Water, water, here and there….

We are in the middle of a drought here in the Southeast. My friend Byron gave me a rain gauge a few weeks ago, and I’m loving it! I now know, for instance, that we accumulated a whole inch of rain over the past 3 days (for a change!), and I don’t have to water my garden this week. I’ve been guessing/intuiting or digging down in the dirt to check how much water is needed for so long, it’s fun to go out there and check quickly and accurately without leaving my front porch.  It’s also a great relief to get all the rain that is currently needed for the garden from the sky alone.

Gardens – vegetable gardens, at least – need at least an inch of rain per week to thrive. You can shave that a little with heavy mulch, but only a little. Most veggies are between 80% to 90% water – they just can’t do without it. Today I put a bit of fertilizer down today here and there just before the rain. When plants are flowering and beginning to form fruit is usually a good time to give them a bit of fertilizer as a side dressing (in other words, scratch it into the soil near the plant), and let the rain carry it to the roots. I am partial to Vegetables Alive from Gardens Alive.

 Soil crusts over when it is dry and little seedlings have a hard time breaking through. This is one of the reasons I’ve always found carrots to be somewhat daunting – I plant them too deep, or I don’t keep them watered enough (they are sensitive to soil crusting), or I don’t thin them enough. Since organic carrots are easy to find in supermarkets, I’ve only planted them occasionally and experimentally, but this year I’m working on growing my own  --  or at least a few of my own!

I just planted some last week, and put a layer of burlap over the bed to hold in some moisture. Of course, I need to watch carefully and remove it as soon as the little seedlings start popping their heads out of the ground. I also planted in rows instead of broadcasting, to make thinning easier, AND I planted on a waning moon, the best time to plant root crops. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and I had blueberry questions to answer…but I don’t have time now. Next post!