Gardens and rain gutters

Gardens and rain gutters

The wife and I have been busy planning and implementing ways to green up the house, quite literally, with plants. vegetables, rain barrels, and new rain gutters.

The plan is motivated by several factors. First, our current rain gutters don't work. Could be clogged with leaves, but considering we practically live in a forest, we felt it wiser to deal with the situation permanently with a LeafGuard system (http://www.leafguard.com/homehtml.asp?mode=html). It'll cost more now, but it's maintenance-free and can handle any amount of rain.

Second, we'll be connecting those gutters to rain barrels in order to minimize the amount of drinking water we'll need for our garden. Even a large plastic bin left in the rain can collect enough water to sustain our potted plants for a while, so using the whole roof for water collection should yield more than enough.

Third, our front area is in dire need of a makeover. The big tree soaks up a lot of sun and water. The rain barrels will fix the water issue while we'll attend to the lack of sun with shade-loving native plants. We recently picked up most of these at the garden fair at the state arboretum (http://www.virginia.edu/blandy/).

We also picked up a few tomato and melon plants to add to our growing collection of vegetables, which includes lettuce, cucumbers, and various herbs. The tomatoes will be planted upside-down in bags (http://www.gardeners.com/Gardener+s%20Revolution%20Planter/VegetableGardening_TerrificTomatoes,37-000,default,cp.html) that hang from a hooked pole. The melons will be grown in a self-watering earth box (http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/EarthBox/prodinfo.asp?number=DB+GRN) we can wheel into sunny spots during the day and out of the way in the evening. Corn, potatoes, more greens, and maybe even asparagus are also planned.

We decided to grow food, not just flowers, to add practicality and utility to our gardening. Plus, I'd like to have a buffer against rising food prices and, with the rain barrels, tightening water supply, much the way our choices with cars and commuting have eliminated our concern over gas prices. Just need to replace the roof shingles with solar tiles to complete the self-sufficiency package.

Anyway, garden and greenery are what's taking up our time. Hope to have a sound base established soon.
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