Grow Your Own Magazine

The portion of garden given over to veggie (fruit in various other parts of the garden at the mo is total of 4 beds; 10x10, 9x10, 11x10 and 8x8 (all in feet). I was reading last night about water conservation and whilst I totally agree with what has been said (i.e. avoid soil errosion, weeding which damages soil etc) and we want to conserve as much as possible, I am seriously worried, if not frightened about how it is going to be possible.

At present we have a water but situated by conservatory to catch water from conservatory and adjacent covered patio (some sort of rigid awning thing). This normaly services strawberry bed nearby and any pots near house. We then have a pair of water buts at back of greenhouse which catches water from flat rooved garage. This services greenhouse crops and adjacent veggie plot. We also have a further water butt by cold frame at other end of veggie area which is filled by hand from any full water butts if and when rain is forcast. This helps with cold frame watering and this year will help to keep runner beans which are in a large tub due to space lacking on plot. We also save grey water in summer as and when required (ie not if we have too much rain so we dont store it) and when I rang waterboard (we are on a meter) it turns out we use only a 1/3 of the normal consumption of a house our size. I can give more info on what we do if required.

I would love to mulch our veggie plot but am concerned the costs will be prohibitive. The grass cutting method would suit as we have a large area of lawn which would service idealy but am concerned how long it would take to mature. Dont want to use hay or straw or plastic or the like as it dont look too nice - eh! Compost would be ideal and we have built a large bin but that seems to be taking for ever to rot down and hubby seems loathe to bother turning it to speed things up. Leave mould - we do have a small amount of this but nowhere near enough.

Please help as water conservation is important to us and I dont feel we are doing enough now I have read this article.

Tammy

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God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out

You will always be your child's favorite toy

Sure its useful in conditioning soil, but you seem a bit worked up and stressed about it to be honest. Gardening shouldn't be such a stressful hobby. First thing is turn that compost. It will take forever otherwise. Keep the greens/browns balanced in that too, and dont let it dry out. You sure can use your grass cuttings to mulch, lay a few layers of newpaper out, then cover with your cuttings, then water. After a few days dig that in, it will really help. It rots down pretty quick too. Any organic matter you have will help to mulch.

Agree with claygarden. I use grass clippings on all the beds (and in the tunnel) to mulch and it does a great job. If you are leaving areas empty, use the paper/clippings or (takes slightly longer) cardboard and clippings.

But most of all - enjoy your garden

Don't stress about water saving on your raised beds. Have a think about how much water you'll put onto them and then compare to other household tasks - its tiny. You could water them directly from a tap and it wouldn't matter. Seriously its not worth worrying over.

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http://plot62.blogspot.com/

You are doing an amazing job already!!
I am personally impressed

the tricks with paper/grass clipping sounds the cheapest and easy way for me.

I just tend to mulch the thirstiest plants, with something like newspaper or grass clippings (cover with soil to look tidy). Here is a good article on mulches: http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/scho...ingMulches.pdf

One of the easiest mulchest you already have to hand is dry soil ... after watering round your plant, cover the damp soil back over with dry to 'seal in the moisture' (like a facecream)

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I came, I saw, I planted

You mention you have various water buts dotted about to catch water from roofs etc. Even a small shed roof or greenhouse roof will fill a water butt in no time.
One of our more ingenious plot holders has three 100 litre plastic storage tanks which have all been filled from a single greenhouse roof. The rainwater is fed to a water butt, each time it gets somewhere near full he has a hand pump, very easy to use just move the lever backwards and forwards with one end of a hosepipe into the water butt, the handpump fastened to the wall above butt and a pipe leading to whichever container he is filling at the time
I myself have a 1000 litre container which was filled very quickly from my 8X12 greenhouse roof.

I don't particularily like digging so I mulch!!! Apart from it conserving moisture I let the worms do the digging for me as well.
Any organic matter will do, cardboard,paper, straw,manure,grasscuttings,compost,woodchips etc

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Snadger - where are the these containers stored? Not good on measurements so cant imagine how big they are. Can I see a picture? How much are they and where do you get them from?

__________________
God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out

You will always be your child's favorite toy

Whatever you lay down, you can cover over with nice clean tidy soil. Sheets of newspaper make a fantastic mulch, specially the cr@ppy free locals that come through your door

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I came, I saw, I planted

Makes sense - I am thick sometimes! Typical woman eh - worried how the plot is looking!

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God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out

You will always be your child's favorite toy

None taken.

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I came, I saw, I planted