Just a little over a year ago I wrote a post titled "To till, or not to till: I think I'll try not to." And after my first year of no-till, I know one thing for sure...I'll never go back to my old way of gardening.
To be clear, I can't say that my no-till garden has been a huge success - quite the opposite actually. I don't think I got what I'd call a real harvest from anything until late summer. But when I walk through the garden now, it just seems "right."
I began the transition to no-till by building raised rows in the "good" part of the garden. I raked up the old straw mulch and shoveled dirt on top of that. Cardboard topped with cypress mulch covered the walking space in between the rows. Over the next few months, I slowly added more rows and by early spring the east part of the garden was pretty much complete. I started planting.
So what are the positives about no-till?
First, I love being able to take my seeds and little transplants out to the garden and just plant them without having to worry about getting the tiller out of the shop.
Second, between the cardboard and cypress mulch in the walking rows, and the straw mulch on the sides of the raised rows, there were hardly any weeds, and what weeds or grass did pop up were easily pulled out by hand. The exception to the "hardly any weeds" were prostrate sandmat (Euphorbia prostrata) and common yellow woodsorrel (Oxalis stricta). But since both of those are very low-growing, I just left them. (I may regret that next spring.)
Third, it seemed like there was just more "life" in the garden than there was when I was keeping it tilled. Until the weather turned off hot and dry, there were always earthworms and other little soil-dwelling critters under the mulch. That meant there were toads living in the garden too. And because I interplanted different kinds of flowers in with the food crops, there were bees, butterflies, wasps, and syrphid flies. When the sunflowers set their seeds, there were goldfinches and chickadees hanging upside down plucking seeds from the seed heads.
A Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) hunting in one of my walking rows.
What were the negatives?
I don't think there were any real negatives that weren't caused by something stupid that I did. But I did learn a few things from my mistakes, and will try to correct them and know better what not to do next year.
First, my raised rows were too steep. As a result, when I tried to water them, the water didn't have a chance to soak in - it just ran down the sides into the walking rows. (...and in some cases, taking my seeds with it. I had quite a few carrots growing at the edge of the walking rows!) The rows will need to be reshaped this winter so that they are flattened out, but with the sides slightly higher than the center so they hold the water until it can soak in.
Second, my raised rows went all "hollow" underneath. Best I can figure out is that the straw underneath has decayed, leaving a big void under the top couple of inches of soil. For whatever reason, the rows haven't collapsed, but when I tried to set out my beet transplants this fall, every hole that I tried to "dib" punched through the top crust into a big empty space. So when I'm reshaping the rows, I'll need to break that top layer so that it collapses down into the void below. The decaying straw might also explain why some of my plants didn't look as healthy as I thought they should. There might have been some nitrogen tie-up going on.
I really can't think of anything else to list as a "negative" of no-till. If something else comes to mind later I will edit this post to add it.
September 11 used to be just another day, didn't it. All that changed 21 years ago, and every year since then, when the calendar rolls round to 9/11, we all remember where we were and what we were doing when we found out that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. Such a senseless tragedy and I am always sad for the families of those who were killed in the attacks.
The day started out cloudy, damp and cool. We had a surprise rain shower yesterday afternoon, I suppose triggered by a cold front that is inching its way closer to us. I think by tomorrow, it will feel very "fall like" with lows possibly in the 50s.
It was a good morning to do some cleanup in the garden.
The black plastic has been relocated to the west side of the cellar to try to kill out the Bermuda grass that was trying to take over.
I've had black plastic out in the garden since last summer, and it seems to have done a pretty good job of killing out the Bermuda grass. But I had let the area west of the cellar get away from me this summer. So this morning I pulled some of the taller grass and weeds, then dragged the plastic over the Bermuda grass and tried my best to weight it down so it wouldn't be lifted up by the wind. The plastic is starting to get pretty ragged, with lots of holes and splits.
Once the plastic was moved to the new spot, I took the rake and scratched up the dirt where it had been and planted a mix of winter rye and hairy vetch. I raked the seeds back in and scattered straw over the top of it. I hope that's enough to keep the birds from eating the rye seeds. I'm not sure a single rye plant has come up in the back part of the garden where I planted my last cover crop mix.
Cover crop mix of Hairy Vetch, Crimson Clover, Daikon Radish, (supposed to be) Winter Rye and Sorghum Sudan grass.
