Box 1
I 'rebooted' Box 1. Once I harvested the remaining garlic, I harvested what was useable of the beets, arugula, and greens. I planted the greens (mesclun and lettuce) too close to the arugula so they never really had a chance to thrive much. The arugula had pretty much bolted but there was still enough to salvage for a few salads.
After completely turning over all of the soil in the bed, amending it with more Local Hero, and top dressing with steer manure, I planted several broccolini from plants. I also seeded beets, arugula, lettuce, mesclun, radishes, rainbow chard, and Lacinato kale. I was careful to moisten the soil ahead of time and follow package direction on depth and distance for the seeds. I reused a previous 12" width of drip line after clearing it out. However I plan to hand-water the bed until things get established and will eyeball the progress of the seedlings before letting the drip take over. It looks like there are some indications of early rains and I'm hopeful of the El Niño projections helping to steer some storms this way this Autumn so maybe the drip won't be as crucial this winter as it was last year.
Box 2
Beans are starting to yield pretty well. The squash is meh though. We've gotten some but overall rather disappointing. Probably the same issue with my being unfamiliar with the drip and how to make best use of it.
Box 3
The tomatoes, feh.
Box 4
The herbs have been doing well, with extra hand-watering the thyme and oreganos are coming back and starting to thrive.
Box 5
With the early morning temperatures continuing to consistently bottom out above 60°F, the peppers have had a chance to do well. We've had a couple of harvests of padróns and the sweet Italians are reaching full size. I separated out the Jimmy Nardello seedlings but it's probably too late for them to rebound. The chard and beets never really grew but the two rows of lettuces have done well. I just added a row of fennel seeds to perhaps have something from them by Thanksgiving. Carrots and basil continue to thrive.
Trees
We finally realized that neither the persimmon nor the lime ever got enough water this season so I discovered the bag method of adding extra waterings between the drip stations' schedules. In addition to the one deep watering from the ground spikes, I'm adding a filling of bags for each of them twice a week extra. There are some signs it's having a beneficial effect on them. Hopefully this can help them through to winter rains when they could really get some help.
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