Gardening Without Irrigation: or without much, anyway

ly Rainle

ut irrigation but is just irregular enough to be worrisome. West of the Cas

ressed vegetables suffer greatly. Because I had not yet noticed how plant spacing affects soil moisture loss

of the Cascades, so I recommended adding 1 1/2 inches of

ll West of the Ca

May June July

.0 2.1 0.7 0

.0 1.4 0.98 0

.3 2.1 1.3 0

2.2 2.1 1.6 0

.6 2.7 2.5 1.

.1 1.9 1.6 0.

.4 1.7 1.6 0.

2.3 1.8 1.9 1

3.3 2.8 2.5

1.2 1.0 0.9 0

en et al., The Water

h.: Lewis Pub

tops and plant survival may be threatened. The earth loses water when wind blows, when sun shines, when air temp

mum Temper

ugust

ka,

ord,

ne,

ria,

pia,

tle,

ngham

uver,

ria,

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might seem, bare soil may not lose much moisture at all. I now know it is next to impossible to anticipate moisture loss from soil without first specifying the vegetation there.

m Reservoirs (i

May June July

.1 2.7 3.4 3.

5 3.4 4.4 6.

3.6 5.0 7.1 8

he Water E

to use to support conventional agriculture in various parts of the West. Comparing this data for Seattle with the estimates based on reservoir evaporation shows pretty go

rrigation R

Growing Seas

Duratio

ma Valley Apr

Valley May-

nd May-Se

r Umpqua Valley

r Coquille Valle

nia April-

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thout irrigation west of the Cascades. But there is water already present in the soil when the gardening season begins. By creatively using and conserving