I cut back some of the Sorghum Sudan grass that hasn't already been cut this morning too. The tallest stalks were just about 5' tall now. I took the first few stalks that I cut off to the compost bin, but it made me sad to see all of the lady bug larvae and pupae in among the leaves. So the rest of what I cut just got left on the ground in that patch of garden.
I didn't cut it very short this time because the last that I cut hasn't really ever seemed to take off growing again like I thought it would. I had cut it at about 6" to 8" after it blew over in the storm.
Cover crop mix of Sorghum Sudan grass and black oil sunflower. The stalks that were cut after they blew over are just now starting to grow again. Notice one nice looking sunflower at the edge of the patch....
It is interesting to see that some of the sunflowers actually have buds on them. They're not very tall, and most of them are pretty spindly from being shaded by the Sorghum Sudan grass. But I guess their internal clocks are telling them that they're running out of time and they're going to try to produce some seeds if they can.
Elsewhere in the garden....
The crimson clover that I planted under the bell peppers and peas has come up and looks to be doing well.
Cover crop of crimson clover in rows of plants that will be taken out after frost.
I am excited that I might FINALLY have some green peas this fall! I have a section about 10' long where the peas have made it to about 8" high. I did have to put wire up on both sides of the panel because an armadillo got in there one night and rooted up some of the plants, but so far it hasn't been back, or else the wire has deterred it from digging in that row again.
Green peas (Sugar Snap) interplanted with a Crimson Clover cover crop.
I planted some carrots yesterday after the rain. I decided to try the "cover them with a plank" method described by Huw Richards because it seems that small seeds that I direct sow in the garden always dry out and don't germinate very well. I planted two plots, one with newer seeds that I had ordered from Everwilde.com, and the other with very old seeds that I had bought years ago at the local feed store.
Week one of August is in the past, and the heat has returned. But while it is getting really hot during the day and not cooling down much at night, the sun is moving back to the south, so slowly, slowly it's decreasing in intensity.
I ended July with the promise to "just keep planting." So how is that working out?
The purple hull peas are now about eight inches high. They're way too thick, but I've not thinned them any at all and don't plan to. Cover crop, remember?
"Cover crop" of purple hull peas by the cucumber trellis. With the rain, an unexpected surprise...the Calendula have started blooming again!
The pumpkin and spaghetti squash have come up, but since I didn't label them when I planted, I can't remember which is which. No matter...I doubt they'll have time to make anything anyway. Really, they're just something to grow in the blanks spots, right?
I had cut down the "east" row of corn stalks in each of my double rows of corn. Just for the record self, don't do that again unless you put in some drip tape or some kind of water pipe that doesn't have to be moved. It seemed like a good idea, but once the corn got taller, it was almost impossible to get the watering pipe down between them.
But I digress. After cutting the corn stalks I planted Kentucky Wonder beans thinking they could climb up the old corn stalks. Turned out they were Kentucky Wonder bush beans (I realized that when I saw the seeds at the feed store), but they didn't come up anyway. But no matter. When I planted them, I actually didn't think they would come up, because I vaguely remember planting some of those seeds last year with no luck. So last week I bought actual Kentucky Wonder pole bean seeds and planted those in the rows with the corn stalks instead. (Stupid me...when I was checking to see if the beans were coming up, I saw a few things that I thought were weeds and pulled them up. When I pulled the third one, I realized it was the sunflowers I had planted with the beans. Doh!!!!) The Google says Kentucky Wonder pole beans reach maturity in 67 days. So assume it takes a week for them to come up, it's going to be late October before they make anything...IF they make anything.
I planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans at the base of the corn stalks. I tried planting some kind of pole bean by the corn stalks last summer too, and that didn't work out very well. The stalks couldn't support the weight of the bean vines. Oh...and the deer ate the beans.
I also planted broccoli, Brussel's sprouts, and more tomatoes - Arkansas Traveler from seeds I saved back in 2013, and more Rutgers. The Brassicas should have plenty of time to produce, but the tomatoes probably won't. I also started more yellow squash and some Marketmore 70 cucumbers. The old MM70 cucumber seeds I had must have been very old, because I never got a single one to sprout. So I bought a new packet and they were coming up within three days.
