We have had 91mm fall in two and a half days which is a pretty significant event in these parts. More is to come looking at the forecast. With this rain event, the water tanks are now full, so we have 27,000 litres of water in storage again. Plants that were looking almost dead are now back in action. The pond is full, frogs are in full voice, and all is well with the world.
The point of this post is to put in some perspective what our garden watering is aiming to achieve.
If I were to dump 27,000 litres of water over our block of land (1400 metres squared) it equates to 19mm of rain.
The 91mm that fell on our block these past days equates to 127,000 litres. Obviously some of that will run off, but also some runs in from up the hill at the surface, and then also the fraction that percolates through the rocks below ground over a long period of time.
The tiny fraction we spray on with a hose or drip line is nowhere near a decent rain event. By watering the garden we are pretty much giving the garden life support just to keep functioning until the next downpour.
I have switched my view of watering the plants to watering the soil life – for it is really the millions of life forms we can’t see that are doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
With annual veggies the manual watering is absolutely essential as the soil life is constantly disturbed as we harvest, weed and re-plant. Pots also require constant life support as they dry out easily.
With trees and orchards they can hopefully access the deeper reserves of ground water.
One great tip for tree watering, and especially young tree watering is to bury a piece of stormwater pipe next to the root ball with the end at root level, and the other end at the surface. Filling the pipe with water gets a decent enough volume straight where it is needed.
The more I can keep significant amounts of organic matter in the soil via mulch & compost, the more each rain event is soaked up like a sponge, the more resilient the soil life is, and the effects of heatwaves are minimised.
My best description is visualising millions of small completely waterlogged, rotten, spongey pieces of wood all through the soil. The tiny holes in this mouldy sponge are where soil life and fungi thrive. It is my job to supply all kinds of brown woody-ish material to rot at the surface at least once a year and the water to keep it damp. I don’t dig it in, just let life take its course.
And talking of life taking its course, we have a bumper harvest because we didn’t want to get wet for the last two days…..
