I ventured into new territory this year, starting some of my
garden from seed. I learned a lot and things seemed to be going well. But in the middle of July, in the heat of the summer, I was set to go away on holidays for more than a week. I watched the long term forecast for weeks in advance, worried that my little plants, left on their own, would shrivel in the hot sun and die of neglect. I hoped for a prediction of rain, but summer was in full force...7 days of sun and 30 degree temperatures were expected.
Our neighbours were away; family and friends lived too far away for me to reasonably ask someone to do daily watering duties. So, I started asking around and researching self-watering systems online. I didn't like any of them and didn't want to spend the money on something I could probably make myself. The Internet was full of good do-it-yourself ideas, but many involved initially planting in self-watering pots and I didn't have the time or resources to re-pot.
One family member had a good suggestion - to put trays of water under the plants, so they could draw the water up through the drainage holes in the pots. So, I bought some extra large aluminum roasting pans ($1.99 each at the dollar store) and tested this method one night. But the water only lasted a day in the heat.
My deck is very sunny and I think the reflection off the aluminum just made the water evaporate even faster. So, my next step was to shade the pans with some old rags, essentially creating a skirt around the pan from the edge of the plant pot. This would shade the water and the aluminum pan, hopefully stopping some of the evaporation.
It was a good start, but I knew it would only extend the water supply by maybe one day. Since tomatoes need daily watering I had to do more.
I had seen watering globes at the dollar store - but they were small and only held a few cups of water. They were also made of glass - possibly a bad idea on a windy and high outdoor deck. But, I wanted to do something using the same idea. So, I purchased several 4 litre plastic jugs of spring water ($1.29 a bottle). I poked a hole in each lid using a small nail so that just a tiny drop of water could come out when the bottles were inverted. Then, I poked another tiny hole in the bottom of the jug to let air into the bottle. (I'm not sure if this step was necessary, but I imagined the bottle collapsing in on itself, eventually preventing the water from dripping out.) Then I screwed the upside-down bottles into the soil of the plant pots, until they stood up on their own.
Finally, I wanted to create a bit of shade for the plants, without blocking any rain that might come unexpectedly. The deck is small and the plants share the space with a bistro table and two chairs. I simply tied a plastic table cloth to the backs of each of the chairs and stretched it over the table creating a little banner of shade that sat beside the row of plants. If it rained, they'd still get wet, but for a couple of hours a day, when the sun was at the right angle, they'd be sheltered from the hot sun.
Then I crossed my fingers, told the plants to "hang in there" and left for 8 days.
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We came back from our lovely vacation late one evening. It didn't rain once in the time we were gone. We unpacked the car before I went out to check on the plants. I was relaxed and happy after my vacation and I didn't want to rush out to see them in case my experiment had failed.
I opened the door and peered around the corner to see a beautiful sight.
Not only were the bottles either empty or nearly empty, but the soil was moist and the plants had nearly doubled in size over the week.
(pictures were taken the next day, when it was light out and once I'd cleaned the deck up so I could move around)
The tomatoes had flowered....
More than 100 grape tomatoes are on the way....
The peppers are coming along...
The basil's booming...
The dill is divine...
The rosemary is still the underdog, but it's still hanging in there...
Stay tuned for some fresh tomato recipes...send me your favorites!
