Nine Mile Run Watershed

I've been spending a lot of time learning about the Nine-Mile Run watershed recently. The watershed association has lots of information on this, but here's the short version:

1. There's a creek that runs through Pittsburgh called Nine Mile Run. Most is underground, but the above ground section runs through Frick Park.
2. Pittsburgh, being an old city, has a combined sewer system. That means storm water and sweage run through the same pipes.
3. A lot of the watershed (the area that goes into the creek) is paved. That means the water can't seep into the ground, so it accumulates. In the combined sewer system...
4. ...which overflows into Nine Mile Run creek. (On a rainy day, it smells like sewage for a reason. This type of sewage system was discontinued in the 1930's.)
   
5. Swissvale, Edgewood, and Wilkinsburg have separate sewage and storm systems. However, a lot of homes accidentally have their storm water connected to the sewage pipes. Guess where overflow goes when you have a small sewage pipe that's not meant to handle rainwater?
6. To make matters worse, the amount of paved area on the watershed means that the water picks up a lot of pollutants, all of which are dumped into this small area. Additionally, the sheer volume of water coming in erodes the entire creek. Normally, a lot of the water would have soaked into a permeable surface.
   

So, residents in the watershed are encouraged to contain as much water on their property as possible in order to prevent the systems from overflowing. They actually do dye tests in our borough to make sure you are containing your storm water. Many years ago, the people who owned our house had to retrofit their drainage system in order to comply.

Their solution was to put 3 feet of solid pvc in the ground and put the down spout in it.

Obviously, this fills up and overflows.

Back to our foundation.

Ooops.

So, we are spending the next week digging a 10 foot trench, laying down gravel and a perforated PVC pipe, and re-routing the water to the big sycamore tree. We're also putting in a 100 gallon rain barrel to capture the rainwater and use it in the garden during dry spells.

Rain barrels are available, with installation, from the watershed association.

I might have overestimated

Unlike software engineering, where we usually underestimate projects, gardeners typically overestimate. This is bad. I have too many radishes, and I feel guilty about composting perfectly good food.

The problem is that in January, it's snowing out, and the seed companies send off catalogs of seeds and plants. I spent several evenings drawing and planning, and then I ordered way more seeds than I could ever hope to handle. I even ordered things I don't even like. Why radishes? Because they grow in 30 days, that's why! I won't eat them, but they are so satisfying to yank out of the ground. And 30 days! Yay! A fully green garden by May!

So I get all my seeds in February, and I start up baby tomatoes, cukes, flowers, herbs, and brocs in March. And I plant way to many seeds and end up with too many starts.

Oh, but I can't throw any away! It's cold out and I love the little green baby plants in my window. So I keep them all and plant them all.

But the garden is so baren still. So what do I do? Drop in ALL of the seeds in the lettuce, radish, and carrot packets. Stick 40 onion sets in the ground. Put up a trellis for 6 pea plants. Buy pansys, petunias, and marigolds and fill in the bare spots...

Yeah. It's been 30 days. Too many radishes.