081/365 - Is This Gardening or Engineering? [For August 18th, 2010]

This week, I was in charge of taking care of the Burge's cat, Mocha, and watering around their house for the week, while they were off on vacation. Easy, right? Well, yes, but it also was... Hmm, I'll explain.

Mr. Burge doesn't simply have a watering schedule for his plants. He's created a complete, semi-automated system that needs to be maintained. You say, "Oh, so he has milk jugs that drip water into the tomato plants? I may have to try that..." No, it's not only that. He's built a greenhouse in his backyard for them, and a cornhouse for growing, well, corn (Which I helped build, by the way!). There are also onions around the greenhouse that needed to be taken care of, as well as berries and fruit trees (I didn't have to worry about the trees). To top it off, he has rain barrels that he fills, with valves used to control the water going to the berries through pipes, and for any hoses used for the other plants. Now... I can see a farmer doing this, but a family in a residential neighborhood? Is this gardening or engineering? Either way, it manages to put fresh fruit and vegetables on the table, so clearly he's doing something right.