Welcome, Jeff. As "water witch maven" here, and sharing drought problems, too (here in N.J.), just wanted to add my nickels worth: now's the time to set in some drip irrigation for those beds.

If your house or other large building with long run of gutters is uphill, have you considered rainbarrels? Collecting water from downspouts, running hose from barrels and attaching to soaker (or drip) hoses. Let gravitysend that water down to your beds.

I'm [humbly] the rainbarrel standard bearer. I've been preachin their necessity for quite awhile. With the unbelievably high temps these past few days, the meager amount of water I've collected in the single make-shift rainbarrel I have, has helped keep some of my precious perrenials going till we (hopefully) get some rain this weekend.

Got lottsa info re rainbarrels. Making em or buying ready made, if you're interested. (Still waiting for my "ready mde one to come"). Birthday present from hubby! Gawd luv him! :x

Again..........Velcommin!!!!!

gardenz

Hey CTgrower! I'm terracing the hill behind my house, too, a little at a time as budget permits. My beds will have to run north, south, but that is what a few are doing now and it hasn't been a problem, I just have to plan my plantings a little better. You said you are using stones, wish I had a resource! I found some scrap locust boards from a horse logger and am using those. They are very decay resistant and they were sustainably harvested. I also got some cedar boards, but don't know their background. I can't dig out my hill much because it is mostly rock, so I'm building out from it some. A friend did the same thing and he filled his beds with truckloads of fresh horse manure, sawdust (avoid walnut), leaves and bags of grass clippings. He let if ferment for a year and now his kids are growing some of the best veggies I've ever seen! Keep me posted on your successes and failures since we're doing the same thing!

Thanks Patty, I will keep you posted. Fortunately rocks are in abundance here so the RB's will be an easy task. I also just spoke to my neighbor who has dug out tons of rocks and he is willing to let me have them too so I dont hav to dig mine up and that will save a little on the back! Unfortunately we have lots of snakes that I was informed of today too.. One of them is like a cobra in that it raises up and spreads its head!! YUK!!! Not poisonious though..

I thought I read someplace not to use cedar around the garden?


Jeff

Hi Garden, I would be interested in doing some drip irrigation. I can set up barrels at the top of the hill and work from there.. Please send the info to me or post it here..

Thanks

Jeff

The cedar that you heard of is eastern red cedar....like the aromatic cedar chests. Western red cedar is fine to use.

Hi, Jeff. Re rainwater collection/rainbarrel irrigation & setup, I could requote what seems, to me now, to be about a gazillion posts I've made (or read) on the subject. This "happens" to be (as I'm sure everyone here is all too familiar with my "one-note samba for the season". So rather than take up too much space here, I can direct you to the OVER THE FENCE forum and check under "rainwater harvesting". I've got about four or five posts and there's a lot of advice and questions from others on this very subject.

"Transplantedtexan" has a particularly interesting post on how her hubby set up "pumping irrigation" using rainbarrel collection system. She, unfortunately, only just touched the subject. Even though I couldn't take advantage of it. My property is as flat as a pancake. I've posted again to her and asked her to elaborate. Hope she responds. But, you, especially being on an incline, could reallytake advantage of it.

Make sure you check out the three links I left in one of my posts. Most helpful if you want to construct your own system. A lot cheaper and actually easier than one might think.

If you're interested in purchasing a ready made one of your own here's a couple of other links for you:

http://www.composters.com/docs/rainbarrels.html

http://www.gardeners.com
I'm planing on getting the 77 gal. one this outfit has to offer to go along with the jury rigged one I already have. (This was ALL I wanted for my birthday!!!) What can I say.......I'm a cheap date!
(Actually not.......it's gonna cost $80 cause I managed to find it locally instead of ordering it from catalog).

Any more questions, Puleeeze, feel free to ask. This is my BABY!!
P.S. Also check post I left in CLUB OG under "rain harvesting".
gardenz

Thanks for the info .. I am just starting my own system up and I don't be needing to reinvent and wheels... i have a post on this forum Lack of water that explains what I have planned...but I will check out the sites you listed to see if it is really workable...

Hi Garden,
I did frun across the other post last night.. Great info!! I am also looking at pumping the rainwater since my house is below the garden. When I do build the system I will post about the pump and how i did it..