The Providential Gardener

New! Rhode Island Water Lady Website!

Breaking News!

The Rhode Island Water Lady has a website now. This is the ideal place for Rhode Islanders to buy rain barrels. Many of us have done so already, and Beverly O'Keefe, the Rhode Island Water Lady, has provided a direct online conduit for buying rain barrels. Check out the Education and Resources links.

Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices Manual Published

From the Center for Watershed Protection in Ellicott City, Maryland:

The Center has released the Latest Manual in the Urban Subwatershed Restoration Manual Series.

Until now, no definitive guidance has been available on the art and science of urban retrofitting. The Center for Watershed Protection's new manual reflects over two decades of Center experience in retrofitting more than 25 urban watersheds across the country.

As a country, we have degraded many of our small urban watersheds. Nearly 80% of them were developed without effective stormwater practices. The key to restoring these watersheds lies in the practice of stormwater retrofitting, which involves subwatershed detective work, storm drain forensics and imaginative design.

This manual outlines the basics of retrofits, describes the 13 unique locations where they can be found, and presents rapid methods to find, design and deliver retrofits to meet a wide range of subwatershed objectives.

The concepts of retrofitting are illustrated in more than 75 figures, 150 photos, 60 tables and nine appendices. The manual contains

• updated costs for retrofit practices,
• updated pollutant removal data for stormwater treatment options,
• a design point method to estimate individual retrofit removal rates, and
• practical tips to support the design, permitting and construction of retrofit projects.

In short, the manual provides all the resources needed to develop an effective local retrofit program. This 400+ page guidance is available as a free download on the Center website. A hard copy of this manual will soon be made available.

Download Manual 3: Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices

How Dry They Are ~ Stressed Plants & Trees in Rhode Island

Yes, we got some rain ~ at last! ~ on Tuesday, September 11, but rainfall can vary around the state, and maybe there wasn't a lot where you live. I had two inches and a beetle in my rain gauge.

Until Tuesday, though, there had been not a drop since August 14th in most of Rhode Island. The reservoir levels are down, and so are a lot of leaves off shrubs and trees. Grass is dormant (we hope), and unless you have been watering your flowers and vegetables, they may not look so great either.

At North Burial Ground in Providence, the new trees we planted this spring, as well as other trees planted in the past two years, are showing signs of great stress. If you have shrubs, trees, and perennials you have planted recently, be sure to give them extra water each week this fall to help them weather this drought. Plants need about one inch of rain a week ~ of course if we get that much or more in a day, it won't be necessary to water. It's also possible to drown plants by overwatering. But unless we get the deluges again like we had two years ago in October, remember to give some extra drinks to any newly planted trees, young or stressed street trees near your home or business, perennials, & shrubs.

Not too Late to Get Your Very Own Rain Barrel

The Rhode Island Water Lady is still taking orders for rain barrels, but time is running out. These are 60-gallon, green rain barrels, or 50-gallon terra cotta make-your-own rain barrels. See the order form for the list of items available and their prices.

Questions?  Order form doesn't open? Email ladyslip@verizon.net or call (401) 539-0667

Veggie Open House on August 11

From the URI Master Gardeners:

Save the date of August 11, 10am to 2pm!!

The URI Master Gardeners will be hosting a free Veggie Open House for the public at URI's East Farm on Route 138. MG's and their veggie gardener friends are invited. Please pass the word to friends, neighbors and family. It promises to be a great opportunity to learn tons about vegetable gardening from the Masters. The Program includes:

• Cooking Demos ~Emphasis on veggies/continuous demos
• Handouts: veggie recipes submitted by MGs
• Watering Demos
  • Drip irrigation techniques
  • Alternative to drip
  • Rain barrels
• Soil testing service
• Composting Demo
• No-till demo
• Ask a Master Gardener Booth
• General garden tour
• Plant-a-Row
• Possible tour of farm if there is a sizable number of interested visitors

Rhode Island Rain Barrel Offers

Yes, there's an S on Rain Barrel Offers! This week there are at least two different barrels offered in Rhode Island at discounted prices:

• The Water Lady's Rain Barrel Offer is good through June. These are 60-gallon GREEN barrels for $75/ea, as pictured in a recent posting on The Providential Gardener. The order form link is in another post about rain barrels. The pickup for these barrels, one of which will easily fit in the back seat of most sedans, is in South County, time TBD.
• Today (Sunday, June 10) in Peter B. Lord's Environmental Journal in ProJo, there is news that the Providence Friends Meeting has arranged for New England Rain Barrel Company to sell 55-gallon BLUE barrels for $68. Orders must be in to New England Rain Barrel (click on the Providence, RI, link) by this Thursday, June 14.  The barrels will be distributed from 9am to noon this Saturday (June 16) in the rear parking lot of Hope High School on Hope Street, Providence. Remember that the Farmers' Market will be set up in front of the school at the same time, so it will be a busy place. The Farmers' Market link gives directions to Hope High School if you don't know the way there from wherever you are.