I set the squash plants out in the little raised bed where the lettuce and radishes were. Within two days, the squash bugs had already found them, but I'll just try to keep them picked out by hand. The cucumbers went in by the cattle panels where the cucumbers were in the spring, but on the opposite side, since the purple hull pea cover crop is on the other side.
The single surviving San Marzano tomato plant went out in the little raised bed with the squash today. With any luck, maybe it will make at least a couple of tomatoes so I can save some seeds. Not ideal, I know, because to really do seed saving right, you need to save from a minimum of five plants. But I figure if I can get a start of my own seeds, I should be able to buy another packet next spring to mix in with my seeds.
I tried again to start some Golden Bantam corn, but just like with my previous two attempts, germination was abysmal. I got four plants out of 45 seeds I planted. So today those four little seedlings were set out in the empty compost bin. Again, my goal is to try to get four ears of corn to mature so I can save my own seeds. I'm sure I'll end up buying more seeds this coming winter, but I won't get them from my local feed store.
I had planted some old sprouting potatoes in the spot where my failed broccoli experiment was last spring, but only one came up. So today, I took out some sprouted red potatoes to try again. The red ones look much "fresher" than the white ones did, so I'm pretty sure I'll see sprouts within a few days.
And finally, I pulled the black plastic back and planted grass in my garden. Sorghum Sudan grass seeds from greencover.com. I had hoped we'd get some rain, but like happens so often, the rain was all around us, but only a few sprinkles for us. So for two days now I've tried to water that patch of ground. I may have wasted my money on the seeds because of the way I planted them...I just broadcast them out onto the bare ground. But we'll see.
The area behind the cellar that was solarized under the black plastic has been planted with Sorghum Sudan grass, with three rows of black oil sunflower.
Why plant the Sudan grass? Three reasons: First, the ground back there is pretty hard and compacted, more so after the heavy equipment drove all over it when we had a tree in the back taken out, and when we had the cellar put in. Sudan grass is supposed to have an extensive root system that penetrates and breaks up hard soil so if I can get it to grow back there, I hope it will help loosen the soil in that area. Second, the soil seems to me to be low in organic matter. It's made of very fine particles that seem to pack together -- maybe it has lots of clay in it. Anyway, Sudan grass is very fast growing and produces a lot of biomass in a short period of time. I hope that leaving the last cutting on the plot will help add some carbon into the soil there. And third, ideally, I would like to grow my own "mulch" so I'm not depending on straw from the feed store. I don't know the exact price but the last time I checked, it was almost $8/bale.
If the Sudan grass does come up, and does grow like I've read it will, the next problem is going to be how do I cut it? One is supposed to let it get about three or four feet tall, then cut it down to about six to eight inches. The more times it gets to grow like that, the better developed the root system should be. But if the Weed Eater trimmer gives out on me, it will have to be cut by hand...and that will be a lot of cutting.
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Guess who else was excited about the Sudan grass?
Female Blue Grosbeak feeding on Sorghum Sudan grass seeds.
Why the birds were, of course! It didn't take them very long to find them either. Birds must have really good eyes! Lesson learned: don't just scatter the seeds over bare ground and expect they're going to escape the eyes of hungry birds.
Besides the Blue Grosbeaks, there were Northern Cardinals and I think House Finches taking advantage of all the seeds that were exposed on top of the ground. I really was starting to think I might not get any to come up at all.
But low and behold, when I walked out to the garden early on Thursday (August 11), there they were...little green shoots of Sudan grass poking up from the dirt!
I quickly realized another mistake I had made. In the area where I had raked the ground after I planted the seeds, there were quite a few little plants. But raking was hard work, it hurt my back and I'm basically a lazy gardener. So in the west 2/3rds of the plot, I had just scattered a bit of straw around, thinking that would give the seeds enough cover to stay moist and germinate. Either that didn't work; the birds found them; or it was just too dry in that part for them to sprout yet.
I had broadcast almost the entire pound of seeds over the plot, keeping back maybe three tablespoons in case there were some bare spots -- 2/3rds of the plot was way too much of a "bare spot." So that I ended up doing was taking the hoe, chopping up some little patches here and there, sprinkling a few seeds on each patch, then working the seeds back into the dirt with the hoe. I've carried water out to each patch for the past two days, so I'm hoping some plants will start to pop up by tomorrow. It never did rain, and the sun is pretty intense on the ground, so the seeds in those patches may just be roasted in the dirt. If they don't come up, then I suppose I'll instead plant some of the "nitro radish" seeds in that part of the plot instead...burying them in the dirt, of course! I have some old mustard green seeds too. I may just try to fill in any gaps in the Sudan grass with those and see if they will sprout.
