Down on the Farm: So…. What Have You Been Doing This Summer?

(By Janice Stevens, WSUF) Have you found a way to remain cool and hydrated?  That has been our challenge this summer so far.   Our heavy clay soil has worked in our favor by holding on to any minuscule drop of water that falls and keeping the root zone somewhat less parched.  The boxes that we plant in have been very difficult to keep moist and the hoop house, which gets no rain at all, has had a very high evaporation rate.   We have been watering every day….for hours….every day….just watering, nothing else….for hours….every day.  It’s good to live beside a large lake, because rain water collection isn’t effective when there is no rain.  I am very thankful for the hay and straw donated, because those beds without mulch were….well….dry.  (Did I mention that we have been watering daily??)  How wonderful was that rain we got on Sunday, the first real rain for weeks.

The beautiful thing is that we have succeeded so far in keeping most of the plants alive, growing, and producing.  Not the  greens, but sweet and lovely beets, prolific eggplant, gorgeous peppers and tomatoes.  Cucumbers died – all of  ’em – pole beans struggled, but finally overcame, bush beans didn’t do very well, but the chard has kept plugging away.

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