I have a weakness for maps and charts. The more generous might say Gifted. I can’t walk past a map without stopping to have a look. Years ago while out for a walk I found an old road atlas lying on the side of the road, I naturally stopped and had a look. It had something I’d never seen before – the average monthly rainfall graph for a city in each American state.
The atlas didn’t have graphs for any of the Canadian provinces, so I checked out the one for Seattle -- closest to me. It visualized what I was used to: quite the roller coaster ride with our high rainfall in the late fall, winter and spring months and the fast descension to almost no rain in July and August. The surprise came when I saw much of the US Midwest, Atlantic coast, etc. They were generally much more even and gradual curves with a gentle rise during the summer months.
Recently I did some searching online through Canadian Government sources and found the following Rainfall Data for these city airports in Canada: 1) Abbotsford, British Columbia, the centre of the Fraser Valley. 2) Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the geographical centre of Canada. 3) Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit and with a rainfall curve much like Toronto’s.
One would think, with all that rain, we could just collect it in barrels from off the roof and use it when needed. At least that’s what the greens will have you to believe. I guess they’re not familiar with our unique climate nor very good with math. Or maybe they just want to appear ‘good’ – virtue signaling.
Working on the assumption of a garden needing the equivalent of one inch of rain per week, let’s do the math for calculating how many barrels full of rainwater we’d need for 100 square feet of vegetable beds.
Even though Canadians went Metric [hork and spit] years ago, I prefer to work with inches and gallons since each of my 4-foot-wide beds are 12.5 feet long equaling 50 square feet. Canadians are more bilingual than we think – we work with both systems of measurement all the time without hardly noticing it.
Our jug of milk is 4 litres which is very close to 1 US gallon, give or take. Same with a pail of ice cream. Our produce and meat is still advertised in both pounds and kilograms but weighed in kilograms. Most other weights are sold in grams but we all know one pound equals 454 grams and one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds. Our craft beer cans come in 355 mils (12 US ounces) 473 mils (16 US ounces) and 500 mils (half a litre) with bomber bottles at 650 mils (22 US ounces). That would confuse anyone but a Canadian.
Our thermometers have both scales and the weather is listed in Celsius but I still watch our indoor temperatures in Fahrenheit. The construction industry is still using 4 by 8 foot sheets of plywood and 2 by 4’s that are 1.5 by 3.5 inches dressed and come in 8, 10, 12,… foot lengths so the vast majority of tape measures used are in inches.
Our railways are still on miles and miles per hour but after our Gimli, Manitoba ‘Sully’ equivalent, Gimli Glider , the airlines could have stayed there too but didn’t. With today’s constant access to computers any measurement can be cross referenced with any other.
So, how many rain barrels will it take to water a 100 square foot vegetable bed (or in my case two 50 sq ft beds) with one inch of water in a week?
Note: I only water my beds with a hand wand, therefore I water only the beds.
100 square feet = 14,400 square inches. 1 inch deep = 14,400 cubic inches.
1 US gallon = 231 cubic inches
1 blue barrel = 50 US gallons = 11,550 cubic inches.
14,400 cubic inches = 1.25 barrels.
But that’s just for watering two 50 square foot beds. I have 16 vegetable beds, not counting the two that the chickens are currently in. Then there’s the 12 more beds growing my grapes, kiwis, raspberries, rhubarb and asparagus, plus even more square footage for my fruit trees. Then there’s my Lovely Wife’s flower beds, and our ornamentals (rhododendrons, hydrangeas, azalea, clematis, lilac, forsythia, and a massive wisteria) plus a big walnut tree.
In one week I’d go through more than 40 barrels worth of water. In July and August we get almost no rain. Therefore, using rain barrels in my climate is total Green-Washing Bunk. A Fraser Valley Gardener has to have a real water supply.
I rarely water my lawn but now with chafer beetle larvae around and the crows and raccoons digging up the lawn in search of them, I do occasionally water it to keep the lawn more healthy and less vulnerable.
Thankfully my water bill is quite manageable. We get a good amount of snow (often 6 feet) in the nearby mountains and our city’s mountain reservoir lake is well supplied. We’re on city water meters and get billed every other month so the neighbours keep an eye on their water usage and the reservoir isn’t abused. We can only sprinkle our lawns 4 hours per week but there’s no restrictions for fruits, vegetables, and shrubs.
Even in an emergency year, if the reservoir wouldn’t handle our needs, I did the math for temporary personal water storage with an 18 foot circular, above ground swimming pool, 4 feet deep. That only amounts to 152 barrels, -- less than a month’s normal usage, but with much conservation and letting the fruit and nut tree crops succumb, we could possibly make it through the dry summer.
I’ve dreamed of my own well. We sit on an aquifer that’s only 35 or 40 feet underground. The legal hoops to get one drilled would be daunting, the cost not cheap with the large rocks imbedded in the gravel layers, and the well would be a bit too deep to physically pump by hand in an emergency.
My son TOG has experimented a bit with low water usage growing using much wider spaced plantings and black plastic mulch coverings. But I’m a backyard gardener and wide spacings aren’t a practical option. My sandy soil is also one that dries out more easily and needs replenishing very regularly.
So, if you’re scouting out a new place to garden, be sure you have a viable water supply. Rain barrels don’t work in my climate. Water is a Most Important Part.
Happy Gardening.
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