The three rows of sunflower have also started to sprout, although germination hasn't been very good in the western-most row.
Black oil sunflower take 110 days to reach maturity, so I'm pretty sure I won't have any that bloom and make seeds before frost unless we have a very late fall this year. But just having the roots in the dirt should help with the compaction and I'm already planning to plant some rows of sunflowers next spring.
And speaking of sunflowers....
What a beauty this one is. It actually looks a bit darker than this in real life (I think the orange in the picture was exaggerated by the morning sunshine).
And then there's this one.
Another beauty. I've decided that I really, really love sunflowers. Oh...and the birds do too!
Male American Goldfinch enjoying the bounty of a volunteer sunflower. This is one of two plants that came up in my old compost bin and they've just outdone themselves. They're each about 8' to 10' tall, with probably 18 to 20 blooms on each plant.
The Kentucky Wonder pole beans have come up pretty well. I am still hopeful that if I can keep them watered I might get a few beans by mid-October.
Kentucky Wonder pole beans poking up through the ground by the corn stalks.
I had a really nice visit with my older sister yesterday. We just sat out on her patio and talked about our gardens, about mulch, about cover crops, and about different things we'd like to try grow. She has a couple of nice fig trees and has promised me cuttings from each of them this fall. I have a little white rose bush that she wanted a start from so I have two rooting in a jar to trade for the figs! She also gave me some Rhubarb seeds that she had saved from her plants. I've never grown Rhubarb and have never even tasted it, but I walked around the yard this afternoon thinking where it might live if I can get the seeds to germinate and grow. I think I can put two plants in the raised bed with the asparagus.
My younger sister messaged me earlier today to let me know that she got one of her raised bed boxes built, and is going to try to get a few things planted in it this weekend. She's been pretty discouraged by the deer and the heat and drought this summer, so I was happy to hear that she's not giving up on gardening. I think we might have all gone through a phase in July where we were so disgusted and discouraged that we were all about ready to give up. But it makes me happy to talk to them, and hear that they too have a plan.
Just keep planting.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
According to the Old Farmer's almanac, today I should be planting Kale. But last night when I searched through my seed box for my packet of Kale seeds, I couldn't find them! I looked in the other boxes, looked with my seed starting pots...they were nowhere to be found.
I eventually concluded that I didn't have any seeds. I vaguely remember thinking about planting them last spring, didn't have any seeds, but then decided not to order any because by the time they got here it was probably going to be too late anyway. Sigh.
So today, I placed an order with Eden Brothers.
Since I knew shipping was going to be kind of expensive for just one packet of seeds, I went ahead and ordered a few other things that I think can also be planted in the fall.
I added a packet of Sugar Beets to the order. I'm very interested in trying this out. While I know it's not realistic to think I can grow enough beets to feed our appetite for processed sugar, I'm curious to know how hard it is to grow your own and make your own sugar, if you had to. Should be an interesting experiment, regardless.
Saturday, August 20, 2022
My order from Eden Brothers still hasn't shipped. I'm quite annoyed about that. I guess it won't hurt for the Kale to be a week or two late going out, but still.... Edit: It would help if I checked the mail once in a while. I don't know how long the seeds have been out in the box, but I know it's been over a week since I got the mail!
I pulled all of the leeks this week. They were just taking up room in the strawberry bed.
None of them were very big, and I'm afraid they may all be too tough to eat. I tried roasting some in the air fryer, but ended up burning them, so we really didn't get a good idea of what they taste like. They smell nice, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not that's something I want to try to grow again.
After one week, it's amazing to me how much the Sorghum Sudan grass has grown.
Sorghum Sudan grass at one week. The plants are about 8" tall already.
But the patches of Sudan grass that I planted to fill in on the part where they didn't come up the first time didn't really ever come up either. I'm not sure what went wrong there. Maybe I buried the seeds too deep, or maybe not deep enough and the birds got them too.
