It’s been raining a bit, the kind of rain that helps soften the ground and encourages a different kind of sprout.

We’re so lucky here in New England; we have lots of water.  We also have running water at the Hampton Victory Garden, which is nice.  The garden’s founders were thoughtful in creating a watering system which taps into the town water supply, managed by Aquarion Water Company.  No one has to lug water from home.

In making my various lists and checking them twice, I analyzed our Aquarion water expense and usage over the last 5 years.  Ouch.  My back of the envelope scratching indicates we’ve doubled our water usage in the last 2 years.  When correlated to weather patterns, it makes some sense, since we had less rain in 2011 and 2010 than the wet summer of 2009.  We’ve also been at full capacity, meaning we’ve had no vacant gardens and thus more water usage.

Another factor is the annual fee we pay to turn the water on and off.  This is non-negotiable because our pipes would freeze if we left the water on over the winter and then we’d have no water at all.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t use water; I’m just saying that water is expensive.

In 2010, we installed a rain barrel at the Hampton Victory Garden.  This provided water to those who start their gardens before our water “turn on” date.  I love that rain barrel.

I love it so much I convinced Uncle Bob to let me install one in his garden.  (The day Uncle Bob, my Dad, and I installed the gutter for the rain barrel is a whole different story, to be written and filed under “Three Shouting Baumers” some other day.)

We also use two overflow barrels at Uncle Bob’s garden and this provides us with quite a bit of extra water.  This year, I’m thinking about doing some gen-you-wine drip irrigation.  Uncle Bob doesn’t know it yet, but I’m even thinking of implementing a second rain barrel with one of these saucer attachments.

(I can almost hear him laughing now.  I can almost hear a “No!” too.)

I think we could install a second rain barrel by the Victory Garden tool shed.  Let’s discuss it when we have our Hampton Victory Garden spring annual meeting, which is tentatively scheduled for April 17, 2012.  Keep your eye on your mail box for additional information.

How do you water your garden?