THE U-Pick GARDEN will be closing August 20th. This will be the last year the garden will be open to the public. Next year I'll be operating as a CSA, supplying about 20 regular customers with weekly boxes. Thank you for your support over the last 8 years, but it's time to try something new.

To get a copy of my book, "How To Grow Vegetables In Sitka, Alaska" just give me a call....The books are $20 plus tax. If you live out of town and want me to mail you a copy, you can mail a check for $25.60 to:

Lori Adams
P O Box 6021
Sitka, Alaska
99835


Down To Earth U-Pick Garden is located at 2103 Sawmill Creek Road in Sitka, Alaska. It is open usually from mid-June through late August. Hours are Monday-Saturday 12:00 to 6:30. On Farmer's Market Saturdays I am not open until 2:00. Children are welcome but may not run through the garden or chase the ducks. If you have any questions you can contact me, Lori Adams, at 907-747-6108 or 907-738-2241. My email address is downtoearthupick@gmail.com

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Water Again.....But This Time Where I DON'T Want It!

For a couple of years now there has been a lot of water at the bottom of the garden.


Too much water.


In the pathways,



 And in the beds too.


It started out sort of gradually, and we came up with all sorts of explanations for why it must be happening....things like: well, it HAS been raining a lot, or, the soil is compacting over the years from tilling, or,  a drainage pipe from the house gutters must be plugged....anything but the most obvious and most dreaded possibility.


But by March we had to accept the obvious truth.....the main water pipe to the house had to have a leak in it. Oh boy...I envisioned a week long project with an excavator to fix the problem, and neither I nor Mr. Adams had time for that! But something had to be done....I couldn't plant the beds this Spring with that much moisture in them.

So last week, one day, I grabbed a shovel and started to dig a hole to find the water pipe. Once I found the pipe I started to dig a trench. The trench was about 8 feet long when the ground started to get pretty wet. It was about that time that Mr. Adams drove in the driveway. Great timing! He dug about another foot and the ground got REALLY wet. About that time Ken and Monique drove in and Ken jumped in to lend a hand. Great timing again.....because right away they hit water!!!!


Mr. Adams figures that about 5 gallons of water a minute was coming out of that leak! We shut off the water valve down by the road and then Mr. Adams and Ken went to town and bought the supplies to fix the leak.



We turned the water back on and the leak was fixed. Wow! That was easy....a lot easier than I expected it to be.


The next task was to fill the trench back up. But how? With the same material? The material that caused the leak to begin with? It was decided that I should buy some pea gravel to surround the pipe.


I think I bought enough gravel.


Oh yeah.

 (one bucket worth of gravel)

 The leak was found, the pipe was fixed, and the trench was filled back in before the day was over.
And the best news of all is that the ground started to dry up...in 2 days it was completely dry!!!!!!

I'm so happy!
Posted by at

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)