I just couldn't stand looking at the bare patches, so this afternoon, I took the "nitro radish" and crimson clover seed I bought from greencover.com, along with the sugar snap pea seed I saved from this spring, and planted them in a row about 1' wide along the west side of the bare patch. I worked the seed into the soil with the hoe and watered it. Hopefully the clover seeds aren't buried too deep. They are really small, even coated with the inoculant.
And speaking of inoculant, I am hoping that maybe the bacteria that are on the clover seed will also help the peas fix nitrogen, but that may not be the case. I don't know much about the bacteria, but Dave's Garden has an article, "To inoculate, or not to inoculate?" that I thought was pretty interesting. After reading that, I'm still not sure if the inoculant on the clover will help the peas or not.
I also set out several more of my little tomato plants this morning. I'm pretty sure now that neither of the varieties is going to have time to actually make any tomatoes...I screwed up and killed the ones I started back in July, and it was really too late to start more. Even if we don't get a frost, there probably won't be enough hours of daylight for them to set fruit. But next year I'll know better and will have them ready to go out in late July instead of late August (and I won't kill them this time!). I'll make myself feel better about things this year by reminding myself that I'm not sure they'd have survived this summer if they were set out in July anyway, and therefore I'm probably no worse off then I would have been anyway.
The weather has turned off pretty hot again, but another cold front is supposed to move through tonight and tomorrow, bringing some slightly cooler temperatures and possibly some more rain.
I also ended up replanting my beets yesterday. The first seeds were pretty old, and probably weren't any good. I can't for the life of me figure out what Zelda Scissorhands thinks she's doing, but I can't seem to keep her off the module trays.
Zelda Scissorhands thinks module trays are great for napping.
So the Kale seeds are planted now, and I also planted some mustard greens and Gloriosa Daisy seeds. And I set out three more of the foxglove plants. I think that leaves seven more foxgloves that need to find a home. Now if the wire will just keep the armadillo out of them.
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Planted today: 1) Green Romaine Lettuce (seeds from 2021) 2) Livingston Select Salad Blend lettuce (seeds from 2015) 3) Fordhook Chard (seeds from 2021) 4) Rhubarb Red Swiss Chard (seeds from 2022) and 5) Cilantro (seeds from 2020 or 2021)
Set out eight broccoli transplants in the space where the green beans were planted. There were lots of little beans and even blooms on the plants, and I felt kind of bad for cutting them all down, but I don't know if they'd have ever made anything anyway...the bean plants themselves looked horrible!
I also set out the rest of the foxglove plants with the rest of the plants. Ran out of cages, so had to just scrounge around to find something to put over the plants to try to protect them from the armadillos.
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
We've been so lucky this month...the past few days have been cloudy and cooler, with periods of rain off and on. I haven't checked in with my little sister to see how much we've gotten every day, but she did tell me we got 1/2" the first day, and I'm guessing we've gotten that much more altogether.
Two of the three 55 gallon water barrels are full again, and my main barrel is about half full...it would be completely full too, but I connected it to the big IBC tank, and let it backfill the tank. Unfortunately, I didn't get it hooked up in time to collect much water in the big tank, but it does have close to 150 gallons in it. I may not even need the water now that we're nearing the end of summer, but it's good to have it just in case I do.
Seeds are coming up in the garden....
Nitro radish and crimson clover
Mustard Greens
The Sorghum Sudan grass has really taken off growing with the rain too. I will post a new picture of it on Thursday...that will be two weeks worth of growth.
It really is amazing to look at my "here's how they looked when they were transplanted" pictures and compare that to how some of the plants look now.
Yellow squash transplants on August 7.
Yellow squash plants today. Also notice the little San Marzano tomato in the center of the bed. There are a few volunteer radish and Bibb lettuce plants in the bed as well.
It also looks like the beets are coming up really well in the module tray (and yes, I brought it inside and put it under the grow light so Zelda Scissorhands can't use it for a bed anymore!). I don't think I'll try to put the beets in a row all together. I think instead they'll just go in between other things...between the broccoli plants, between the tomatoes, between the bell pepper plants, etc. I'm not terribly worried about growing lots of beets, but I do hope I can grow enough to use my Mama's recipe to make RAF a couple of pints of pickled beets.
Thursday, August 25, 2022
When I got off work this afternoon, I decided it was time to get rid of the Cherokee Purple tomato plants and (try to) start some Sugar Snap peas in that row instead. So I took the pruners and cut all of the tomato and some of the basil plants down, put them in the compost bin, and planted peas.
