I have beans! Well actually I don’t have beans yet, but my bean plants have popped through. As have my zucchini and pumpkins and some of my onions. I was getting a little worried about my beans early in the week. I had nothing and I was thinking I was going to have to replant those. But a day or so later one little brave bean plant popped its way through the ground. And within a couple of days I had a number of them!
And on another positive note, none of my tomatoes or peppers have died and my broccoli is looking good. I also had my first ripe strawberry and I have three or four just about ready. Of course we are going on vacation in a week and so I figure the rest of the patch will ripen during the week that we are gone. We got no strawberries last year because our beloved robin (aka “Hook”) ate all of them, and now this year our neighbor girl will get them as she waters our garden while we are gone. Go figure.
Speaking of watering, let’s make that the focus of this post. Over the years I’ve come to love soaker hoses. They are easy to lay out, deliver a concentrated amount of water where you want/need it, and you don’t have to move them around like you do a sprinkler. Granted my two boys love running through the sprinkler and I’ve been known to join them, but I don’t really want to give them any more of a temptation to run through my garden and a sprinkler might just do that.
Another trick I’ve learned over the years with watering, is using your cut grass as an asset. After my husband mows the grass, I take the grass and spread it out over the soaker hose around my tomatoes and peppers. I will do my onions and melons and squash when they get bigger too. The grass serves many purposes, one it helps hold the water in so the sun doesn’t just bake off the water that you just watered with, it keeps the ground a little cooler, helps as a weed barrier, and breaks down and provides nutrients to the soil.
I don’t water every day. Especially this time of year when it’s not super hot yet. I just kind of look and see if the ground is wet and how things are looking, part of my garden gets the runoff from the yard sprinklers so I use that to my advantage. Now when we get into the middle of July and I have large plants that are requiring more, I may have to water every day, we’ll have to see.
I think that’s it for this week. Happy planting and good luck!
Hiking Mommy 