The good news is that we have several pretty healthy stands of peas, the beans are mostly doing well and there are radishes ready to be plucked up and eaten to make way for the carrots that are coming up among them.
The bad news is that while the rain of late May and early June got our seeds and seedlings off to a good start, subsequent days of cold, and especially of cold, dry, wind have stunted or killed many of our plants. For future years, we need to figure out ways to break the wind and protect our garden from the weather extremes of spring.
Two weeks ago we had several nice little rows of lettuces and spinach. Now they are mostly gone. We have also lost many of our peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. Our cucumbers are hanging in there, but they are sickly and stunted.
Fortunately, most of what has survived will recover and come back strong, and there is still time to replant the salad vegetables. I still have a few pepper and tomato plants that we can put in, and also some basils and other herbs that still need a home.
One thing we do have thriving is WEEDS! I have been pulling a few when I go over to water in the morning, but we need to schedule a work day to get them under control. I prefer Saturday mornings because I like to get the work done before it gets too hot, but an evening would be fine if that's what people prefer.
Please post your comments.
Cheers,
Chris
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Watering
I bought an oscillating sprinkler and set it up at the garden. It can cover the entire garden in two settings, one to cover the eastern half of the garden and one to cover the western half. Later this week I will mark the two sprinkler locations with flags or stakes so everyone can see where to set the sprinkler. It needs to run for about 1/2 hour in each location.
My routine has been to start the sprinkler at 6:00 AM on watering days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then to move it to it's second location at around 6:30 AM. I installed a shut off valve and a quick disconnect fitting in the middle of the hose run to make it pretty easy to move the sprinkler without getting tangled up in the swing set. I do think it is important to make sure that the hose is disconnected and the two parts are moved clear of the play area when we are not watering the garden. I don't want any kids to trip, but also I don't want playful children to drag the hose through the beds.
If there is someone who will be at the center in the morning to coil up the hose after the watering is done, I would put in a simple timer to shut the water off at around 7:30 AM. This would save me the third trip over to the garden in the morning. It's not that I mind the walk, but there are other things I need to be doing, often out of town in the morning.
It is difficult to move the hoses around in the garden without dragging them across the small plants, but I think this can be easily corrected by driving some stakes in the corners of some of the beds to guide the hoses.
The garden is looking pretty good. There are a few small footprints in the beds, but until more plants are up and growing, it is pretty hard to expect the kids to stay out of them. We have lost a few peppers and some of the broccoli and cauliflower to stomping. Also some of the basil didn't make it and one of the tomatoes has suffered a broken stem.
I still have a few pepper plants, basil, and some tomatoes that I can put in, so I will do that later in the week.
Several of the plant markers have been knocked out of place and are lost or broken. For next year we need to figure out something besides the cheap plastic markers. While I have a paper record of what we have planted, I think it is important to have physical markers for each of the beds and types of plants. This is not just being persnickety, I think part of our mission is to educate, and clearly identifying the plants that are growing is part of that.
I would still like to make the pathways more permanent. The starting place would be to install paving stones in the pathway on the northern border of the garden. I think that ultimately the pathways need to be three feet wide, adequate for wheel chair access. I'd like there to be three pathways running east-west, defining the north and south borders of the garden and one down the middle. A rough cost estimate: $1200 for material - The garden is 70 feet by about 20, so three 3ft paths would be about 630 square feet of paving stones, which cost around $2 per square foot, although there might be cheaper options, or maybe this is where an in-kind contribution might come in.
I'm taking a break from a class right now, so I'll have to proof read this later.
My routine has been to start the sprinkler at 6:00 AM on watering days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then to move it to it's second location at around 6:30 AM. I installed a shut off valve and a quick disconnect fitting in the middle of the hose run to make it pretty easy to move the sprinkler without getting tangled up in the swing set. I do think it is important to make sure that the hose is disconnected and the two parts are moved clear of the play area when we are not watering the garden. I don't want any kids to trip, but also I don't want playful children to drag the hose through the beds.
If there is someone who will be at the center in the morning to coil up the hose after the watering is done, I would put in a simple timer to shut the water off at around 7:30 AM. This would save me the third trip over to the garden in the morning. It's not that I mind the walk, but there are other things I need to be doing, often out of town in the morning.
It is difficult to move the hoses around in the garden without dragging them across the small plants, but I think this can be easily corrected by driving some stakes in the corners of some of the beds to guide the hoses.
The garden is looking pretty good. There are a few small footprints in the beds, but until more plants are up and growing, it is pretty hard to expect the kids to stay out of them. We have lost a few peppers and some of the broccoli and cauliflower to stomping. Also some of the basil didn't make it and one of the tomatoes has suffered a broken stem.
I still have a few pepper plants, basil, and some tomatoes that I can put in, so I will do that later in the week.
Several of the plant markers have been knocked out of place and are lost or broken. For next year we need to figure out something besides the cheap plastic markers. While I have a paper record of what we have planted, I think it is important to have physical markers for each of the beds and types of plants. This is not just being persnickety, I think part of our mission is to educate, and clearly identifying the plants that are growing is part of that.
I would still like to make the pathways more permanent. The starting place would be to install paving stones in the pathway on the northern border of the garden. I think that ultimately the pathways need to be three feet wide, adequate for wheel chair access. I'd like there to be three pathways running east-west, defining the north and south borders of the garden and one down the middle. A rough cost estimate: $1200 for material - The garden is 70 feet by about 20, so three 3ft paths would be about 630 square feet of paving stones, which cost around $2 per square foot, although there might be cheaper options, or maybe this is where an in-kind contribution might come in.
I'm taking a break from a class right now, so I'll have to proof read this later.
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