Compost bin, about 2/3rds full of "stuff."
I reminded myself of Ruth Stout, puttering around out there in my shorts and muck boots and had to chuckle as I talked to the peas and told them to grow!
About 10' of Sugar Snap peas along the tomato trellis.
For those who might not be familiar with Ruth Stout, I will just say that she must have been something else! I found a video on YouTube, and while it has subtitles in a foreign language, it is narrated by Ruth herself. It makes me smile to watch it. I hope I can be like her and garden into my 90s.
The Sorghum Sudan grass is knee high after just two weeks. At this rate, it might be big enough to cut by labor day, and if so, it should have time to grow a second, and maybe even a third cutting before frost.
Knee high Sorghum Sudan grass.
I'm just very sad that I didn't make myself rake in all of the seeds. In the area where I raked, there's a good healthy stand of grass...but the rest of the plot is still very bare except for my row of nitro radish/crimson clover and a few patches of Sorghum Sudan grass here and there. What that means is that weeds and other grasses are starting to grow there. That's is not at all what I wanted to have happen.
So since we are supposed to get more rain this weekend, I may go out tomorrow evening and plant more cover crops. I have the Hairy Vetch seeds from last year; Winter Rye (from this year and last year); Nitro Radish; and Crimson Clover. Between those four hopefully I can get some good coverage.
The purple hull peas that went in the old cucumber row are really growing!
Purple hull pea "cover crop" in the cucumber row.
They actually look like the might bloom within the week, so we may end up getting some peas off them before frost.
The Kentucky Wonder beans are growing, but they sure do seem "slow." At the rate they're going, I'm not sure they'll have time to make anything.
Kentucky Wonder pol beans, about 8" high.
I think the Rhubarb seeds my sister gave me might be sprouting...I can see where the dirt looks like it's pushed up a bit. I'm interested to see what Rhubarb is like to grow.
Friday, August 26, 2022
6:46 pm: I just got back in from planting more cover crop seeds in my bare plot behind the cellar. It is hot and humid outside today and as I wiped the sweat off my face and gulped down some cold tea, I couldn't help but ask myself, "Why am I doing this????" I'm not sure I even have an answer to that question.
Nevertheless, that plot now has nitro radish, winter rye, hairy vetch and crimson clover planted on most of the bare patches (although not all of them), all of it raked in and lightly covered with the old straw and corn debris from last year. I also scattered some of the crimson clover directly into the Sorghum Sudan grass, hoping it will have enough light to grow. Now...if we do get the rain that is forecast for this weekend, maybe I'll start to see things sprouting by Tuesday afternoon.
I did make sure to save plenty of clover and vetch seed for some of my existing rows. I want to plant cover crops on those rows just like I did last year. That seemed to work out pretty well.
More cover crops have been planted in the bare patches. I noticed that the Sorghum Sudan grass is doing the same thing all my other plants do in this back part of the garden. They're lush and green on the north side, getting shorter and weaker looking to the south. Not sure what that means...maybe compaction, or maybe low fertility?
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
The Sorghum Sudan grass was so pretty...swaying in the breeze, and up to my waist in the middle where it was the tallest.
Was....
A cold front dropped down from the north, and while we only got about 1/4" or rain out of it, we did get some pretty serious wind gusts. Apparently one of the guests went right through the middle of the Sorghum Sudan grass. A big swath of it was completely flattened, just like someone had taken a roller and rolled over it.
Sigh.
I waited 24 hours, but when it didn't show any sign at all of standing back up, I just went ahead and cut all that had been laid over by the wind.
After I cut it, I tried by best to stand the stalks back up. I hope they weren't broken off at the roots.
I planted it because I wanted to see just how much "biomass" I could get from it, and if it might be a way I could grow my own mulch. But as I cut it, I was amazed at just how much biomass there was already, after just three weeks of growth. I took the cut stalks and laid them out around the back of the cellar to dry. Once they are dry, I'm not sure what I'll do with them. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Really, there's not much to journal about except the drought and the heat. The plants in the garden were still hanging in there at the end of June.
The garden on June 29, 2022.
But according to my little sister's records, for rainfall, we only got:
0.39" on June 6.
0.11" on June 7.
1.67" on June 9.
0.61" on June 10.
0.02" on June 18.
