posted 42 minutes ago
A great thread, so I'm replying... almost ten years later 😀
My scenerio: I live in Southwest Saskatchewan, Canada, semi-arid, relatively flat prairie country. We used to get lots of snow in the winter that would melt in spring and jumpstart everything growing. But we've been getting longer periods of thaw mid winter, leaving less and less snowmelt each spring. I'm also on a well, always haunted by the "what if" of it running dry someday. The soil is very sandy, sucking up moisture and then drying out very quickly.
We get rain in May, 2-3 inches if were lucky, then long periods of dry weather with little to no rain at all. On top of that the mid-summer temps have risen dramatically in recent years...
For growing veggies, 2 ft high raised beds, built with secondhand lumber, filled with composted manure, with heavy mulching around transplants, have been the answer for us. I grow the transplants to a good size in my huge south facing winter window. The larger plants seem to survive better than smaller seedlings. Carrots, etc that are direct seeded, are lightly sprinkled with the crumbled, dry leaves from last year's veggies and then the whole bed covered with reusable fine netting to reduce moisture loss from the winds.
Last year I determined to start capturing all the spring rain I could off the roofs of my house and outbuildings. To this end I scrounged used (organic) IBC totes from the neighbouring farmers. So far I have only one tote collecting rain off my 13x30 metal garage roof, but, to my surprise I got almost 1000 gallons of water off it last season. To my delight, this spring it is now filled to the brim with snowmelt water, which I will use to soak down all the raised beds beds before planting.
Now that I know it's worth the work, I will set up more totes to capture more May rain from my roofs. This is not strictly "irrigation free", but between moisture rich compost, heavy mulching and rain from the rooftops, I have greatly reduced the pressure on my well.
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