The past week has brought gorgeous sunny weather — even surprisingly high temperatures — to the Puget Sound area. That’s been great for our vitamin D-deprived bodies, but our plants may be feeling the heat. This week has been the perfect time to tap into your 50-gallon rain barrel (hopefully you have at least one installed at your house) to use up the water that you’ve stored from the spring. (For where to buy in Seattle, go to the Seattle Public Utilities Web site; for King County information, check out this site).

Rain barrels allow you to catch rainwater off your roof during rainy days, and to store it to use during dry periods. Seattle relies on mountain snowmelt for its water supply, so water is precious during summer months (especially if we’ve had less snow than usual the previous winter). Water rates also jump in the summer months, so rain barrels can help you save money and conserve water.

We have two rain barrels that we bought from the city of Seattle and have set up in the backyard to water our non-edible plants. Should you use the rainwater from your roof on plants that you eat? We err on the safe side and use the water exclusively for our non-edible plants. We have plenty of other trees and shrubs to water, and our vegetables are already on an efficient drip-irrigation system.

Over the years, I’ve found that the easiest way to water plants, especially trees, is to buy a few cheap 5-gallon buckets, poke a hole near the bottom of each bucket and set them under the rain barrel to fill one at a time.  Once a bucket is full of water, I’ll set the bucket out near the base of a tree that needs water while another bucket is being filled under the rain barrel. Trees, shrubs and other plants like the slow, deep irrigation that trickels out from the small hole in the bucket. The slow-drip allows the water to seep into the soil more deeply rather than just running off the ground surface or evaporating.

One of our neighbors recently got slapped on the wrist from the city of Seattle for putting in some raised vegetables beds in her parking strip without first paying for a $225 permit. She had gotten rid of grass that filled her planting strip — that no-man’s land between the street and the sidewalk — and was getting ready to put in raised beds, when she had to take it down.

Well, there’s good news today for well-intentioned urban farmers who want to make use of their planting strips to grow edibles. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced that homeowners who want to make use of the strip won’t have to pay the $225 permit fee that had previously been required for pavers, hardscapes or planting boxes. You still need to get a permit, but those are free and can be obtained online from the Seattle Department of Transportation.

“This change makes it easier to plant flowers and vegetables in the strip between the sidewalk and the street. For many gardeners, that’s prime space,” said Nickels. “It’s one of the things that makes Seattle special, and, with planting season upon us, it’s time to get those green thumbs going.”

Check out the SDOT web site for more information, including tips on how to make improvements to your parking strip. Read more from Jennifer Langston, a former P-I reporter, who wrote about urban farming in Seattle.

Lots of people are starting to grow their own groceries. They’re converting portions of their yards to make room for vegetables, herbs and fruits. If you’re new to urban gardening, you may want to check out the West Seattle Edible Garden Fair on Saturday, May 23. The event is 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the South Seattle Community College horticulture buildings, 6000 16th Avenue SW, and offers hands-on workshops to help you get started.

The workshops include how to build healthy soils, garden in small spaces or containers, integrating edibles into your landscape and how to grow warm season crops (like tomatoes and peppers) successfully in our cooler Northwest climate. Here’s the schedule of events.

The event is co-sponsored by the Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, a very cool group that works to ensure that everyone has fresh fruits and vegetables to eat. The program picks up donations of produce from your fruit trees and vegetable gardens and distributes them to those who need it.

We love the idea of their fruit harvest program. If you have a plum, apple or other tree that bears more fruits than you can possibly handle, consider donating the extras. The Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle can connect you with volunteers to harvest the fruit and donate them to local food banks.  They’re trying to harvest about 6500 pounds of fruit for 2009. Fill out this online form if you’re interested in donating this year.