2.8" of rain for the entire month of June, most of it coming in the first 1/3 of the month. Nothing to speak of since then, but the temperatures were in the mid- to upper-90s for almost the entire second half of the month. By the end of this first week of July, it's becoming pretty apparent that we're in big trouble.
Two days in the outlook for July where we might get some rain, but chances aren't very good on either of those days.
So here we are again. I'm thinking back to last summer when I started my blog, about how hot and dry it was, and how I was trying to keep a few things alive, but it wasn't working. This year is worse so far as the rain and heat are concerned.
Watermelon vine suffering in the heat.
Last summer I lost my little Carolina Buckthorn tree (Frangula caroliniana) because I didn't water it. I made the mistake of assuming that because it was a native tree, that it was adapted to the hot dry weather and while it might shed its leaves, it would just sort of "hibernate" and bounce back in the spring. It didn't.
So this year, I'm trying my best to keep a few things alive with water and mulch, and also by shading them from the hot sun. I'm not so sure the plants can even survive just with water. That sun is relentless, beating down on them, heating the leaves and surrounding soil to well over 120° F - day after day after day.
Some of the plants, including the blueberries, the blackberries and the apple trees, get a bit of relief from the sun when the shade from the pecan trees moves over them in mid-afternoon. But others things, including the strawberries, the American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) and the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), aren't in the shade until very late in the day.
I don't have any proper shade cloth, so I've resorted to using an old bed skirt over the strawberry bed, and have suspended some old sheets over the dogwood and hazelnut trees. I've also tried to shade part of the row of Rutgers tomatoes.
I have mulched around the Purple Coneflower plants in the west flowerbed, but I'm not sure that's going to be enough to save them without some shade. They went from pink and beautiful to brown and dead-looking in just a matter of days once the temperatures started to hit the upper 90s and low 100s every day.
Three of the four rain barrels have been connected together, but they've already been emptied twice this spring (that's over 300 gallons of water!). After we missed out on the rain last week, I finally used the garden hose to fill them back up with "city water." But after only a bit of watering yesterday and this morning, the first barrel is already 1/3rd gone. On a somewhat positive note, I think the straw mulch is helping. I tested the soil under the mulch around several plants with my finger and the soil was still damp and cool around all of them.
I just think the intense sunlight is going to be a big problem even for plants that have a heavy later of mulch. So I'm looking at buying some rolls of burlap to use as shade cloth (because I HATE the thought of using plastic shade cloth!).
The phone rang just a few minutes ago. Our County Judge has issued a burn ban until further notice.
Saturday, July 30, 2022
We've made it to the end of July, but there's only one way to sum up the month: July 2022 has been bad.
Until this past Thursday, our last rain was on June 18, when we got 0.02" - really just enough to dampen the grass. While the last week of June was pretty nice (highs only in the low 90s), summer came back with a vengeance in July.
July 2022 daily highs and lows, from accuweather.com.
We've had day after day after day of temperatures above 100° F, low humidity, and no rain. It has been even hotter than the July outlook said it would be. Everything is suffering from the heat and the drought.
The cucumbers that were looking Ok at the end of June gave up pretty quickly to the heat. I watered them once, but decided it was really a lost cause, and just quit on them and let them die. We weren't getting many cucumbers anyway, and the vines were not going to start putting on new fruit even if I kept them alive.
But I kept trying to water other things. Every morning and/or evening, I would fill my little green plastic watering can over and over and over, making many trips back and forth from the water barrels to the garden; to the flower beds; to the blueberries; to the blackberries; to the dogwood; to the hazelnut trees; the strawberries; the pumpkin; the watermelon....
My little green plastic watering can from Atwoods. It's cheap and flimsy, but I like using it. I think it holds about two gallons of water.
But the water alone didn't really seem to be making much difference. The sun was just killing everything, and as I told my sister when she asked how my tomatoes were doing, "they're boiling in their jackets."
I finally gave up on the pumpkin, the watermelons, and the Rutgers tomatoes. I wasn't going to be able to save them. I tried saving the corn, but it was obvious when it started to tassel that it wasn't going to make anything...the tassels where white and didn't have any pollen on them. I gave up on the corn too.
Bell peppers that have dropped from the heat. The day I took this picture, I picked up 17 peppers just from the first few plants in the row.
