So long story short, I’ve been thinking about doing this anyways, but the city had to put its worst water restrictions into place with an unprecedented water main break. The cities Largest main break which is a 2m pipe (6 foot 6 inches for the neighbours). This means zero outside watering, it’s a great thing I recently installed water barrels.

BUT they are out already trying to keep my top inch moist for my seedlings, so here we are, straw mulch and trying to use as little water as possible to do my part.

  • @Tikiporch
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    116 months ago

    If the barrels aren’t enough, could you install a cistern? It may only be subject to regulation if you’re collecting rainwater in it.

    • @SchmidtGeneticsOP
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      6 months ago

      It probably won’t rain in the next week before it’s fixed and the restrictions are hopefully lifted anyways. I would probably just buy a few cheaper barrels at that point as that’s a lot of physical labor.

      Edit, yeah checked the forecast, less than a mm expected next week unless we get some afternoon boomers.

      • @Cyclist
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        56 months ago

        Did you get rain today? I’m not far from you and we got quite a lot.

        • @SchmidtGeneticsOP
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          6 months ago

          I watched the storm form to the west and it passed south, idk if it hit Okotoks or not though.

      • @Etterra
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        16 months ago

        In that case you might want to just water sparingly regardless and eat the fine if you get caught. No idea how much it is of course, since it varies from place to place.

        • @SchmidtGeneticsOP
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          6 months ago

          It’s $3000 for a stage 4 violation, RIP.

          I would hope they wouldn’t come after the people trying to do the right thing, they usually go for education over punishment with bylaw issues, but with the severity of this I think they’ll skip that this time if you’re blatant about it. It’s just food, people gotta eat. I’ll let my lawn and my flowers go.

          Like I spent $100 damn dollars on mulch to use as little as possible already.

      • @[email protected]
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        56 months ago

        Not necessarily. There’s also a boil water advisory in Atlanta due to a main break. I only know because I’m traveling there next week for work. But if it were Atlanta his plants would be much bigger.

        Also, you know, the link he included.

        • @Cyclist
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          26 months ago

          Fair enough. Didn’t notice the link.

  • @RealFknNito
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    36 months ago

    I’ve never done much gardening but this seems like a great reason to try to do more rainwater harvesting. Thought about funneling gutters into a barrel with some debris catchers. Might make for a good backup in times like this.

    • @SchmidtGeneticsOP
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      6 months ago

      We were on stage one water restrictions last year and were on an advisory up until a week before the main broke. So I had already installed 2 just a couple weeks ago, looks like I may get 2 more this year or next now though. They didn’t last long.