After many weeks of saying that I wouldn’t plant my spring/summer garden until monsoon season, I relented.
Because there’s nothing that looks sadder than an empty garden.
In this episode, I talk about dry season garden setup, what I’m growing, and, of course, where that garden water is coming from.
I also discuss the long-term weather forecast that motivated me to plant this garden.
Transcript
INTRO: From Tucson, Arizona, welcome to the Water Harvesting 101 podcast. My name is Martha Retallick. I’ve been a water harvester for 20 years, and I’m looking forward to helping you get started.
Before we do that, here’s a little Tucson secret: For most of the year, we’re in drought. That’s just how life is in the desert.
But when the rains return, oh, do they ever. They often bring an unwelcome friend called flooding.
How do we reduce the risks of flooding? We do it with water harvesting.
Water harvesting encompasses three activities:
- Redirecting rainwater away from where it isn’t wanted to where it is.
- Storing rainwater for later use, for example, during a drought.
- Recycling “used” water. At my place, I don’t let laundry water go down the drain. Instead, it’s for the fruit trees.
We’ll be covering all of these topics and more, so let’s get started.
EPISODE: So, call me a gambler, a garden gambler.
Why do I say that?
Well, I’ve been podcasting, and podcasting, and podcasting on garden laying fallow until the monsoon season this summer.
And you know what? There is nothing that looks sadder than an empty garden.
So, this past week, I decided it’s time to plant some seeds in that garden.
I started out by doing the things you need to do for a spring summer/garden here in Tucson. I put my shade cloths over it, I fertilized the soil really well, planted the seeds, and then it was time to de-e-e-ep water.
And I mean deep water. I’m still deep watering the garden.
Where’s this water coming from? My cistern!
I have about 1,300 gallons – the water is plentiful in my cistern!
I feel confident that I could lower the water level quite a bit before monsoon and be in good shape.
1,300 gallons in a 1,500 gallon cistern? I’ll take that all day and every day! And I am watering the garden with it. Deep watering for the win!
I have a thick blanket of mulch over this garden, which acts like a blanket to keep the water in so it doesn’t evaporate so quickly. (See above photo, with sprouting vegetable seeds!)
What am I planting?
I’m planting serrano pepper seeds. I need more peppers because I like to make salsa, and I also put them on the pizza in the wintertime. I make my own pizza.
Cucumbers? I like them too. So I have cucumber seeds in there.
I also have lots of okra. Why? Because I like okra.
I know. Okra is kind of a controversial vegetable.
A lot of people don’t like that gooey texture, but you know that gooey texture is what puts the goop in the gumbo!
So, count me as a fan of okra.
Also this summer, I am growing fruit trees. One of those fruit trees gets cistern water. That is my Fignomenal fig tree, which is leafing out like crazy.
I had this tree planted last fall. It already has two figs on it.
Shhhhh! Don’t tell the birds! They love figs.
I have also planted melon seeds in the Fignomenal planter. The reason for the melon seeds is this planter has a shade cloth support structure.
I’m hoping that the melons will climb up the sides of the shade cloth structure and create natural shade because the tree is going to get full sun during the summertime. That can be pretty intense.
In addition to my feeling that this garden was looking so sad, and I wanted to put some things in it, our summer forecast – courtesy of the Climate Prediction Center – is calling for an active monsoon rainfall season.
This is called El Niño, and the eastern Pacific Ocean is already showing signs of El Niño. The water temperature is way above normal.
We could have above average rainfall this summer. And, according to the Climate Prediction Center, El Niño conditions are predicted to last into next spring.
So, that drought we’ve been experiencing could become a thing of the past.
I’m saying a lot of things in this forecast, like could, maybe, etc. Because these are predictions.
They’re not reality. They haven’t happened yet.
I hope they happen. That’s why I’m calling myself a garden gambler. But we’re just going to have to see.
So far this year, we’ve only had 2.17 inches of rainfall. We need to have at least three inches at this time. So, we’re a bit behind.
I’m also, looking very carefully at the weather predictions for this May. We had rain last week – just slightly more than a quarter inch of rain.
This is the dry season. Rain doesn’t often happen in May, but we’ll take it when we can get it.
And that’s life as a garden gambler here in Tucson, Arizona.
If you’d like to learn more about water harvesting, sign up for my monthly email newsletter. If you do, I’ll give you a free copy of my Water Harvesting Cheat Sheet.
And if you’d like to support the Water Harvesting 101 podcast, the PayPal email address is info@westernskycommunications.com.
OUTRO: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Water Harvesting 101 podcast. If you’d like to learn more about water harvesting, meet my book family.
First, it’s City Nature, the book that’s guaranteed to look great on any coffee table. City Nature reveals my secrets to water harvesting through my 20-year journey of transforming my Tucson home into an urban oasis. Get the details at CityNatureBook.com.
And if you’re on the go, take water harvesting with you. Water Harvesting 101 is an audiobook and eBook combination that will teach you the nuts and bolts of water harvesting and show you how to put them to work. Available exclusively at WaterHarvesting101Book.com.