August 7, 2015

Lessons learned this year from the new set up using the higher raised beds and drip irrigation. When I first set a schedule I just followed the schedule used by the landscape folks on the yard - 3 days at 20 minutes per station as I had no idea how to start (we had to modify that considerably once the plants had a few months to get somewhat established and once we realized how much water that used - quite a bit!). 

Having been through the growing season just over a half year now, I know now that we simply hadn't been giving the raised beds enough water overall. The old beds were only a foot above the ground level which allowed the plants with deeper roots, i.e. the tomatoes, squashes, etc., the opportunity to reach the indigenous rich, clay soil in the ground. Now that the beds are much higher off the ground, I need to supplement the soil in the beds, a sandy loam we truck in, with more nutrients and more water than what 20 minutes of drip supplies.

I've started supplementing the smaller plants like lettuce, peppers, herbs, carrots, beans, etc. with some hand watering during the week as needed and they've been responding quite well. As for the tomatoes, I've pretty much given up trying to save them as we still need to get our landscape plants established, it's too late in the year and we simply can't use more water than we already use due to the horrific drought. Hopefully we'll have at least a normal rainfall this winter. All indications (92% probability) are that a strong El Niño is coming so hopefully we'll get some relief for next year. If so, then the drought-tolerant landscape should have established once next year's growing season comes around. My plan then is to go back to the hand-watering I used to use to get an idea of how wet I need the soil to be. Once I have a good idea from that, then I'll start up the drip to emulate the conditions I've set. I'm thinking it will be considerably more than what it was this year. Since the yard will need much less water we should be able to accommodate the raised beds with more water. God help us if we have another dry or drier winter. We're already seeing significant stress on the trees around here and it's not clear how many of them will be able to survive these conditions much longer.

Given all of this, we're starting to see some nice yields finally. Evening temperatures have been pretty high over the past several weeks (lows ~62F°)with some normally warm days as well (70's).

Dirty Girl tomatoes - Romano beans

First garlic harvested

Box 1

The only garlic I could find last year was California Late White. Now I know why it's called 'late'. Although the tops have pretty much died back, the stalks are still quite green inside and the cloves have yet to completely form. The photo above shows a stalk I pulled a couple of weeks ago. When I cut the bulb off, the stalk was still green; most of the cloves set in the bulb but not all. I plan to pull some more over the next few days to see how they've progressed. 

The arugula took over the other side of the bed shading the mesclun and lettuce thereby preventing them from growing much. The beets on the end are growing but the greens have quite a bit of mildew.

Box 2

We're in the height of summer; the beans are finally starting to produce and the squash is looking a lot healthier now. The extra hand-watering seems to be paying off.

Box 3

Ah well, hopefully I'll have better luck with tomatoes next year. The Purple Cherokee at the southeast corner of the bed seems to have developed a nasty fungus with the inner stalks starting to starve out. Since this bed won't be used for tomatoes again until 2019, the fungus should die off by then.

Box 4

The herbs are responding well to the extra hand-watering, the parsley especially but even the oreganos, dill, and cilantro.

Box 5

The peppers, especially the padróns, are finally kicking in. The seeded Jimmy Nardellos never developed but they may still have a chance with some extra TLC. Basil is fine, carrots are kicking in, the latest seeding of lettuce is coming along nicely. Again it's the extra watering that seems to be helping here.

Containers 

I'm still down to watering only once a week, feeding once a month, and everything's surviving. The mint could use some pruning, the tarragon is fine as are the oreganos and sages.