My Garden is Thirsty.

I have been hauling water like I'm Laura Ingalls Wilder in Season 8 of Little House on the Prairie where she's fighting to save the orchrd in her husband's absence. At least that is the scene that kept playing through my head as I struggled under the weight of the buckets. Of course, she was pregnant and ended up with heat stroke and then the whole town pitched in to keep it going... but I'm not quite so dramatic, eh? :)

Like an idiot I didn't water the garden the next day after planting. Rookie mistake? I guess I thought it was supposed to rain. I went out to the plot Tuesday evening and found three dead cucumbers, one mangled and barely breathing dahlia and a cabbage plant that might not make it through the night. I was just going out to check on things so I didn't have hoses or buckets or anything. I was going to find a2 gallon watering can and maybe one of those hose carts that can be wound up.

A pair of kind gentleman said I could use their watering can and HUGE bucket while they tilled and so I hauled water 200 feet about 10 times at which point they needed their buckets back. Things looked dray again where I'd started. Sigh.

I immediately hit FOUR stores with gardening supplies looking for a watering can and ended going home without one. I did buy a hose winder that holds 175 feet. Even though I wasn't sure that was long enough, it was on sale. I went to mom's loaded the hoses threw that in the trunk and contemplated going back over but it was late and I figured I could get there as soon as possible the next day.

On Wed. my mom was eager to get out there and put some protection around the plants and to see what it looked like. I was eager to get it watered after seeing the Tues. night status. After finally getting my watering can (stop number five). I officially have five plants down and a few others looking droopy. Nothing else has dared to grow quite yet. The status of the soil is that it looks very lumpy once again and hard and DRY.

We stretched out the hoses only to discover we were one hose length short. Dang. So I started hauling water from that point and mom went home to get one more length of hose. By the time she'd returned I'd nearly watered the entire garden by buckets (faster when water source was about 25 feet away.) I fixed the hose set up and began again by really dousing the rows and plants while mom put the coffee cans, plastic cups, and milk jugs around the plants.

As soon as I was done watering it the second time I did it ONE MORE TIME and I only hope this keeps a few more plants going. I got to meet two new gardeners and shared the hose set up with each of them. I decided to leave it out there. We shall see if it's still there tomorrow. I understand others have done that before and that it's gone just fine. We are in a remote part of town where no one would probably venture unless you were a fellow gardener.

Have I bitten off more than I can chew? I sure hope not.