DC Urban Gardeners

Organic lawn care on the radio

Listen up!  Kojo Nnamdi'sinterview with Safelawns.org crusader Paul Tukey should be required listening for everyone who tends a patch of lawn. Here's the link.

Posted by Susan Harris

Mulch and Mulching, with Local Source Info

Time to compile more super-useful information, gang.  Please add to this article any details about particular mulches and especially about good local sources for it.  You can contribute by leaving a comment below or emailing me.  Posted by Susan Harris

Gardeners agree that mulching bare ground and around plants is THE single most important thing they can do to create low-maintenance, healthy gardens. (Gardening guru Paul James calls it "the greatest labor-saving gardening product ever invented.")  It's right up there with choosing the right plants and watering adequately.   

Why

Oh, where to start?  What's not to like about something that does all this?

• Suppress weeds
• Prevent drying out of soil
• Prevent erosion
• Reduce compaction of soil
• Moderate soil temperature
• Prevent mud splatter on plant and hard surfaces, like your house
• Add nutrients to soil, plus enable the soil to better use soil   nutrients from any source
• Increase the populations of earthworm and beneficial soil microbes.
• Make gardens look well kept and amenable to planting - like gardens.   

When

• Every year, when soil has warmed, which is midspring in most of North America, earlier in hotter places.  Gardeners in cold climates often do their mulching in the fall, however, to prevent soil heaving through the winter months of freezing and thawing. More mulch can be added in the spring, as needed.
• AND immediately after disturbing the soil, especially for planting  something. 
• AND to cover bare ground at any time.

Help Write our Rain Barrel Round-Up

Update:  We've incorporated all your comments, as well as many more from across the U.S. and even England, into this much longer article on our site:  "Rain Barrel Round-up."

Why all the interest in rain barrels?

• They save on our water bills.  One test showed that one barrel saves about 1,300 gallons every summer.
• They reduce or eliminate runoff of stormwater into our watershed, which means less downstream pollution and sedimentation.
• They reduce the load on our municipal water supply.
• They collect naturally soft, chlorine-free rainwater for use on our plants, which often results in improved plant health.

WHICH TO BUY?
Here's what I've learned from my Web research and advice offered by local gardeners on the DC Urban Gardener Yahoo group:

Size Matters
The bigger the better, and whatever you use, have an overflow system because rain barrels can fill up in as few as 5 minutes.  Surprised?  Well, a quarter-inch of rain falling on an average-size house yields slightly over 200 gallons!

 

DC resident Kate McLynn first bought 4 Deluxe size (75-gallon) barrels from Gardener's Supply, one for each corner downspout.  After several years one of them froze and cracked, but she reported finding an even better barrel. "It's produced by the RiverSides Program in Toronto, holds 132 gallons in the same footprint as the Gardeners Supply 75 gallon, AND it is designed to withstand freezing."

Cheaper by the Group
Kate continues: "If anyone is interested in purchasing one, please let me know.  We purchased ours through a group buy and saved a lot - $190 instead of $250 plus.  We’d like to get another and& know others who want one as well." 

 

More about Sizes, Sources and Prices
The University of Rhode Island site offers this guidance about prices: "Ready-made rain barrels range from $89 to $135 each depending on size, style and added features."  Well, that's not much help, is it? A little web-surfing turned up these sources (unfortunately, many sell barrels no larger 55-60 gallons).

• Spruce Creek Rain Saver.com (recommended on the site of Maryland's Dept. of Natural Resources) sells a 54-gallon barrel for $155.   Not exactly a bargain, huh?

• Gardener's Supply's 75-gallon Deluxe costs $135.

• As Kate mentioned, the RiverSides 132-gallon costs $190 as a group or $250 individually. 

• RainSaverUsa sells their 80-gallon for $300!  Another nonbargain.

BUILDING YOUR OWN

• How to build your own [pdf]

• Home and Garden Television's website on How to make your own   

• Maryland's Department of Natural Resources how to build your own

OPERATING AND MAINTAINING ONE

Yahoo group members offered these suggestions:

• Use mosquito dunks in summer.
• Set the barrel on overturned barrel halves to give sufficient height for gravity to deliver water to the garden.

And from the University of Rhode Island comes this advice, which I don't understand.  Can someone please edify?  Or just tell us how yours works.

• Fine mesh screen should be used to cover any openings in the rain barrel to prevent mosquitoes and to trap debris.
• Rain barrels can be installed upon blocks or wooden crate to provide height for gravity flow purposes.
• Rain barrels should be drained and removed for the winter months to prevent ice damage. It is recommended that you remove the existing downspout and elbow intact and store for reinstallation in the late fall. (Huh?) You can then add another downspout section that will need to be custom cut to an appropriate height above your rain barrel. Two, connected downspout elbows (forming an S shape) or hinged extension should sit about two inches above the rain barrel inlet hole. (Is this whole bullet point about what to do in the winter?)

MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON LINE

• Here's a US government site about water usage   

AND IN PRINT

• Water Storage by Ludwig   

Posted by Susan Harris  Photo by Goforgr33n