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Saturday Morning Garden Blog: Vol. 18.28: July 16 Gardening season turning dry [1]
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Date: 2022-07-16
This is part of my sunflowers beside a tomato plant. The sunflower is a volunteer. Last year, I planted 200 seeds and only had about a dozen germinate.
Along with a planting of 100 okra seeds and only a dozen plants, my germination was terrible due to the carryover from the herbicide drift. I have been adding lots
of compost and inoculants that brings beneficial microorganisms which help cleanse the soil. I have probably a dozen or so sunflowers growing (volunteer) from dropped seed from last year that are way above my head and getting ready to bloom. I had started sunflowers in my basement because of my problems getting them to start in the soil in my garden. They are planted in another area, but are far behind the volunteers.
Whch brings me to my Dalhias. In my last story, I had mentioned that I had mulched my Dalhias without digging them and they came through the winter. They had already sprouted before the new Dalhias I had ordered arrived. I was able to cut 11 tubers off the two new plants so I ended up with 14 total. They are just starting to bloom. It seems that our soil is warming up earlier allowing crops to germinate earlier. Pictures later.
We have had a lot of hot days early in the year. They came and went for a week at a time. For the first time, at my 80 years of age, the heat really bothered me. With additional garden space and a lot of picking, I had not fertilized until yesterday. Normally, I would have used my sprayer to foliar spray on a weekly basis. The drought conditions affecting my yard have not affected my garden. I still knew that surely my plants would need water and since there was no rain in the forecast. I decided to water and fertilize at the same time.
My green beans looked fine, in fact, I don’t know when I have had beans with such a healthy looking dark green color. They are blooming, but beans will tolerate dry spells. They just seem to go dormant until the rains come. I decided to do my tomatoes first and as the week progressed, to catch my melons and squash. I have a two gallon sprinkling can and I took off the tip so water could flow straight out into the base of the plants. I added some Liquid Fish Fertilizer and Seaweed to the water. I then went to a tomato plant and poured the water on to the base of the plant.
In our area of Missouri, the ground has lots of clay in it and when it gets dry, the ground gets hard and cracks appear. The cracks appear as the soil dries out and so it shrinks because of lack of water. My garden soil is different. For years I have added leaves in the fall and compost in the spring. You can go to my garden and literally insert a plant using only your hands. To give you an example, think of a bag of potting soil bought at a store. That is what my soil looks and feels like.
When I tipped the watering can up, the water would run out in less than 3 seconds. The water would immediately soak into the ground. I had written a story;
“How much water can one store in the subsoil?” where you can read about improving our soil. There is an example of a farmer whose land would have runoff with just an inch or so of rain per hour, but after cover cropping, his soil would absorb 6 inches an hour without runoff. Just think, how much water is being stored in the soil when it will absorb that much. This probably is the reason my crops are not showing any problems with the lack of rain.
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