Waterworries

Water! Neither we nor our plants survives without it, and now my plantations starts to be demanding. The indian spinach needs a filled magasin every other day, which means two litres (0,53 US liquid gallons) in one go. My different alliums are heavy drinkers too, and the tomatoes are growing like triffids. You may remember I put a Mini Happy Plant on one of them almost a week ago. (Happy Plant is a watering system using a cellulose goo you're splatting against the soil. The batch is protected by the plastic cup it arrives in, and is supposed to last for about thirty days.) Today I added another cup since I've been forced to add water twice after I started the first one. Let's see if that's enough; despite the stress the plant has sprouted its first flowers, and setting fruit is hardly something less needy.

The balcony season is about to start, and I've decided to use regular tapwater for the plants outdoors. I'm already softening more than ten litres (2.64 US liquid gallon) of water thrice a week for my indoor gardens. Fortunately the balcony plants will enjoy the luxury of rain every now and then - I hope. Our balcony faces south and lacks a roof, so if the summer is sunny I'll be running in and out with the pitcher (and the magasines will overflow, but I'm lucky enough to live above hardy and greenfingered neighbours). This year the plants will need quite a lot of water: I decided to set up a competition between different climbers - first plant to conquer the roof of the pergola wins.

To sum it up: every day I pour at least two litres (0,53 US liquid gallons) over my plants, 'big' days I use more than ten litres (2.64 US liquid gallons). When my balcony garden wakes up I'll add a round of twenty litres (5.28 US liquid gallon) every other day. I'll get my excercise, that's for sure!