• Divide oriental poppies, daylilies and bearded iris. Fertilize with Superphosphate to encourage continued bloom.
• Plant perennial beds for late season color with ornamental grasses, garden mums, asters and hardy plumbago.
• Remove spent blooms (deadhead) from summer-blooming shrubs such as caryopteris, butterfly bushes, vitex and potentilla after flowers finish blooming.

 Weekly Sales

25% OFF Annuals *Excluding Asters and Mums. Offer good through 8/16/07 or while supplies last. Not to be combined with any other offers or discounts.

25% OFF Hanging Baskets. Offer good through 8/16/07 or while supplies last. Not to be combined with any other offers or discounts.

25% OFF Pre Planted Containers. Offer good through 8/16/07 or while supplies last. Not to be combined with any other offers or discounts.

40% OFF Ceramic Pottery. Offer good through 8/16/07 or while supplies last. Not to be combined with any other offers or discounts.

40% OFF Fertilome Potting Soil. Offer good through 8/16/07 or while supplies last. Not to be combined with any other offers or discounts.

When It Rains, It Rains: Collecting Water
By Cindy Bellinger

From simple buckets to fancy cisterns, if you catch even a bit of rain run-off, your plants will love you. They adore rain water. And in many places the rain is pouring down this year. You might as well keep some of that water on hand.

The Law
In Santa Fe it's not illegal to construct cisterns or other water catchment mechanisms within the city. It can be as simple as setting a bucket under a downspout or as complicated as an entire system that hooks into a 1,000 gallon tank with pumps and hoses all connected to drip irrigation.

A few years ago Santa Fe Greenhouses installed a water harvesting system, catching water off the sloping roofs of our large greenhouses. It filters through gravel into a slotted tank system. The holding capacity is 42,000 gallons.

"Catching water is long overdue," David Salman, President of Santa Fe Greenhouses said. "Rain is scarce in Santa Fe and anyway you can store some of it will help."

Ample Amounts of Water
The average annual rainfall for the surrounding areas is as follows:

• Santa Fe, 13.99 inches
• Pecos, 16.21 inches
• Espanola, 10.12 inches
• Albuquerque, 8.66 inches
• Los Alamos, 18.53 inches.

Approximately five inches of rain produces 3.1 gallons per square foot. This can add up to a lot of water. And don't forget snowmelt as another source of moisture.

An Easy Water Catchment System
The most common water catchment system for homeowners is the rain barrel. Set a barrel under a downspout on a stack of cinder blocks or wooden platform, higher than the ground it will water.

We carry numerous different sizes and colors; all of them have spigots for hoses. All have overflow valves, which makes them easy to put into a system. They also have screens on top to keep out debris and mosquitoes.

Barrel sizes range from 55 - 200 gallons, and can be special ordered per your specifications.

Other Watery Things to Consider

• The natural drip line of trees allows water to drip off the tips of needles and leaves so the root hairs will absorb the moisture. Flowers can also be planted in this circle to take advantage of this natural drip system.
• Maintain a two-inch mulch cover in your garden so the ground can absorb the rain.

In arid terrain, water is our most precious natural resource. Being mindful of and catching free water helps us do something positive for the planet and our gardens.

Read My Little Garden Patch - gardening column by Cindy Bellinger.