It was rough! I mainly hand watered just to keep plants alive. And I also started thinking of water management: native plants, rain barrels, soaker hoses, etc.

I heard the same predictions, and I hope they are wrong. But even now I want to see those Church signs reading "Pray for Rain." We need some rain right now!

What were the restrictions? You weren't allowed to irrigate your garden?

Food crops were an exception. It was lawns and non-edible gardens that had the restriction.

But even with food crops, there was probably some limitations on what days and times you could water. GGG should come along and remind us what happened.

Watering home vegetable gardens is allowed even when watering restrictions are in place. So if you want to try a vegetable garden, you should be OK.

Our vegetables suffered during the drought years, even with drip hoses installed. With little to no rain, it takes lots of water to keep anything alive much less thriving. It was all very sad. Unless you have well water (we don't), it also gets expensive.

To help conserve water, we started using self watering containers (home made Earth Boxes) a few years ago for some of our vegetables. They work well if you grow vegetables to eat fresh rather than in quantity large enough for preserving for later use. It's a little like square foot gardening. Small space requirement, very productive.

I saw the report a few weeks ago saying we are going into another drought, and have had a serious case of the blues since then.

I live in Paulding County and we were not allowed to water at all. Not even vegetable gardens. The watering restrictions weren't lifted until several months after the floods last year. So, check your county restrictions, each area is different.

Counties are one thing, but Georgia State came in and allowed watering of food crops which overrode the county laws. You can find more about drought and how it will effect you by watching the websites of your city, county and of course the state agricultural websites.
PLAN FOR DROUGHT. Georgia faces drought ridden months, plan for it! Begin considering how you can get rain barrels and tanks installed at your home near your garden so that when it rains you can use water. Think about grey water distribution: you can fairly easily hook up a grey water system in various ways - re-use your air conditioning water (I have some that exits above ground so that it can drip into a rain barrel) - by putting a 2nd pump (sheilded from the elements) at the exit point of your air condensation evacuation tubes, you can hook up a drip system to this, and it works great. Soaking hoses can be hooked up to washing machines (that use biodegradable and safe cleansers), rain barrels and tanks, below and above grade cisterns and don't forget the fantastic rain pillow (my neighbor has one, I want one!!!). The key is to do these things NOW before we are already in the drought and it will be hard to get the items you need (and pricier). There are several local companies that make barrels, paint them to match your home and even supply all heights of stands. I made my own barrels, but have had these "custom" (but less expensive than super fancy) barrels installed at my clients homes. The companies have been very creative! One company double stacked barrels on a stand attached to a home - the upper barrel becomes an automatic drip system to the veggie garden. A "regular" hose runs from the barrel into the garden where there is a soaker hose. Below is a barrel that waters the regular landscape plants and blueberry bushes. This is a relatively inexpensive set up, perfect for the "classier" areas of town! You can also purchase barrels at stores, but they mainly stock them during the spring.

GGG,

What are some of the companies that install the systems you talk about? I live just outside the perimeter, near East Cobb area.

If you live in Atlanta even if you could water you couldn't afford the water. The sourer charge is twice the water charge. It wouldn't be profitable.

I have a drill pump that I bought at Home Depot for $6.97. It pumps 225 Gallons per hour. 3.75 GPM. Works great. I pump my water up 10 feet. Fastens to a garden hose.

Now I need more rain barrels.

Check out the tip on the link below.

Karyl

Here is a link that might be useful: 4 Tips on making your rain barrels

We just let the grass go and I focused on keeping my plants alive by hand watering. It still is not as good as a good rain.
We have rain barrels installed and they are a big help, BUT, you need rain to fill them up!
My trees and roses look a little droopy from the extreme summer we had.

Rain Pillow is one of the companies you can google "rain barrel, Georgia" or "Atlanta" for more rain barrel vendors and compare prices. This is a company I highly recommend. I am not affiliated with them in anyway except for the fact that they have done outstanding work for my clients who have chosen to use them.
http://www.rainbarrelsingeorgia.com/productsservices.html

Here's a photo of one of my clients installed units:
This was a custom fit.http://www.handymanharvey.com/images/albums/NewAlbum_2ec3c/Water_Tower___custom_barrels_009.jpg

Rain Barrels of Georgia

Everything is dying here, no rain in sight. My tomatoes plants are in bloom, but looking bad. My two rain barrel trash cans are dry. I am using city water now to hand water my tomatoes, fig trees, and things that are almost dead.

Now I need more rain barrels. As it is easier to water with the drill pump you use more water.

I got my drill pump at Home Depot for $6.97. Not like the one in the video. It has hose connection, not tube clamp. Other types of pumps are too big for a rain barrel.

Check out the video. I don't think my drill pump pumps quite that much water. But works great.

Karyl

Here is a link that might be useful: Drill pump in use video.

I used rain barrels and it was pretty effective. But you had to plan ahead. What I would do was if it was going to rain and my rain barrels were full, I would empty them into pails and buckets I had so the barrels would fill up again with rain. Then when I needed the water I could attach a hose to the barrel and out to the plants. The barrels were close to the house and the yard was graded so the water would flow slowly, but it worked well to keep newly planted trees and other plants watered. I just emptied mine this weekend for the first time this year. First time I needed to.

I like the drill pumps a lot. Right now I just use suction and I can get most of the water out of the barrels slowly with the hose, but I'd like more.
I really wish I knew more about plumbing. I'd love to pump my washer water out to irrigate fruit trees or to reuse the water!