On a sunny June morning the veg gardens are looking pretty good. I thought I'd post a picture here before the weeds take hold and it all goes to pot.
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| Kitchen garden- a little weedy but only two plots left to plant up |
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| Things are coming along nicely, hopefully we'll harvest some early potatoes in a week or so. |
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| Long furrows is getting full now. unfortunately the grass is coming back through so I need to mulch or cover to stop it. |
I seem to have planted a ridiculous amount of food this year, but with both girls eating a lot more I've no doubt we'll get through it. I now need to be better at planing my harvests and working out how long things are going to be in the ground for.
I want to start selling more veg but until I become more organised it seems that just a pipe dream, I also think that irrigation might be key for ensuring crops take as long as they should (no shortage of water if I save it through the winter) rather than being sat for weeks without growing because they've had no water. Currently I tend not to water anything once it's established (called the Spanish system) and this works fine when just feeding us but if I want to start selling a little extra I could do with things moving a little faster. My idea with not watering is the roots go deeper and they can then survive with no help from me, it's worked every year I've gardened so far but tempted to try a change in system.
Does everyone else irrigate or water each night or every few days? If I had to water both of these gardens by hand it would take hours!
As you know, our garden is tiny by comparison but we do water when required, twice or so a week. We have a joined 4 butt system for collecting water from the garage roof. Hard work using watering cans so maybe a hose of some kind?
ReplyDeleteI'm never a fan of the hose, although I do sometimes use the sprinkler on my tree nursery, as the water is so cold coming out I think it can shock plants sometimes. Probably me just being paranoid! Also if water has sat for a day then the chlorine has evaporated out of it as well so much better for the soil.
DeleteOnce established I dont water except for the poly tunnel and that is on a watering system so I only have to turn the tap on, I think plenty of mulch and plenty of humus dug into the soil in autumn does the job just fine, The potatoes I have been growing through membrane are doing great and I want to do a similar thing with lots more beds.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to set up a watering system in the greenhouse this year, I spent too many hours watering by hand, but it did mean I could feed them every other day which worked really well. Each year I've been adding 8 ton of muck to the garden and the soil has improved no end. Membrane and mulch are on my "must improve with" list as I know I'd save loads of work if I used it more.
DeleteI water until established and then only water if we have a long period without rain. I water the greenhouses every two days.
ReplyDeleteDo you sell from the gate?
That's the same as me then. I'm planning on selling from the gate and I keep toying with the idea of doing a few veg boxes for ten families next year if I can find enough people who are interested. Only an idea at the moment, thats why I want it to be more predicable.
DeleteI only water pots, unless we have a long dry spell, I never water little every night, far better to give a good watering less often.
ReplyDeleteI water the greenhouse every night but hen it's all in buckets and would dry out if I didn't. If I set up a watering system then not sure to have it little and often or a long time infrequently.
DeleteI pump all our grey water onto the garden (bath and washing machine only) and this gives it a daily drink. During the peak of summer I sometimes also water from our tanks. We only have rainwater tanks (no town water connection), so it we use it up we have to pay to get water delivered (and town water is gross). I do find that everything grows better when it rains and we have plenty of soil moisture. With your climate, you might be getting more from rain and less evaporation, you might need to only water every few days.
ReplyDeleteWater for you guys is such a bigger deal. Do you have a well or bore hole as well? I wouldn't have to dig very deep before I hit water here, even in the dry months. Stuff does shoot up after rain but it's the predictability of it I'm questioning. I'd like to have some big tanks to collect water thought he winter to then use in the summer then I wouldn't feel like I was using resources unnecessarily.
DeleteWe water the polytunnel twice a day and the vegetable garden when it doesn't rain. Potatoes need a lot of water at the moment now their tubers are swelling. We are on a well. This cost a few thousand to install but we don't have mains water charges. New seedlings always get regular watering to ensure seed germination and steady growth.
ReplyDeletePotatoes can be a pain when it's hot like this as they then split when they have a long soak. Long term I'd love to have a bore hole put in but it's way down the list at the moment!
DeleteI don't water much once they're established either, just don't have the time really. Bath water is siphoned out of the upstairs bathroom window using the Droughtbuster Water Siphon, into a hosepipe with a sprinkler on the end for the garden plants but even that isn't enough it seems as it just runs through our sandy soil. Everything is getting increasingly drier here in North Norfolk that I'm seriously thinking about cactus gardening instead!
ReplyDeleteLook to the Ausies for how to grow well when it's dry. Liz (who has commented above) is an expert at growing in dry conditions. How have your willows been doing?
