suddenly your water supply is limited, in one of the big cities by me, they have declared that large area is on full water restrictions, and you should here the folks having fits, no filling of swimming pools, or hottubs, they have to truck the water in if they want them filled, no washing of cars or trucks..  but NONE are being more vocal then the local gardeners.

I heard one on the local radio saying and I qoute.

• I won’t be able to plant any new plants this spring because I can’t use any outside water
• How will I water my current plants without being able to use extra water
• I won’t be able to do my gardening, which in turn means I would not be able to grow my own food this summer.

Now, I would like to point out that this person did say she had a house and yard, the city, is offering one rain barrel for 50 dollars per house for this area, which is not a bad price compared to what the stores like to charge for a new barrel.

The average annual rainfall in our area is 940 millimetres (37 in), and the average house is around 2200 sqaure feet, so I am going to say on average 1000 square feet of roof, so that means about a 100 meters x .94 or 94 cubic meters of rain per roof, which equals about 94 tons of rain water that can be collected off your roof.

Add to which we have about 35 weeks of rain season, with 37 inchs on average, and on average most garden plants need at least a inch of rain per week to thrive, but of course mother nature does not deliver that rain at a inch a week but we are certainly able to collect and store it when it does come down.

So lets go back to this master gardener, why can’t she plant new plants, I am putting out new plants in between the rain, I have not had to water in anything, the rain has done it for me, and most are already up and going strong, given the spring we have had in regards to rain, pretty much everything is popping up green and strong.

Won’t be able to water her current plants, I am assuming that these are older plants that should? have had time to grow a good root system and that she can use mulch to help keep the ground from drying out, so the only real reason that I can think of that she believe’s her garden will die from lack of water is that she has overplanted the area, or choosen the wrong kinds of plants for our area.

Now getting to the garden part, if she is doing small square foot gardens, then with rain barrels and water collecting, there is no reason that she can’t keep them water, perhaps it would be fair to say that it will take her longer chore wise to hand water her beds, then with a soaker hose, if she is gardening in a garden plot, then she really has no reason to believe this, “you the gardener” has the ability to space your plants so that they can grow without much extra water given, other then spot watering when starting, and evening watering as needed in the main heat of the summer, again both needs being able to be meet with your own collecting of water.

What I found that bothered me the most was putting together the thought of a hard core gardener with someone that had not go into the green movement enough to have given any thought or planning on collecting water.. but I guess I needed to give my own head a shake.. why should some who choose’s to garden, point in fact also need to be someone who try’s to reduce their foot print? They don’t in fact have to go together..

So here is my final thought, if you are going to garden, please consider looking at what you use and need to have to garden, and consider spending a little time thinking about what you can do in order to be self-contained on meeting those needs.