I'm a home gardener and I like a variety of fruits and veggies. Plus I grow a ton of herbs. This year I really expanded my gardening space and keeping it watered would be quite dauting without my watering setup. Part of this was my husband's idea and part was mine. The first picture shows my manifold and my timer. The manifold is attached to the side of our back deck. It's all brass (including the on/off valves) and takes a single hose and splits it off to 4 outlets. From the left I have - timer, motion activated sprinkler, short hose with sprayer, long hose with sprayer. The longer hose reaches the back of the property line for times when I need to water my compost pile, the shorter one is what I use to water new seeds and my mint beds (in grow bags to contain the spread) and asparagus bed. The timer has 3 independent watering zones. One goes to my raised beds and the jasmine that I planted last year (it runs along two sides of our shed). The second one goes to a small sprinkler for my potato bags, and the third one goes to my in ground beds. The hoses for the raised beds and in ground beds are soaker hoses that have been buried just under the mulch about an inch below the soil surface. With the 3 zones on the timer I'm not trying to water everything at the same time. Plus I can control how often each area gets watered. Right now the potato bags get water every other night and the beds are every 4 days. I just set this up so I'll be adjusting it as I see how often it truly needs to be watered. The potato bags dry out faster, that's why they get watered frequently. I'm pretty sure I'll be adjusting the raised beds and in ground beds to not be watered as often, but it was a bit dry, so I started with a more frequent schedule. I'm thinking that the raised beds might need water more often than the in ground beds. We'll see.

Comfrey was blooming yesterday as well as feverfew which is early for us. It has been very dry and warm comparing to other years so it seems nature is a bit a headed; my spinach already bolting. With that in mind Saturday will 30's (3C) Saturday morning. I have several tomato plants up over a foot tall so might need to start the poly tunnel heater Sat morning to keep them happy. Cover crop of cereal rye, hairy vetch, triticale and red clover is coming along nicely. Will terminate in about two weeks to plant corn and pole beans. My thought is that the clover will remain as a living mulch.

When you first looked at your yard as a potential growing space, what was your first honest reaction?

When we begin at a new property, it is not a blank slate. It already has pattern, flow, opportunity, and limits. It's our job to observe and sketch them out as early in the process as possible.

Welcome to all the new community members. We try to be family here so all guestions relating to self relience and sustainability from gardening to growing life in the soil to herbal tea blends for common ails to emergency preparedness. The vision is to have your and your families back in the first 24 hours, 3 days, 1 week, and then 6 months. Each skill we learn along the way brings us one step closer to being prepared. If you would like some garden planning thoughts, just ask. There is a wealth of information among our community. Once again, Thank you for joining; You are greatly appreciated.