Rain, rain, don't go away. Please come often these summer days.

One of the major drawbacks of the placement of the garden is that a water source isn't in a very convenient spot. Actually, its about 700 feet away (measured yesterday by Tyler). The journey isn't all that flat either; there's a good amount of hill-age going on. Not that we mind much. Its good exercise. I actually volunteered to drag the water when Nic and I set to water a few days ago. Weeding on my butt just doesn't seem to do it for me. Anyways, 700 feet really isn't that far when you think about some of the women and children in Kenya spending 1/3 of their day traveling to bring water to their homes. (http://thewaterproject.org/water-in-crisis-kenya.asp)

How we do it: Our trashcan, our two buckets, and the one watering can is loaded up onto the cart. It takes about two trips to water our garden and the children's garden, now that everything is planted. But really, what's the big deal? A trashcan, two buckets, and a watering can are way cheaper than installing a watering system. My concerns however, are that it may deter growth in participants, lessen our legitimacy and permanence of the garden, encourage other gardeners to use their cars to carry water, and take time away from the upkeep of the garden, especially once school starts up again.

The rain has been great. We've been lucky to have a good downpour once or twice a week, keeping our treks for water at a minimum. But what happens when the rain slows? I'm not an expert a Pennsylvania summer weather, being as I've never been here in the summer, but i'm assuming it will get drier. Watering the garden is going to become a pain in the ass.

I don't really know if purchasing 700 feet of hosing would be worth it. Would there even be enough water pressure? And we couldn't really leave the thing lying across the baseball field. All in all, it would probably take just as much time and effort hauling the hose in and out of the shed as hauling the cart to and from the garden.

I'm unsure of what to do. Penn State just started a community garden consisting of 98 plots. Much larger than ours, of course, but their gardeners are also watering by hand. The article in the PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) newsletter I read did mention a summer intern making sure the "water buffalo" is always full. I'm assuming this mysterious "water buffalo" is some kind of water storage unite, however, despite my best efforts, all I got on google was a bunch of info on the actual animal.

One thing is for sure: something's gotta be done. Maybe a decision at least?