Let There Be Water

It goes without saying that Kelly and I have taken to gardening with kid-like enthusiasm.  As a couple of city folks seeking to bolster our green thumb credentials, we have expanded our garden this season with aim to amplify our yields.

On the one-hand excited about the additional garden space, we have been shouldering exhaustive trepidations towards the prospect of irrigating these very same beds.  Hose in hand, last year Kelly and I spent far too much time watering our precious crops; delivering this essential clear liquid atop thirsty soils.

Tranquil as this endeavor might sound, the cruel reality is that the process generally proves to be a pain in the ass.

Getting water to the garden itself is merely the first hurdle.  Hoses suck, especially when faced with many obstructions all too effective at snagging and kinking the hose lines.

Finally, once the hoses are settled, Kelly and I must then subject ourselves to what seems like hours of standing around, spaying the beds.

BTW – don’t even get me started on sprinklers.  Anyone having taken time to scratch beyond the the obvious solutions knows that sprinklers carelessly and needlessly waste water.  Nope, sprinklers for our garden beds are not an option.

Still stuck at square one, we had to find an alternate method of getting water into the beds.

Water Witch?  Nah, I’ve got no patience for superstitions, less the voodoo “art” of locating water.  Something about relying upon some guy, white-knuckle clinching his trusted fork stick dowsing for water, simply doesn’t espouse the confidence I seek.

Staring down the barrel of responsibility for nearly double the garden space, we simply had to ascertain a better solution.

Faced with these realities, and armed with confidence of a chain-smoking poker player, we’ve decided to double down on a drip irrigation system.

 

The trench, hosting the hose from the house to the garden 

Out two days of work and about $150 less in my wallet, Kelly and I are betting that our decision to implement an irrigation system will effectively transport precious water to the crops, without either of us clumsily fighting the lengthy and bulky hose in and out of the equally pitiful deer fence (expanded to contain growing garden footprint).

 Command central for all the hose lines

Truth be told, early reaction to the drip system is just that … drip. 

It’s hard to determine if the process will in fact work.  Regardless, Kelly and I are nervously holding our collective breathes before passing any definitive judgment.

 

Not the best looking, but I believe in function over fashion

Ultimately, time will tell if our bet on drip irrigation will payback big, or leave us holding a worthless set of cards.

In the end, if we do in fact fold our hand, I suppose Kelly and I can always revisit prior decisions … hose in hand.

 

Murphy supervising the project activities

It's Kind Of Like Green Acres

Sometimes I feel like my life is but an episode of the former 1960's CBS comedy Green Acres.  You the know the show - a married couple moves from Manhattan to a farm in the country.  Episode after episode, this couple - one of whom wants to be a farmer, the other wanting to remain a city dweller - struggles to maintain balance in their lives.

About a year and half into my life here in the PNW, I'm sometimes torn between my previous life in Chicago and my current one in rural western Washington.  

Meanwhile, Kelly continues to solidly cement her love for the country and if she had her way, would move to a proper farm tomorrow if she could.  While I am continuing to find joy in life away from the big city, I'm not quite ready for full fledged farm life.

However, I do quite enjoy the benefit of a huge yard and the ability to *farm* within our garden.  Over the past couple weeks, Kelly and I have dedicated countless hours expanding our garden (versus last year) and preparing for this season.  

We are especially excited to try out our new cloches which should allow us to jump-start our seed sowing and also enable a much longer growing season.

It turns out that building the cloches was pretty straightforward, but Kelly did volunteer for a particularly messy job which I was did not want any part of during the construction process.  

It turns out that Home Depot does not carry 2" PVC clips as we needed, so Kelly had to fabricate about 60 pieces, which besides being a particularly tedious effort, did lead to her also getting filthy.  

The good news is that these little clips provide a great seal for the cloche ends and without them, the benefit of the cloche is not maximized.  

I'll be thanking Kelly this spring for her efforts as we enjoy some fresh veggies for dinner.

Hoping For An Abundant Yield

Kelly and I have always enjoyed food, especially good food.  To clarify, for us *good food* is that which is fresh and without a lot of fanfare.  Often times we feel that less is more.   

We also really like fresh fruits and vegetables.  When we lived in Chicago, we often frequented the Evanston Farmer's Market and also were members of a local CSA.  Upon relocating to Washington, Kelly and I were anxious to get a garden of our own planted.  Upon learning of our intentions, some friends recommend that we read Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma as a catalyst to further cement our commitments to the garden.   

As you might image, life as a Chicago condo dweller did not serve to lay a solid gardening foundation, but nonetheless, last summer we took our initial steps at growing food with - albeit with modest results. 

This year, we've decided to really increase the stakes and approach our garden planning without reservation.  To that end, over the past couple weeks Kelly and I have poured hours into planning and preparing the garden in hopes of a high-yielding crop for 2009.  There is ample opportunity to apply many lessons from last year and also much of the reading we've compiled over the winter.  

One garden project we are especially keen on is our decision to plant a couple varieties of berries - both Raspberry and Tayberry shoots. 

Most people are very familiar with Raspberries, but if you are any thing like Kelly and me, you may not be familiar with the Tayberry - we certainly weren't prior to last summer.  In short, Tayberries are extremely delicious and I would recommend them to anyone (although watch out of the thorns).

Where once yard clutter resided, there is optimism - and hopefully tasty berries to sprinkle atop some home-made ice cream.