Rain Barrels? - Page 3

 A rain barrel will have an overflow tube which is usually flexible and
can be directed into the garden or away from the driveway.  I don't
think you need to get into thousands of dollars for cisterns or
elaborrate drains, etc.  Most of the rain barrels I've seen are 75
gallons and can fill up with as little as 1/4 inch of rain, but this
situation is similar to mine.  I live on a slope and though the water
drains away from the house and not into the areas where it otherwise
would collect...this has given me enough water to last through the
entire winter in the greenhouse.  Actually, as it is raining I am
filling about 60 or more gallon milk jugs to create a wall of water on
the south side of the greenhouse which gives heat back at night.

Also, as I've explained in another post I also have several other
plastic garbage cans which I also channel water into using a hose
connected to the hose on the water barrel.

 Craig said:

This is an old tip that I've never had the occasion to test directly (but I
will comment more after):

Drive a small spade down in one or two spots  around one of your
plants and cut a few roots.  This might shock the plant into ripening
the tomatoes.

OK, this year one of the new varieties I was trying was not ripening any
tomatoes, not even a hint of color, even after all the others were doing
so.  It was so full of green tomatoes that the stake was leaning over
threatening to crash into the fence. (I have electric wires at the top so
this would have been a Bad Thing.)   I drove in a couple of small stakes
to tie off the larger one and stop the leaning.  And shortly after that, a
whole bunch of tomatoes on that plant started turning red.

 Now, I would think this was entirely coincidental, except for having
remembered that old advice.  So I may have unintentionally confirmed it
works.  Or, maybe not.  I doubt it would hurt to try.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
  
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

 g'day jennifer,

we set up some of those plastic 55 usa gal drum under our downpipes,
we ahve pictures on our site to show how we did it, and we use a
battery run inline boat bilge pump with a battery booster pack for
cars to pump water from them, works well for us.



On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:10:47 -0700, Jennifer
snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

 

len garden wrote:


Thanks Len!

Jennifer