The 2015 vegetable garden has been a real challenge for Chris this year due to to the drought and the need for conservation of water. We are on a well, after all! When you have extreme heat like we have been having since early May, you just take your chances and see what works and what doesn't work. The broad beans did pretty well to start, but the foliage has died off now and we are just letting the beans go to seed and will use them for next year's crop.
Russet potatoes needed more water than we thought so they really won't yield much, and they are drying out now as well. We have since done some research and will plant in squares not rows next year as this helps retain maximum water in the soil.
The tomatoes on the other hand are doing extremely well. Chris is using the old Italian method using pails to contain them. He cut the bottoms off the pails and put them over the tomatoes plants, setting the bottomless pail a few inches into the ground.
This has been effective for 2 reasons. The water soaks down into the ground directly around the tomato rather than running elsewhere in the garden. The pail protects the base of the tomato from the heat of the sun so the ground stays moist, meaning watering maybe every 4 days. The pail itself adds a greenhouse effect to the base of the plant.. They are huge, happy and loaded with flowers and green little tomatoes.
Swish chard and beet root are doing well. Lots of beets. Yummy.
Raspberries were loaded this year with flowers and unfortunately due to lack of watering the berries only grew to pea size and dried out, as did the bushes. Too bad!
Lettuce definitely needs more water than we can provide so we won't do a second sewing. The romaine was very dry by the leaf lettuce was fair.
Zucchini you just can't seem to go wrong with them. Water or no water.
We also have leeks and onions that are doing well, but in summary - this is not our year for vegetables or berries.
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