Watering with a can from a thirty-gallon drum

by Mike
(Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada)

I am on a well. I find filling a thirty-gallon barrel and dipping two-gallon cans allows me to fill the can in seconds. I leave the hose running in the barrel and keep the water at the root of the tomato and the leaves dry.

I also don't waste water in areas in between the plants. I always deliver the water faster than the hose can fill my barrel, and it's almost like going to the gym for exercise. My garden is 30 feet wide by 100 feet long and I do the whole thing this way.

Last year I got 650 tomatoes off 19 plants. Make the soil with composted horse manure, mixed with composted sheep manure mixed with straw and mulched broadleaf maple leaves on top, which I leave all winter to decompose.

I have no weeds come spring when I turn the soil over with a pitchfork. The soil is quite clay-based and this loosens it up considerably. The maple leaves bring a battalion of worms, about thirty to a shovelful. Don't use eastern maple leaves as they are fairly toxic. I think any leaf that's listed as good compost will do the trick.