By john
  The last few years we have been watering the east garden by hand, which was manageable but tiresome. Earlier this year I experimented with some old soaker hoses I’ve had lying around but the results weren’t acceptable. Soaker hoses just don’t work very well when you’re trying to keep an area moist, such as when you are trying to germinate seeds or watering a patch of newly planted seedlings. This past weekend I finally executed on a long-fomenting plan and installed a 3-zone irrigation system using some landscaping irrigation pieces that I had used a few years ago to water in some foundation plantings that are now mature. I just love it when I can repurpose/recycle stuff that I have lying around.
  As you can see, I mounted the manifold to the side of one of my raised beds, close to the rain barrels. I used a block of cedar to create the clearance needed to connect the hose fittings. Water is fed from the rain barrels to a transfer pump which pressurizes the system. The pump provides sufficient pressure to run the entire system wide open and the manifold allows me to turn individual zones on or off. The water lines run along the ground as unobtrusively as possible and I used lots of elbows to neaten up the install. To hold the lines in place I crafted straps from a polypropylene bottle recovered from my recycling bin.
Although a straight line is the shortest distance between two points this would have required that two of the three lines run directly across main walkway into the patio, so, in the name of aesthetics and to prevent tripping risk, I ran two of the water lines around the perimeter of the garden. The good news is that I had the 200 extra feet of tubing lying around anyway. At the bed, the water line runs up the side, through an access hole cut into the top board and down the length of the bed. “Misters” are installed at varying points along the water line. This system is made by Mister Landscaper and was purchased at Lowes. It’s exceedingly simple to install and can easily be expanded or moved to suit your changing needs. Note that I arranged it so that the misters are pointing away from the seating area. In the heat of the summer I may just decide to turn those misters around.
By phyllis
 Juliana Mini 3 Greenhouse Temps in the greenhouse have been reliably about 10 to 20 degrees higher or more than the air temps, and I want to see if I can extend our season into fall. An extra 10 to 20 degrees means that we may be able to have fresh tomatoes long after the summer crop is finished. By the end of June I’ll start fall tomato seeds in the garage under grow lights to get them big enough transplant into large containers by end of july in order to do two succession plantings, August 1 and Sept 1. Johnny’s has a free shipping offer right now with dozens of varieties on sale, so I’ll experiment with these: Valley Girl is 60 days, determinate, cold hardy and adapted for containers, as is Orange Blossom, a pretty low-acid variety.
I think lettuces would also be fun to grow in the greenhouse; they grow quickly and I can start them as late as October since they like cool temps. These varities are adapted for greenhouse culture and the protection of a greenhouse will give us pretty lettuces. We used row covers on the outside lettuces to prevent deer munching and I have to say that a light row cover really keeps the leaves pristine and tidy, they barely need to be washed. Anuenue is a small iceberg type recommended for greenhouses, and Sergeant is an oakleaf with the same qualities. Sergeant was on sale for only $1 a packet for pelleted seed, which is a great deal. Lettuce seed is almost microscopic and fiddly to plant; pelleted seed is easier to work with because the seeds are coated with an organic clay coat that makes them easy to see and handle.
By john
 The weather has been unseasonably warm and I’ve already lost several of my lettuces due to lack of water. They were under row covers and when last I looked at them they were doing fine. And even though it has rained each of the past several days it appears the accumulation has been minimal. (*Note to self – build rain gauge). Anyway, I carved out a block of time in my busy schedule to finally set up the water pump for my rain barrels. I got everything hooked up, plugged in the pump and … no water pressure. Huh? First I checked the rain barrel spigot and discovered that the flow was weak. I removed the spigot and found that a leaf had partially blocked it. Now I was back in business. Started up the water pump again and …WTF … still no pressure! I thought maybe some creature had overwintered in the hose and that is was blocked, but before resorting to radical hose surgery, I connected a short piece of hose to the water pump just to make sure I was getting pressure. And wouldn’t you know, the pump is worn. More specifically, the impeller that moves water through the pump had broken and the pump motor was just spinning away doing nuthin’.
Now, without a working pump, I’m forced to water my east garden mostly by hand which is a thankless task to be sure. So I immediately jumped on the internet to search for a replacement impeller. Naturally the only place to get one is directly from Water Ace. Now Water Ace isn’t exactly on the cutting edge of the technology curve. Their website has no e-commerce facility, hell, it doesn’t even list my pump model or the parts I needed. So I resorted to calling them directly and found myself on hold because they were “experiencing unusually heavy call volume”. After about a 5 minute wait the phone rep came on and knew exactly what part I needed. That’s when I learned that these little plastic parts are expensive, $8.32 each expensive. Really? Considering that mine lasted only two seasons I imagine that they have themselves a tidy little replacement parts business going on. Anyway, I decided to order three of them because lord knows if these parts will continue to be available in coming years. The total out of pocket cost including shipping and tax was just north of $29.
By john
 After spending Saturday building the (cursed) greenhouse, I took it a bit easier on Sunday and built a couple simple raised beds for our south garden. The bottom of each bed is covered in 1/4″ hardware cloth to keep out the burrowing critters. I still need to attach the pvc piping to support the row cover hoops.
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About Us mediaOrganic is located on 3/4 of an acre in Westwood, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, a community of about 15,000 residents outside of Boston. We are firmly ensconced in zone 6 with a lovely mix of microclimates that allows us grow a broad mix of plants.
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The last few years we have been watering the east garden by hand, which was manageable but tiresome. Earlier this year I experimented with some old soaker hoses I’ve had lying around but the results weren’t acceptable. Soaker hoses just don’t work very well when you’re trying to keep an area moist, such as when you are trying to germinate seeds or watering a patch of newly planted seedlings. This past weekend I finally executed on a long-fomenting plan and installed a 3-zone irrigation system using some landscaping irrigation pieces that I had used a few years ago to water in some foundation plantings that are now mature. I just love it when I can repurpose/recycle stuff that I have lying around.
As you can see, I mounted the manifold to the side of one of my raised beds, close to the rain barrels. I used a block of cedar to create the clearance needed to connect the hose fittings. Water is fed from the rain barrels to a transfer pump which pressurizes the system. The pump provides sufficient pressure to run the entire system wide open and the manifold allows me to turn individual zones on or off. The water lines run along the ground as unobtrusively as possible and I used lots of elbows to neaten up the install. To hold the lines in place I crafted straps from a polypropylene bottle recovered from my recycling bin. 
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