I've read in another one of my gardening books about conserving water and they showed a method by which you bury a terracotta pot in the soil, fill it with water and it slowly leaches out when its dry to water your plants. It's an ancient method of irrigation.
Other than digging a ditch, for a stream, I decided to try it and thought where to get clay pots from? Then I thought - what about those water pots that are kind of covered with the narrow holes like gourds, could I just not fill those and leave them by the corners of my garden where it's dry and the water that evaporates will keep the moisture in the air? So I managed to find some, actually, four of them for $5 each at the SPCA op shop.
So now I have one sitting in my hen and chicken ferns corner garden, one in my wild terrarium money tree garden beside the house where it's dry and shady, one in the corner in Socks bed by the silver fern and clivias, and another by the grapevine in the sunny corner by the back fence.
I also found a pink painted terracotta pot at the Sallies and a grey one. The pink pot will be ideal for my winter sunflowers (yes, I'm doing winter sunflowers- they've already sprouted in pots by the sunny brick wall of my house). And the grey jar be good for one of my spiky spotty succulent plant that has no name. Spike Jones?
I also fill the birdbath with water, that has my rubber ducks floating in it, I've put a glass bowl there that has daisies painted on it. Also the bird feeder I've hung from the tangelo tree. The thing with water is you don't always want to be lugging hoses around everywhere. Drip feeding is good, I have those glass ones too. I have a plastic watering can that's doing good duty and some teapots for the smaller pots that need a top up every so often.
What I wouldn't mind is a rain barrel of some sort to catch the stormwater from the garage roof. But they seem quite expensive and a bit of a job to attach to the drainpipes. You'd also need a tap for the water butt.
Eventually, I think if ever had the money, I would put solar panels on the garage roof as a power source for our house or by the future electric solar powered car.
That takes care of that, and a windmill...I mean if Auckland has a power strike or gets blown up by volcanoes don't you think we should take precautions and not completely rely on the grid?
I dont' want to keep paying the power company! They keep coming to our door like JWs hoping to get us to switch. I don't know. I remember last year endless disruptions because of Chorus putting in ultra fast broadband. Well it's good that we are all wire-less now because before that trees couldn't grow without being entangled in those power and telephone lines. We'll just all get radiation poisoning instead....
I'm joking! If we have plants around us, they will remove the noxious fumes and any harmful effects of radiation.
If anyone would like broad beans I've got plenty as...Kings Seed gave me a whole sackful and I really should have only ordered an ordinary packet.
