Do you have trouble watering plants in the summer?

Worry when you go away they'll die?

Does it get super hot in your area, so hot you use far too much water on your vegetable garden?

I can answer yes, yes and yes to the above questions, and in the last few days it's been ovre 30 degrees and as high as 41 - that's celsius for Fahrenheit people - 40C is 104F! Not only that, but it gets super super windy too - I'm talking apocalypse weather.

A few months ago I found a solution - well, two - wicking beds, and ollas pots. Ollas are terracotta urns filled with water and buried in the soil, so the roots cling to the wet sides and take what they need. Yesterday's weather was a real test of both my wicking bed system and my ollas, and I'm pleased to say they worked BETTER than expected. Watch the Dtube for a run down of the pot system and find out what I use to fertilise my tomatoes - too easy, as they say in these here parts!

As you can see below, the eggplant are doing well and the pot is half full of water. It's been a week since I filled the pot so that's pretty good going - it's the biggest pot I have. It's too humid and sticky out there for me to go measure the pot but if you're super keen in the comments I'll let you know when it gets cooler.

The tomatoes on the left are HALF the size of the tomatoes on the right - planted at the same time, with the same soil. I have been watering them with the hose when I can, but quite intermittently as I get busy and forget (hence the research into these pots and wicking beds, which are less demanding).

Here's the Youtube link in case you have trouble viewing Dtube.

I'll do an update on my wicking beds over the next few days. You can find the link to the instructions for ollas below.

Homemade Ollas: Thinking about Water Use in the Garden Part 2

This is for @minismallholding, who lives in Adelaide and gets similiar weather to me - if they get the heat, sure as hell we will too. It's also for @nateonsteemit, one of the most generous Steemians I know, who lives in Texas.

I'd also like to put a shout out to @phoenixwren, who is doing a fabulous Evergreen Challenge - check it out here. He's doing an update soon as I'm also throwing 10SBI in to the prize pool and I think a lot of you are doing great stuff which you should definitely consider for this challenge.