Homestyle irrigation

Funny how sometimes the answers to problems are found where least expected.

The children and I planted our backyard garden again this year. We've been composting and trying our best to improve the earth in the little plots since we moved here three years ago. It's better now but still not great; the soil dries out quickly and our tomato plants were struggling.

I was reading a book last week, and now the title completely escapes me, about a teenaged girl in the southern US coming to terms with her mother's death. In it, she heads over to a friend's house and waters the garden, taking note of the upturned pop bottles the woman has made into a little irrigation system to keep the roots of the plants wet during the heat of day. We don't often drink pop so it meant a special treat with Dad to get Coke and 7Up bottles to use in the garden, which of course no one was unhappy about.

Voilà! Our tomatoes are no longer parched during the afternoons.