At 8:39 AM -0800 11/30/07, Dwight wrote: >....Are there any gardens where drip irrigation or some >other efficient means is required? Any gardens with >individual water meters per plot? > >I figure if people paid according to their own use, it >might keep the cost down.
The annual contract for the community garden where I have a plot expressly forbids drip irrigation. Some gardeners have it because they put it in before the rule was in place. A couple more may have gotten special permission. I think the intent was to avoid automatic watering, or to avoid situations where an unattended automatic controller is preventing someone from watering their own garden manually (because of insufficient water pressure or monopolized hose connections). In the summer, it's common to have very low water pressure in the morning and early afternoon. The volunteer coordinator does go around with hose washers and occasionally turns off leaky or unattended hoses (also against the rules). The whole garden (about 150 plots) doesn't even have its own meter. It's on the same meter as the library on the other side of the parking lot, with its huge lawns. When we were contesting a huge rate increase, we tried to get an estimate of how much water the garden uses as opposed to the library lawns, flushing toilets, etc., so that we could negotiate ways to reduce water use. As far as we could tell, the city's estimate was not fact-based. Very few of the gardens use mulch to reduce water needs, though we always have a healthy supply of mulch available. Did I mention we're in a summer-dry climate? _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
