Good morning all! 76 degrees here heading for a hideous 97 with heat index around 109 today. Gonna be a miserable day, temperature wise. Back to work after a 3 1/2 day weekend.
Hate to say this, but seriously considering not doing a garden next year. With the lack of rain on a regular basis we wind up having to water several times a week. That's about 120 gallons of water a week going on the ol' water bill and the garden still isn't doing well for some reason. About the only things growing well are the onions, some of the potatoes, a couple tomato plants and a couple other things. We usually have great luck with corn but it's kinda stalled out after starting off strong. The green beans are starting to look a little better but very little else is growing well. In addition to all that, the watering and other related chores pretty much consume our evening every day. I enjoy the garden, but the last couple years it's just not been worth the effort for the most part.
Nothing else to report. Hope you all have a great day!
Gardens in general do only short term benefits on fertilisers,
wood based compost or animal manure is far more nutritious,
also as I find to my cost if I do not water plants struggle on uptake of those nutrients,
you can lengthen between watering if you add a top layer of wood chip, cardboard(remove the plastic elements) grass cuttings any mulch improves water retention,but can lead to more slugs and pests
all your organic kitchen waste should go to your composter for the garden,you do not need to turn it over it’s just takes longer
a bloke peeing near any number of veggies gives nutrients to veg,avoid the same place too regularly or 1.it smells 2 the urine becomes too strong and damages most plants, but pee and water is good for plants,and saves you flushing the toilet.
you can make a dry compost toilet,not likely in a built up area, lol, but in the countryside,old yellow leaves and vegetables and human poop is a very good fertiliser., best not to pee in the dry too much, but a little wooden shelter and a seat with a hole, is good for plants,if you have a hill put up hill so nutrients seep downwards,poop from non carnivore animals is superior especially grass eaters, eg horses and cows.
grow comfrey it has 10 feet roots you rip the leaves and drop near other plants, burn weeds, not throw and put wood ash on your garden not not coal ash!
But I agree a garden is a big investment in time, and watering/feeding almost as much of a pain as having animals. try a year where you either clean early spring and see what comes up self seed, or go for items that can stomach less water. so not tomatoes,cucumbers nut more root veggies etc where they can survive on less water and care.
Many high work load veggies can be avoided, stringing up and weeding take time.
Or cut back to a small more essential and let the rest self seed.
This year I have had prodigious amounts of
self seed spinach,tomatoes-albeit later than if grown by me, celery is popping up, borage,nasturtiums, mint,many other herbs are ok with less water and care, old potatoes not worthy of eating or gone green, do not gin them ground them and let them grow.
I do a bunch of this and still struggle for time though, so ensure you hold seed in case you need it the year after,as food might continue to sprig all,do stuff you can process, eat,freeze,canning,drying (dry says last longer but temperature and humidity can still effect ‘so called sealed jars’
and if stocking up on grain,rice,wheat,pasta,etc put in a plastic second bag and freeze one week to kill off weevil eggs then it will stay good a lot longer, once out of freezer best in glass jars, balls etc, to stop any nee infestations, food from the shops is usually heavily contaminated and the right temps and humidity will give you weevils. I fed a w0kg bag of very expensive organic wheat to my chickens, because I failed to freeze before storage.