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Rain Inducement

Ozark rains have taken on a new form. Several months will have lots of clouds, rain several days a week. No rain inducement is needed, only overwatering protection for the garden.

Then clouds roll by dropping small showers, enough for seedlings only, for a couple of months. Larger plants need watering even with mulch.

Watering My Garden

The only well near my garden is a hand dug one. It has a hand pump on it and is reliable for watering the animals, but not for watering the garden.

Four rain barrels are full in the garden. One is full of tadpoles. Other tadpoles get moved into this one. This year it takes two full barrels to water my garden once.

tomato plants need a gallon of water a day once they start producing
The mulch helps hold moisture in the ground and keeps the tomato plant roots cool. The mulch also makes it harder to judge how much water is needed, attracts worms which attract moles and raccoons.

My Solution

The creek runs all year. We set up a pump near the creek and pump water up to the garden to fill the barrels.

Once the plants get big enough, the pump sill water them too. But discharge hoses tend to dig up seedlings.

Rain Inducement

Today the pump got set up. The hoses are laid out. The creek bed is dug out for a nice pool under the intake for the pump.

operating the water pump sometimes works as a rain inducement
The pump draws water from a creek. this makes it necessary to dig out a hole to make sure the intake is low enough to stay submerged. The screen over the intake is to keep small creatures like that fish from being pulled into the pump.

And today the clouds are rolling in teasing me with indications of rain. This is after spending two hours yesterday lugging watering cans around to water the seedlings and transplants.

Will I Gripe?

If the clouds decide to drop an inch of rain on my garden, I will definitely not complain. The pump may be set up and ready, but it will still be there in a few days, after the rain has gone by and gotten used up by the plants. Gardening season is just getting going and water will be needed a couple of times a week for several months.

And spending hours watering is the only other rain inducement I have left for now.

Note: The pump worked. A shower came by dropping a half inch.

By Karen GoatKeeper

Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.