This year's garden has been disappointing. I have been diligent in watering the garden every few days or so as the soil begins to show signs of drying out. I mulched the garden with straw to cut down on weeds and to help retain moisture. Unfortunately, all of this isn't enough when you combine heat in the 100's and weeks without water. We ended up getting some rain a couple weeks ago, and have gotten a couple sprinkles here and there. All of this really puts a lot of stress on the garden.
My green beans are simply producing flowers and dropping the off without growing any beans. This is from the dryness and the heat. My tomatoes have been doing excellent, in particular the Large Cherry Tomatoes. The Amish Paste (Roma type) have been doing fairly well also. The ones that I do get are absolutely HUGE! Even with 6 plants of each though, I am having to freeze and can these at a later date because I am simply not getting enough at a time to do anything with them. My Brandywine tomatoes have been really disappointing though. They aren't getting any larger than maybe 4", if I'm lucky.
I have lost all of my zucchini and squash, so I am planning on putting a fall garden where these were. This will be my first time planting a fall garden. I have no idea why I have never tried it!
In the meantime, we are headed for another 100+ degree heatwave again!
Welcome to our Texas weather! LOL! Seriously though, it is very hard to keep a garden going in this sort of heat & drought. We began planting in February in order to maximize our plants life span. It warms up very early down here.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even with all the prep and constant watering, we lost our corn again and eventually our green beans. We were able to harvest quite a bit of green beans (and freeze them) before the heat hit. Everything else is hanging on and still producing. We even had peaches this year! My herbs on the other hand have all died. ;( I was really bummed about that. I did recently harvest some really big carrots. I was VERY pleased with how they have grown, especially since it is my favorite vegetable. ;)
You will have to show us how to do a fall garden! I'm embarrassed to say that I've never heard of it.
I couldn't imagine dealing with weather like this every year! Now, physically I actually don't mind the heat. (DH HATES it though!lol) but when it affects my plants, that's when it starts bugging me! Don't be embarrassed! I can't actually say I had ever heard of it either... I read about fall plantings in a magazine, can't remember which one at the moment though.
DeleteSometimes its the organic matter content of your soil that doesn't allow it to hold on to moisture. I have been adding to mine for 3 years and even though we have had drought here too. I only have to water every 2-3 days where some people are watering every night.. Another thing is that Organic farms are fairing much better than conventional due to the nature of their type of fertilizer.. Something to google.. very interesting..
ReplyDeleteHowever the bugs are liking it alot too. So it has been a struggle with them. this year.. I am hoping to get a fall garden in also here in Missouri..
I definitely agree that the better your soil, the better it will hold in the moisture. This year I just had to quickly pick a spot to plant, and had no opportunity to amend the soil before hand. This fall I am going to add the compost that I worked on last year and till in all of the straw mulch. It's going to be a work in progress!
DeleteGood luck with your fall garden nicole. Here in California we've been having cooler than usual temperatures so my roma tomatoes are still green and I'm having to deal with rats eating them. We have a more than usual number of rats because of a mild winter we had. My other warm weather platns are not doing so well either. But that's the nature of gardening.
ReplyDeleteThat's sad about your tomatoes :( Looking on the bright side of the drought, etc. it allows us to learn and grow by teaching us what happens when our normal weather patterns deviate from the norm. It is causing me to really think about how I would garden if I no longer had access to city water, etc.
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