Rhode Island Rain Barrel Update

June 4, 2007 ~ My rain barrel arrived in plenty of time for our current downpours, and once the rain finally started falling it quickly filled to overflowing! I got the big green 60-gallon barrel by ordering from the Rhode Island Water Lady, Beverly O'Keefe, who was able to get a very good price because she is ordering a large number of barrels at a time. Obstacles to buying rain barrels are the price and, for online orders, the high shipping cost, so I was glad to hear of this way of obtaining a rain barrel.

I'm interested in how to use rain barrels just because they're there. I also want to write about them in The Providential Gardener. At the current cost of Providence water (which Beverly tells me is going UP), it will take years for my rain barrel to "pay for itself" in water saved, but some parts of Rhode Island would already benefit substantially by installing some barrels. For instance, rain barrels would be desirable in towns, such as North Kingstown, that impose water restrictions from June through August. In fact, North Kingstown is actively encouraging residents to use rain barrels. The water should only be used for gardening or outdoor tasks - it's not drinking water. With the screen between the barrel and cover, the barrel won't harbor debris and insects.

The barrel fit in the back seat of my sedan, and it is lightweight ~ as long as it's empty. I wouldn't want to pick it up at the moment, though.  Here is a rolled-out account of installing the rain barrel. It is easy, even a barrel of fun ~ if I can do it, you can do it!

Rain Barrel Offer

On such a lovely day, it's strange to think about rain. But it hasn't rained much for a few days and it is dry.  Wouldn't it be nice if I had water in a large, 60-gallon green rain barrel hidden in the shrubs at the side of my house, with a handy little hose I could pick up and water my thirsty plants? Using rain water for watering will save on the water bill, and everything we can do to reduce rain water runoff will benefit Narragansett Bay.

Well, soon I will be able to do that, because I have ordered my very own rain barrel from The Rhode Island Water Lady, Beverly O'Keefe. She is taking orders and is placing a bulk order soon to save us all the high shipping costs of these things. Shipping can be almost as much as the cost of the barrel itself. Print the form to order one or more for your own home.

Three items are available. Prices include tax:

1. 60-gallon green rain barrel ~ $75
2. Rain water diverter ~ $20
3. Do It Yourself Barrel  (50-gallon terra-cotta food barrel and parts) ~ $40

Mail order with check made out to Beverly O'Keefe (see order form for full address). Call 401-539-0667 or email any questions.

Urban Rain Garden Project

Have you noticed any rain gardens in your neighborhood lately?

I've been thinking for a few months now about creating at least one rain garden in my yard, and this year I think it's time to JUST DO IT, so that the rain water hitting the roof of my house will go into the earth, rather than down the storm drains.

The Northern Rhode Island Conservation District has made Urban Rain Gardens their mission. See their site for good explanations of what rain gardens are, why they are so important, examples of rain gardens, and how you and I can create our own rain gardens. Their website also links to other useful resources, including Rain Gardens: A How-to Manual for Homeowners from the University of Wisconsin Extension Service...."Your personal contribution to cleaner water."

The runoff from parking lots in particular carries toxic materials into our rivers and Narragansett Bay. The runoff from building roofs also overwhelms the sewers and thus pollutes the rivers and bay during storms. Rain gardens collect and hold the rain water, filtering the water as it seeps into the ground within a few hours or less. These are not ponds or puddles of standing water that will breed mosquitos. They are perhaps 5 to 8 inches deep, and are planted with native shrubs and plants that can thrive in both inundations and through dry spells.

There are demonstration rain gardens at Shea Senior High School in Pawtucket and at Woonsocket High School. So, where have you seen rain gardens? These are cool! Be the first on your block with a rain garden!

Rain Gardens

The [Chesapeake] Bay Weekly published a great article in 2002 about the benefits of rain gardens and how to create them. Even in droughts homes with rain gardens don't need to water. They clean the pollutants out of the water - the earth is a natural filter. The details are a little less rigid than the URI recommendations, but these gardens apparently work as well. Rain gardens are sprouting up all over the U.S. A Google search will probably turn up a lot more information.