna

Is collecting rain water worth the effort? Is it hard to do? What do you need to do this? How much water can you collect and how do you use it? Where do you get equipment to harvest rainwater? Does it need any treatment?

On Saturday, February 5th the Wells Branch Garden Guild will host guest speaker Dr. Hari Krishna, noted expert on this topic. We'll explore the ways to collect rainwater and to effectively reuse the water we collect, how to find and pay for the systems (rebates available?) and more. 

"At one time Wells Branch probably had more Rain Water Reuse than any other neighborhood.  We still may, but I'm not sure. The one thing I can add to the conversation is how every single drop of treated water we save helps lower the whole neighborhood's water bills." per Donna Howe, WB MUD.