The bell pepper plants were late getting started (for some reason I couldn't get my seeds to sprout this year). So they were just starting to set fruit as the heat and drought arrived. Even keeping them watered wasn't enough. The little peppers might get up to the size of a half-dollar and then I'd find them on the ground under the plants. The ones that didn't drop off looked like they'd been dipped in scalding water.
I finally went ahead and ordered a 40% shade cloth to go over the strawberries.
It seems to work very well, and I like that I can water the bed without having to pull the cover off, which is what I had to do with the old bed skirt that I was using. (The bed skirt disintegrated in the sun, by the way, and was ripped to shreds when a dust devil tore through the garden one afternoon. That dust devil messed up so many things and I was already so frustrated by the heat and drought that it was all I could do to keep from grabbing the weed eater and just cutting everything down to the ground!!!!)
So I took some more old sheets and another bed skirt and tried to shade the peppers, hoping that at least a little bit of protection from the sun would keep them alive and hopefully allow them to set some fruit.
It looked pretty tacky. And several times the wind caught the sheets and the panel that was leaning up over the beans fell over on them. RAF helped me drive some t-posts at the ends of those rows, so the panel is now secured to the posts and won't fall over. I think the peppers are looking better, but I'll just have to wait and see if I actually get any peppers in August.
All in all, I guess I should consider myself lucky to have kept alive the few things that I did manage to keep alive. And THANKFULLY, WE FINALLY GOT SOME RAIN!
We didn't get much today (we're in the area with no rain on both radar shots). And we haven't gotten as much as some other areas (notice the flash flood warnings up near Ponca and Rogers) but as of yesterday afternoon, little sister said we had gotten right at 1.75" and I'm thankful for every single drop!!!!
I've spent a lot of time since last summer trying to learn more about no-till and one of my favorite YouTube channels is the No-Till Growers channel. Farmer Jesse did a video this summer where he said, "Just keep planting."
I had quite a few empty spots in the garden, so I figured why not give it a try?
In the row where the cucumbers were, I've planted more purple-hull peas. They may not make anything, but at least they might be a good summer cover crop for that space. Happily, it looks like most of them have come up, and with this good rain, they've already grown a lot.
I've also planted some pumpkins and spaghetti squash in some other "blank" spots in the garden, and planted some old sprouting potatoes where the broccoli plants were (the broccoli never even tried making any flower heads). My thought with the potatoes is to try growing them as no-dig potatoes. The potatoes weren't planted in the dirt...I just sort of buried them a little bit in the compost that was around the broccoli and covered that with straw. If they start to grow, I'll just keep piling straw and compost on them I've seen several other no-dig/no-till growers do on "the YouTube."
I'm afraid the rain has given me a false sense of hope for a fall garden, but I guess I do have a plan for the rest of 2022.
I spent money on really nice bagged potting mix to start my little plants in. I spent money on little plastic pots. I spent money on seeds. I spent time planting the seeds, potting each little plant into its own pot, and babying them along, hoping for some late tomatoes and pretty flowers next year.
And then I thought, "They might need just a bit of nitrogen if they're going to stay in these pots for a while." I put two teaspoons of Urea (46-0-0) in a gallon of water and set the pots in a tray to soak it up.
What was I thinking???? (The question is probably not even relevant because I'm not sure I was thinking at all.)
When I looked at the plants the next morning, I knew immediately that I had screwed up.
It was like giving a baby two or three dozen cups of coffee.
By day three after I burned their little roots off with that supercharged nitrogen water, it was apparent that most of them weren't going to make it. I took the three that looked the least ill and put them in the garden, trying to knock off as much of the contaminated potting mix as I could. But I doubt they'll survive since the sun is so intensely hot.
This morning two of the Foxglove plants are wilted over and it doesn't look like they'll recover (but that could be from their roots being baked by the sun through their little pots!). The leaves on the little purple coneflower seedlings are starting to turn brown on the edges too. I moved the healthiest of the coneflowers into new pots, again, trying to knock as much of the contaminated potting mix off of their roots as I could. The orange coneflowers had just come up, so I hope I got them pricked out in time and that they will be ok. The artichoke plant still seems ok too, but just as a precaution it got moved into a new pot as well.
All of the contaminated potting mix will go into the compost bin with the remains of one of my poblano pepper plants that I killed by overwatering (again, more isn't always better).
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