(no subject)

[elainegrey]

Lots of things backed up in my mind.

It's hot and dry. I'm trying to plan for the day off for the 4th so that i can be outside in the early hours. What i actually do then is open: I think the longest term benefit will be actually getting the water tank rigged up. If we actually get a rain storm in the afternoon, i'd be prepared.

Yesterday i was back to work: a little overwhelmed by it. A colleague laughed when i said i felt slow: we have a chance to keep up, she then said. I can take that in stride, i think.

Friday: harvested one sixth of the potatoes and felt daunted. Not the most rewarding return on the Dark Red Norlands. 1:2.7 lbs. I remind myself that my current goal is feeding the soil to get it more loamy than clay. Then there can be an effort to increase the nutrients in the soil. Then i might see a better response.

I'm growing sweet corn for the first time. The corn is tasseling -- the top pollinating "flower" has appeared -- but i don't see any ear development. "Tassels normally appear 2 to 3 days before silk emergence." [here]

I'd like to get some purple popcorn in on the 4th. I have enough time if i can find the room for it. What i tried planting in the drive circle suffers from not being irrigated and from being deer trampled, i think. There might be some sorghum or corn sprouts but what the deer might have ignored in previous years -- tender green shoots when everything was tender and green -- is probably highly attractive at this time of year.

The deer are eating everything tender except the stilt grass and the goose grass.

I read a book on foraging that included using grass frequently. I wonder if stilt grass or goose grass have any pleasant flavor notes.

Comments

[warriorsavant]

I'm having the mental debate about how much to water my lawn. I read somewhere "1-1.5 inches/week", so I suppose I'll have to put out a few pots to measure the output next time I water. I was wondering if you have any suggestions.

[elainegrey]

1 inch a week is pretty much the general advice for veggie gardens and lawns and so on.

I'm not watering ours (yet?), and i keep the grass long (highest setting on the mower). I think the longer grass blade means the plant can focus its resources on growing deeper roots.

The thing that comes to my mind about sprinkler measuring is how regular the spray pattern is and how much splash would be caused. The device i've been using in the garden is more of a jet or fountain from the head. I imagine right in the most intense end of the spray, i'd need to take care to have high enough sides to get the splash, but not so high that i was cutting off the flow. I might consider something like a 9x9 square baking pan. Your sprinkler system may be very different!

Another possibility that i would more likely use is putting my sprinkler in a big bucket, run for five to ten minutes, get the flow rate, and then figure that distributed over the area. I've you've got an installed irrigation system, that won't work.

[warriorsavant]

thanks.

[sistawendy]

Around here, the limiting factors for gardening aren't deer or irrigation; they're slugs, the short growing season, and shade from huge trees or nearby buildings. Ah, Puget Sound.

[elainegrey]

Well, urban gardening has all it's own world of challenges, and the tiny micro climates from the built environment are rarely happy places for vegetable gardens. I'd think you'd be able to grow perennial kales or collards were it not for the slugs. Slugs seem to become less active in the winter here, so i have lovely greens then, but now my greens look like lace. They seem less attracted to Swiss chard, which i understand completely because i am less attracted to swiss chard myself.