Watering systems and foul smells…

With very little rain this last week, today is the perfect time to talk about watering. A friend of mine has been reading this and mailed me to ask how we manage watering at the site. She helps out with a community garden in Dublin and complains that a day after watering, their beds are bone dry. She thought I might be able to give her some advice. Merely an apprentice, I, of course, ask Ru.

Allens Garden generally relies on a once-a-week watering, unless it is very dry and then Ru goes back later in the week to give the salad leaves another drink. But the main thing is to give the soil a good mulch ( = a protective cover of organic matter over the soil, you’ll also see bark being used plus other synthetic materials) to help keep the soil damp. The mulch also helps to suppress weeds and improve the structure of the soil. I didn’t think we used a mulch, but Ru corrects me. The compost that we have been layering over the beds rather than digging it in, really helps to retain the water. Now I see the purpose of barrow load after backbreaking barrow load of the stuff!

It’s also a good day to talk about watering because, as we are taking out the coriander in the long bed on the wild side of the central wall, and are replacing it with a new crop, we decide to re-lay the watering system. The system takes the form of a hosepipe that runs up and then loops back down the bed. The one we take out is just an old pipe that we had put holes in with a nail. It really doesn’t work too well as the holes are too big and there’s not enough pressure to get the water all the way down along the bed – the longest one on the site. Ru has invested in some proper porous pipe for us to replace it with. It’s a bit of a finicky job as a lot of the plants in the bed – sorrel, oreganum, the Ceylon spinach and the fruit trees – are staying put, so we have to thread the pipe through without destroying them. And of course the pipe is a bit kinked and tangled and seems to have a life of its own. But, as the sun is shining again, we have some good volunteers to help with the job. And after a bit of direction, the pipe is down, we test it and the water goes all the way down. Brilliant!

The new crop we plant is another exciting addition to the salad bags – amaranth. I always thought that this was only eaten as a grain, but apparently the leaves are seriously rich in nutrients. I can’t wait to see them grow and eat them. At least I know they’ll be well watered!

A rather less exciting job is the draining of one of the liquid feed tubs. These are the tubs that we drown the bind weed and other very invasive weeds in. You can also add comfrey leaves and nettles to push up the nutritional levels of the liquid. Draining the tubs is a job that we have been putting down on the task list pretty much every week but we never seem to be able to tick it off. Today however, I see Ru determinedly making his way down to the compost area, armed with gloves and a waterproof jacket. I, rather reluctantly, ask if he needs help. Of course he says yes. So I don a coat from the shed and give him a hand.

It’s seriously foul smelling. The liquid is drained into bottles for use across the site ( = especially good when planting up new beds – you mix a bit into each watering can to put in the holes before you plant up the seedlings), then we have to lift the inner sack – full of rotting sodden leaves – out of the tub and empty it onto the compost heap, very careful not to get the liquid on us. If you do, you can smell it all day. Like all disgusting jobs that you keep on putting off, it’s a great feeling to have it done. Thankfully it’s not one that we have to do too often…

Weekly stats…
Grower: 1 | Apprentices: 2 | Volunteers: 6! | Support workers: 1 | Visitors wanting to use our compost loo: 3 | Potential volunteers: 2 | Dogs: 1 | Fox: 0

Harvested from the site…
Salad greens & edible flowers: 14kg | 6 punnets of strawberries: 1.8kg | Rhubarb: 2.45kg | Mint: 60g | Basil: 30g