DeleteGood job on using your bath water. When I do the extension I'm tempted to install a separate drain for grey water so I can use it easily if I want/need to in the future.
since all of my beds are raised, i water all the time. i give them a good soak each morning.
ReplyDeleteMy old garden was all raised beds on sandy soil so I had a full water system set up for that one. It worked well but it soon soaked away.
DeleteWe usually water occasionally, but this year we planted late so have watered every night, using water from our well. As for growing too much, ...... we never have a glut of anything because I put it into jams and chutneys, or dehydrate it, or freeze it, or can it, or it gets fed to the chickens, pigs, cows or sheep, depending on what the produce is. Your veg garden looks great by the way!
ReplyDeleteI need to get better at preserving things but we haven't wasted much up until now, but I have upped the scale a bit this year so I should have more to deal with!
DeleteI water the same way as you. I didn't realise it was called the Spanish system.
ReplyDeleteI water when I plant out, once more a week later if it's been really dry and then things are left to send their roots deep down looking for water, it can't be that far away on a wet Welsh hillside!!
Of course in the polytunnel I have to water virtually every day, I can miss a day if it's been really dull and there's been less evaporation.
I read it somewhere so I hope I right on that one! The water table is pretty high here as well. In fact through the winter it's about the hight of the grass on the bottom field!
DeleteYou might have got away with it because you are on heavy clay. The real question is what do particular plants need? Root crops will drive their roots deep because that is how they have evolved, but lettuce won't do well if left to their own devices. Getting the soil right and using mulches help retain moisture otherwise I think the best approach is targeted watering. For example, leave broad beans once established but once the pods appear they perform much better by watering well at this point onwards.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I water different plants different amounts. I've found in the past that if I suddenly change how I'm treating things and go and water stuff loads then it doesn't always react how you want it to, carrots split, things get mildrew, etc. I've been improving my soil every year and it changed so much in the three growing years so far that you wouldn't recognise it, I do need to use mulches more though. Thanks for your comment.
DeleteHave you seen the video Back to Eden? Its a great resource for no watering/low watering. Its really made a huge impact on the amount of water we use. It was a free watch , a long watch as well but good info... I don't know if its still a free video to watch. Basically its mulch mulch and mulch some more. When I plant I use about a foot of hay and I plant my seedlings. It is amazing how much water that conserves. I leave that hay and let it decompose and it enriches my soil. The next year I do it all over again. We put that much hay in depth in our fruit orchard every year as well. I have gone from not being able to keep a fruit tree alive to watering only 3 time last year for the whole summer in my fruit orchard using this method,which given our heat and usually lack of rain that is amazing.. He is big on using wood chips as mulch if you can get them! You have a supply for those. We use them happily when we can get them. I never knew you could mulch this deep. But not only can you, here it does wonderful with it. Now this year with the unreal amount of rain we were getting I held off mulching to deep. But now the rain has ended its hotter than heck and I am putting it out deep.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great video (A little preachy at points though). The wood chip I haev got is from western red cedar so I was a little worried it might be too acidic for the veg, fine for the fruit though. I have used it around my herbs and they've done really well.
DeleteYears ago we had an allotment and the lady a few plots down had two lorry loads of mushroom compost tipped on her plot. I thought she was mad as she was growing though a foot of this stuff. But I battled the weeds all year and had a good harvest, she produced just as much and didn't have a single weed on her whole plot. Her soil was amazing the next year as well from all the added goodness - she also got mushrooms every time it rained!
I did use straw around my trees last year but it turned out to be terrible as the mice used it as a home and ate all the bottom of the trees!
Hi Kev, I stumbled across your blog a week or so back which doing research for work. So I've come back for a mozie in and read - fascinating. I'm not a self sufficiency person but partner is an organic gardener and this year we plan to buy a small piece of rough land and manage it for nature (and a bit of food maybe). My background was in Agri business then conservation so I know about that but self sufficiency is a whole different ball game - but you are dooing some gread things from what I've read (and love your woodwork too). I'll be back.....not as Schwarzenegger you understand :-)
ReplyDeleteI hope it was helpful for your research! I can't imagine it would have been though!
DeleteTo be honest self sufficiency and it's skills has been all consuming for me since I was about 18 or nineteen, to the point where even when I was training to be a carpenter I was thinking how useful this would be in the future when I will be trying to be self sufficient!
Glad you like the blog and I hope you do come back! I had a quick look on yours and your pictures are beautiful.