~sigh~ Water wanted!

[Sunny]

I'm getting 'homesick' reading all these gardening and seed posts. I was a Yankee gardener for most of my life, but wound up in the middle of NEVADA (not by choice)...anyway, there's absolutely NO WAY to grow a THING here without installing an automatic watering system (and paying big bucks for the H₂O). I tried using a sprinkler and hose the first year, but had to manually move it around all day long each and EVERY day or things dried up and died. Now all I have is d-i-r-t and a few noxious buffalo weeds

Cripes, the pine bark mulch I put down to make it look at least 'civilized' blew away in the wind. No wonder this was the last place in the country to be settled...and I can't fathom why they tried!

Soooo, I'll have to live through your gardens vicariously -- til I decide to break the bank and have the water system installed....meanwhile I bought one tray of purple pansies just to see something live.

[Lacey]

Try putting a bunch of large pots out and run a drip system. It's really cheap to set up and very little water is used compared to sprinklers. And you could get a cheap timer and have it water at night when no one is using water. At least that way you'd have some green stuff growin'!

[Buni]

I'm planting some things in pots and I'm gonna connect a hose to water them....I hope it works....

[WVsnowflake]

Have you tried above ground planting in raised beds? you can get some in the vegi books that look like a round tier and they come with a sprinkler system in them. they are very pretty! Also try the gardeners supply company. they might have a few ideas for you their web site is www.gardeners.com that is what I am going to use is raised beds cause the dirt on the hill is nothing but clay mud.. Dries harder than a ho's heart!

[Sunny]

The "where" is easy...I need working water faucets first (the two cranky ones I have spray everywhere but through the hose, even with the manual timer on them and teflon tape...they're circa 1920, I think)

And if I leave the hose out, it bursts in the wicked-hot sun (gettin' pretty good at doing the splice-repairs, though

Nah, gotta hire me a plumber...hope he's a CUTE one, lol. ;D

[olhillbilly]

Might try puttin a rainbarrel under the downspouts. One with a lid so it dont all evaporate. Free water and its all gonna wind up back where it came from anyways.
Might paint it white to reflect the heat. So as to not boil yer plants. so what if ya gotta dip it out, it'll give ya a chance to talk to yer plants while yer givin em a bath.

Just a thought.

[Buni]

Ohh good idea!I think I am going to put a barrel out to catch the water...

[Sunny]

omg...LMAO!!!

Dear ones, I don't think you've spent much time in Nevada. Rainbarrels are great where it RAINS. People around here don't even HAVE rain gutters ~grin~

(Actually, it DID rain this winter...that's how I found out my roof leaks. Got all of an inch saved up in a wastebasket...it evaporated in a day)

[olhillbilly]

Well, I been in Nevada, Missouri and it rains like the dickens there. ;D

Nope never been out yer way. One would think it would rain least twice a year.

[Sunny]

Actually, it DOES rain, kinda (supposed to rain this week), but not a whole lot to catch ;D

Actually, I'm just too LAZY to water manually...some days I never get outta bed and those are the days everything dries up -- dead. I think I watered a half dozen times in 30 years in Connecticut. 6-10 inches of mulch helped, a nearby brook and MamaNature...this whole desert thang has me frustrated. I just don't like beng a slave to a garden: takes the FUN outta it.

Do ya know I can't even make compost here? I'd have to water IT, too! I used to be able to compost 'in situ' and peelings and such would rot nicely around the plants...here they just stay for MONTHS, kinda like multi-colored wood-chip banana peels and avacado skins. Never saw anything like it! hahaha And my leaf pile is STILL just that: LEAVES, two years old! I tell ya, really weird.

[Sunny]

Like it or not, I apparently have a "water system" i my front yard. I've been WONDERING how I could be using 5000 gallons of water/month (just me: no kitchen and very little laundry)

I'm guessing an underground pipe to the front faucet or house main broke: I not only have a green "lawn" (12" high weed 'meadow'), but I also have a pond! Not a big one, but there's about 2" of standing water that won't go away.

Just great. One MORE thing to deal with.
Aw hell, I don't care anymore. Maybe I'll put lights on it and call it 'landscapng'

[CuPcAkE]

Sunny they have some real cute fish that would look good in that there pond you have going on... Just have to think Positive or life will never get better!

[Sunny]

Not sure if zoning would approve of a pond on the front lawn of a tiny city lot...but the dozens of stray neigborhood cats would just LOVE some free goldfish! ;D

[WVsnowflake]

I know you can go in buisness and let people go water skiing!! Just think about it you could corner the market!!!

[Sunny]

hehehe, they'd have to be awfully LITTLE people ~grin~

(would you believe that just south of Carson City they DO have a water skiing facility -- all manmade and it's where champions train. I doubt they'd be too impressed with my puddle-pond, haha)

~grrr~ I just HAD to build a FENCE in the front yard...posts in cement! Now the yard's going to have to be dug by hand and not machine...maybe I'll just plant flowers in the mud -- I WAS the one who wanted a garden afterall.....I just didn't plan on having cattails and water lillies.

[Sunny]

Yanno...........SOME day I'm going to learn to be careful of what I wish for!

[SpyderLady]

Wild animals may think it is an oasis!