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dapollack's comments:
on Grow Your Own
I've looked at these bills (there is a Senate version as well) and am not so frightened as the writer would like us to be. I know that the chief sponsors and co-sponsors in both House and Senate are responsible and thoughtful members of Congress and would not sanction policies that would prevent or make more difficult gardening practices that use organic or other more sustainable methods.
These bills are clearly directed to commercial food production and any ambiguities in their language or intent should certainly be cleared up and corrected, but I am not too worried at this point.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Grow Your Own
This is a great discussion. It is so exciting to see the upsurge in interest in gardening, organic foods, knowing where our food comes from, and food policy (Michael Pollan is fast becoming a national hero).
At the same time, we need to be more cognizant of water uses and how we need to address the water needs of the increased numbers of gardens in more efficient ways (although Oregon gets a lot of rain, the main gardening season is also our "dry" season).
We need to promote more thoughtful and efficient ways to mulch and irrigate. We also need to promote and possibly require the collection of rainwater for irrigation purposes. We put in a 20,000 gallon tank to collect rainwater on our 2 acres just south of Lake Oswego 2 years ago. In addition, we have switched to using drip irrigation for our vegetable, fruit, and ornamental beds. It works great and we feel so much better about how our efforts are not depleting the challenged aquifer that our community depends upon for its domestic and other water uses.
David Pollack
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on A Drop to Drink
We have been dealing with water concerns in our community just outside the urban growth boundary of Portland for the 35 years we have lived here. Ground water limitations have led to real and potential jeopardy with regard to adequate and good quality water supply for residences and agricultural uses.
We believe strongly that the archaic water laws allow for profligate uses by those who have individual or exempt wells, allowing for up to 1/2 acre irrigation and enormous amounts of domestic water. These laws must be changed to reflect the current realities and to reinforce and encourage water conservation.
We have installed and are using a rainwater collection on our 2 acre home site (which will be featured in an article in the Oregonian this week), which allows us to provide for most, if not all, the irrigation needs of our large vegetable garden and many ornamental beds. We have also planted many native or less water dependent plants and will be using drip irrigation methods this year.
We now believe that building regulations should be altered to require that most new construction include rainwater collection systems to provide water for non-potable uses. It will be a lot easier to include these (and other energy and resource saving) measures in new construction than in remodels or retrofits. However, technical and financial support for new and used construction projects such as these should be developed by state and federal legislation.
posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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on How Does Your Garden Grow?
We have lived on Pete's Mt. just south of Lake Oswego for 35 years, gardening the same space that whole time. On 2 acres, we have a large vegetable garden, modest orchard, and several ornamental beds and borders. In recent years, it has become apparent that we are in a water limited area; water levels in the aquifer have dropped causing many of us to worry about long-term sustainability of the area and the impact of overuse of domestic water as well as irrational use of water for irrigating huge lawns and wasteful methods of irrigating other plants. Our community water system, upon which 90 homes depend, is probably the most expensive water system in the state. The water supply on this ridge is further jeopardized by the addition of many additional homes due to an unwelcome proposal of a large subdivision that ballot measure 49 may eventually prevent from being created.
Given these concerns, we installed a rainwater collection system at our home this past summer. We obtained a small grant from the state Watershed Enhancement Board to do this as a demonstration project. We purchased a used 20,000 gallon tank and had it buried on our property. Then we installed a system of collection pipes that receive water from a few of the downspouts on our house and garage. We installed a pump in the tank to supply the collected water to the areas we intend to irrigate. The water lines from the tank go to each of the major planting areas around our property and have timer controls to manage the irrigation in an automated way. The final step we will complete this spring is to lay out drip irrigation lines to all of these vegetable, fruit, and ornamental beds, providing a more predictable and managed (and hopefully more efficient) supply of water on an as needed basis.
The cost of the entire project, even without the grant funds, is far less than the cost of installing a new well and the quality of the water for irrigation purposes is terrific.
We began collecting water in our system at the end of the summer. The tank was completely filled by January 14! We are convinced that this is an approach that many other gardeners should consider as water becomes an even more precious resource and as we all become aware of our needs to be responsible and sustainability-oriented citizens.
posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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on Is Changing Climate Changing You?
posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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on Is Changing Climate Changing You?
posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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