jenny.shadegarden

  Worms are thriving on a mix of cardboard, sterile compost dirt from the municipality, coffee chaff from a local coffee roaster, alfalfa pellets, kitchen compost and clippings from mowing the yard. I have not been an exemplary gardener this year. I have been trying to do too many things everyday and falling behind on everything. I did not have a plan when I laid out my beds in the spring and I created areas that were difficult to access for watering. I don't know which volunteer plants to keep and which ones I need to remove or at least reduce. I tried soaker hoses this year but because my plantings are in clumps on raised beds, a lot of the water is falling in areas that don't benefit the plants I am cultivating but it does benefit the plants I don't want to cultivate. My rain barrels are catching rain on the west side of the house but most of my garden is on the east and south side of the house. I have to carry every gallon from the rain barrels around the house to throw...

  In the dark, early morning I woke from deep sleep to the sound of rainfall. Not just the light patter of a few drops but the steady staccato of rain falling on the roof of the house and on the street outside. Out of curiosity I checked the rainfall records at  https://vancouver.weatherstats.ca . In the last week I had finally started hand watering with water from the municipal supply. I was able to keep the garden going with my bucket brigade from the rain barrels until the last week of July, when the barrels were finally empty. The combined rainfall in Vancouver for the months of June and July was less than 3 inches in total. My last record of rainfall collecting in the rain barrels was May 29. That was the last time they were filled. That gave me 300 gallons of water to keep the gardens and worms hydrated. When I checked at 5 am, the first 80 gallon rain barrel was filled and cascading into the second barrel. That seems like a huge amount of water to collect since last nig...