Skipped Watering

Q. I know the Mittleider Method of gardening calls for watering each day, and so that made me wonder what will happen to my Mittleider Method garden if I need to be gone from home a few days in summer. Is the
Mittleider Method Gardener held captive to his garden by the water hose?

A. It's called "chores". Have any of you ever owned a cow - or goats? Milking and feeding are twice-a-day jobs that must either be done by you or by someone to whom you delegate the responsibility.

Luckily, gardening isn't quite that demanding, but especially in the summer when it's hot, someone really needs to be watching and caring for the plants. It's not just the milk that will be lost - a cow or goat can walk to the water trough - but the plants may die.

With a Mittleider garden, however, it's really not that tough to get a neighbor to do it, since they are usually so happy to benefit from your largess as you share the harvest.

The need for water isn't confined to a Mittleider garden, it's just that we take so much better care of our garden than most, because we value the benefits of maintaining fast-growing, healthy plants.

This very thing is what motivates many people to automate their watering systems - so it's easy for others, and even kids to do - and some put the system on a timer to complete the process and eliminate the need for others' intervention entirely.

Plans for automating the watering system are in chapter 16 of the Mittleider Gardening Course, and that chapter is available free in the Store pages of the website at www.foodforeveryone.org.