Drip Watering

Water.... It's only since coming here to Portugal that we've realised quite how important water is. Of course, intellectually, we've always known that without water there is no life. But having lived most of my life in the UK and Japan, there's never been any question that was plentiful. But here in central Portugal things are different. Sometimes we have water aplenty. But summers can range from somewhat dry to completely arid. This year, for example, we probably had a handful of hours of good rain between June and the middle of November. Our well ran close to dry -- low enough that the pump couldn't be used. And we struggled to keep the plants watered.

Fortunately, we decided on a drip irrigation system earlier in the year and had set it up on most of our vegetable beds. This really saved the day ?Eespecially during a period when the pump failed and we had to rely on (expensive) piped water to keep the vegetables alive.

Incidentally, with the well very low, I was able to take photos of the water 'mine' ?Ea tunnel cut out from the side of the well that brings in water from a source some distance away. It's a beautiful bit of construction work that's rarely seen:

The well is a couple of metres in diameter. There's a ladder down to a platform at a depth of about 7 metres. The mine is below that.