There is always more work to do here than there is time, and more plans than we can possibly work on as well. But little things get done every day and big things almost weekly. Our house in town took all of the available time for quite a while. But once we got the house sold (we closed yesterday) the problem became getting the house building ball rolling. That being done, it was time to start laying out the Farm. This week the farm plan said it was time to install an automatic irrigation system for MacGreggor's Garden.
The irrigation system wasn't expensive but there were a great many parts to it. The biggest factor in all of this was the planning. I wanted a design didn't use the ground poorly, didn't block tools and feet, and didn't add a bunch of stuff to get in the way. On top of all this the thing needed to water the plants quickly and without my having to add much labor to it. It took two very hot days to build, but eventually I figured it all out.
The system wraps around the outside of the Garden but dips under ground for about six feet so that I can drive the tractor into the Garden if needed. I split the system into four parts to spread the load on the well out. Each zone waters about a quarter of the garden, three of the zones are outside, one in the greenhouse. I put the four parts on four electric valves operated by an electronic timer. The timer allows quite a bit of flexibility in watering very early in the morning, or when I am not here to water the plants.
Now I can work the garden real early in the morning (where I had been spending about an hour and a half moving the watering hoses and sprinklers to the plants). This will shave about two hours off of my morning routine and allow for the next big thing to happen.
No telling what the next big thing will be. But things are definitely happening at Creekside Farm.
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