OT: Re: HYB: Potential and daydreams

Colleen -- What you describe in terms of recycling will be familiar to some of our Californians, who go through this kind of water shortage every once in a while. But when you say that rainwater is your only household water supply, it seems to say you're living a frontier kind of existence where you're completely at the mercy of the weather. Wow! I take it that the "salty bore" is a well. I'm old enough to remember rain barrels and a snatch from a song from childhood, 

"Holler down my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever evermore."
but my great-aunts and uncles had freshwater wells on their farms, and my grandparents, who were town dwellers, had pumps in their back yards which gave sweet water. I can still remember the welcome taste from the tin cups that hung on them.
So, for not just living in these conditions, but raising irises, as well, I salute you! -- Griff
----- Original Message ----- From: "Colleen Modra" <colleen@impressiveirises.com.au> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: [iris] HYB: Potential and daydreams
Grey water is the water you recycle from the shower and washing machine (but not toilet) 
So in most cases it can be used on the garden.
Our only household water supply is rainwater (very clean as we have very little pollution) so to conserve this, this summer we have our showers with a bucket there to catch the water while waiting for the hot water to come through and to catch the runoff during the shower and then that gets emptied onto the garden. We do have a rather salty bore which is OK for most of the irises and daylilies but some of my species iris and my vege garden don't like salt. They get shower water and some rainwater. 

Colleen Modra
Adelaide Hills
South Australia

colleen@impressiveirises.com.au
www.impressiveirises.com.au
----- Original Message ----- From: "J. Griffin Crump" <jgcrump@cox.net> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 9:52 AM
Subject: Re: [iris] HYB: Potential and daydreams
Jan -- For us folks on another side of the globe, what's grey ater? -- Griff
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jan Clark" <janclarx@hotmail.com> 
To: <iris@hort.net>; <iris-digest@hort.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 5:30 PM
Subject: [iris] HYB: Potential and daydreams



Betty wrote:

Even though I watered faithfully with the soaker hoses, I lost a large
number of new seedlings. Usually, only a few die and others have the failure 
to
grow and die eventually. This year, several died the first season. Maybe 
this was Mother Natures way of telling me I'm pushing  the envelope??
I haven't had the time to follow this thread closely, but this bit caught my eye. Now if I watered my seedlings faithfully with the soaker hose here, I would be kissing most of them goodbye too! I don't know what the difference is between your climate and mine. Today is the first day of summer. It is already too hot and we are in drought, so a soaker hose, or hose of any kind is out of the question. I have planted out 12 crosses into 12 polystyrene boxes and put them in the shade. The seedlings were previously in pots in the shade house. I didn't dare risk leaving the transplanting later than late October, even though it was dry and hot. I water them once every few days, with grey water collected in plastic bottles. 8 litres does all 12 boxes. The losses are high because of the conditions, but I feel they would be even higher if I was soaking them. Normally i would have put them straight into the garden, but not this year. The water situation is looking very grim here. I figure if they can't cope on minimal water, they are not seedlings that I want to grow anyway. 
Cheers, Jan

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