30,000 plants in the greenhouse and not a drop of water

• By
• Sheena Adams

Image by Sheena Adams
As the ice melts the greenhouse floods, creating another challenge. Locating a pump in the furnace room, I set it up to capture the water and place it into barrels for plotters to use. At the time it was our only source but it got us through the week! Gumboot gardening at its finest!

Pulling together to keep our community garden from drying up

Naturally, it’s pretty important to have water in a greenhouse and it’s no different up here – especially with 24-hour sunlight.

What are the chances that all of our water sources would be out at the same time? Our water from snow melt had dried up, the town waterline was still frozen and the fire truck that could bring us water was in repair – what to do? With garden plots planted and the greenhouse stuffed with 30,000 plants, I was at a loss. I put up a sign – “please conserve – no planting - only water for existing plantings – sorry”

Luckily, our 30,000 plants were saved. A volunteer gardener called her husband, a plumber and on his weekend off he pulled together his crew and within a few hours they had our frozen town line steamed and running again.

This is the power of a community garden – when times get tough and challenges arise, everybody works together to make a difference. Within an hour, my sign was down and all the barrels filled up. Our night lows are only -1 now so hopefully we will not freeze up and with the snow melt all gone we no longer need our gumboots in the greenhouse as the f00t of water has receded!