My irrigation system is a strange looking thing but it works. The hose is used for the lower part where the flood irrigation doesn't reach very well, and for spot watering. The water I flood with comes from a spring just above the garden, the water in the hose comes from our well which is above our house that you can see at the top right.
Another view showing my stuck together pipes. These are short peices of various diameters that I stick together any way it seems to work at the moment. At present I think I'm getting about 2 gallons a minute where it comes out of the spring and gets caught in the pipe. I start at the top of the garden and when that gets watered I add a pipe long enough to get the water to where it needs to go next, and so on until I run out of pipes or things to water. Sometimes a strategically placed shovel diverts the flow into another direction or plugs a leak in the ditches.
There is so much open land around you! How wonderful. We just love Oregon, what a beautiful state. How do you contend with critters?
Our irrigation system is soaker hoses that I bury under the raised bed prior to planting. My beds are about one and a half foot wide. I grow everything up! My mellons did well last year, but this year everything is late, since we just started getting the really warm weather only last week.
What all are you growing?
Deer have been a problem, they ate a lot of my grapes just when they were getting nice and ripe, also in the winter they came in and ate strawberry plants right down to the ground. I moved a dog nearby, house and all, and he was the deterant until they went elsewhere. I have tall poles that you can see on the side behind the grapes, 2nd picture, they only went in and out on 2 sides so I only put the high fence on those sides, so far it works.
I'm growing corn, bush green beans, swiss chard, onions, beets, radishes, peas, cabbage, brocolli, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow straight neck squash, butternut and red hubbard winter squash, one artichoke, some volunteer lettuce of 3 different kinds and of course tomatoes. You can see the tomato cages, they are made from field fencing and staked on 2 sides with fiberglass electric fence posts. Below all this I have strawberries, and to the side in the tall weeds are raspberries, and on the other side behind the grapes is an asparagus row buried in quack grass with blackberries behind that, also buried in quack grass. At the top of the garden are some rhubarb plants, and behind the raspberries I have a few elderberry bushes. Can't think of anything else at the moment. It usually looks better than it does this year, things got ahead of me and there seems to be no catching up, just damage control this year.
So wonderful... it really is a nice garden. You have a lots more varieties than I thought. How hot does it get and what is your growing season time? When we were visiting friends in Cottage Grove, it got up in the high 90s. Berries seem to love to grow up there. I lost my berry bush. Seems like they don't want to transplant. When I lived on the coast, it was not a problem. I will have to try again. Any hints? Thanks..
Jul, I am a long way from Cottage Grove and in a completely different climate. It is usually in the 80's and 90's in the summer and dry, and can get to -20 in the winter but thankfully it usually doesn't, and is dry then too. About 1 year out of 10 we get a big snow, got hardly any at all last winter. We get less than 10 inches of precip a year and a lot of wind year round. Try again on the berry bushes, water, water, water. Cut the top way back to just a few leaves, mulch to keep the roots cool and don't try it in the summer. It will need lots of water especially the first year or two.
Thanks for the info, sorry it took me so long to say that... I have been rather busy with many kittens and just getting out of my cast. It has been in the high 90s to 100 for the last week. Miserable. Has not been cooling off until 10 pm. Was 80 at 7 this morning! I have to move one day, back to some semblence of better weather. I just am not into this heat. But I love the area at the other times of year.
Oops, forgot the spuds. Some kind of red ones, yukon gold, and russet. I grow enough to last from one spud digging season to the next someyears, and in the years when the spud crop is short it is a rude shock to buy those chemical dependant ones they sell in the stores.
Jul, a cast doesn't sound a bit comfortable in such hot weather, and I hope you will post some kitty pictures on the pet forum.
MaryE,
Yes, I will post some pictures in the kitty area. Guess I'd better go and test some out now.
