This year I am suffering from way too much rain but I remember years when we had drought. Over the last few years I have set up many of my garden areas and landscaping to conserve on watering.
photo credit: dlisbona

When the garden season begins you never know what Mother Nature has planned so my motto is “be prepared!”

Setting your garden up for drought conditions can be done by using mulch or planting in containers so that they can be moved into shade or closer to water. You can also landscape your yard and gardens for drought by using perennials, using plants and trees that require less water, or by planting re-seeding annuals, herbs and native plants.

I also water in the morning, use deep watering methods and rain barrels for catching rain. You will find a few more ideas at my sister site Backyard Oasis,  How to choose drought resistant plants.

One idea I have used for many years is watering by milk jug (or a small plastic pop bottle for containers)

Fill the cleaned empty milk or plastic pop bottle with hot water. This will clean the bottle and also help remove the label.
I let my bottles and jugs sit overnight to make sure they are clean.

Use a sharp nail to make a hole or two in the milk jug. You can also use a cordless drill with a tiny bit to make the holes. Just remember the larger the holes are on the bottom the faster your water will run out.

Hint: if you use jugs with holes and without, mark the jug. It’s not fun to fill a jug and have the water run out and into your shoes while placing it in the yard.

Place the jug by the plant that needs water. Using this method you get a slow watering what will soak in the ground near the plant where it’s needed,

Pop bottles

I tent to use small pop bottles in containers. Cut off the bottom of the pop bottle. Remove the cap and place the bottle in the center of a container. I submerge the bottle halfway into the soil. This will act as a funnel and take water directly to the roots. This works well for vegetable plants that require a lot of water. And as the plant grows the bottle is hidden from site.

Tips:

If you have a fish tank or pond you can use that water to water your plants and then top off what water is removed. You will help clean the tank or pond and have nutrient rich water for your plants.

When not using the milk jugs you can run a string through the handles and store them by hanging them on a wall out of the way

Here are two sites for ideas on hardy plants. I enjoy Hibiscus plants and Best Flower gardening has an excellent article, Hibiscus-a-must-have-perennial.

Home and Garden Online has a nice write-up on native plants, Native Plants: flower-garden-guide. Native plants add so much to your garden landscape.

Whether you have too much rain or too little with planning and preparation you can still have a beautiful yard and successful garden. It just may be a bit more challenging!

Technorati Tags: backyard garden, Creative Organic Gardening, garden planning, native plants

How did your garden season turn out?

Here in NW Pa the rain and cold ended many crops early and quite a few people just turned the gardens under and will plan for a more successful garden next season.
photo credit: kanegen

I moved most of my gardens under glass or used raised beds so my crops lived. They didn’t have as large of crops as usual but there were fresh vegetables.

And there are very few apples in the area this year. I have many trees so there will be apples but not the large selection I usually have. I also will not be pressing apple cider. But blueberries are doing well so I will freeze some of those to put away for those cold winter days.

When planning for next year you may want to look at using raised beds for easier gardening and the ease of covering your crops against too much rain or cold nights.

By adding plastic piping that can be bent in a U shape you can make a tunnel and cover it with plastic for cold and rain protection. I may even have to cover the gardens soon for frost protection.

Yes, a few places just above me may get their first frost in August! They are calling for possible frost in upstate New York.
photo credit: lepiaf.geo

So tell me how your garden turn out and do you plan to plant a winter garden? It’s amazing what you can grow indooors in the winter.

Technorati Tags: backyard garden, gardening, raised bed gardening

The best chance a gourmet has of getting delicious fruits and vegetables is to raise them himself and this is the best chance he has of keeping in good health too.
photo credit: Sistak

Good home-grown vegetables are both aesthetically better and more practical in terms of use. These are the reasons people who want to raise vegetables they cannot buy and then cook them in ways that will bring out priceless flavor.

It goes without saying that, just as the most brilliant cook can do only so much with stale and tasteless vegetables, so the most delicious vegetables any man ever grew can be quickly spoiled by bad, or even by merely unimaginative, cooking.

The usual fate of the stale vegetables we now buy is to be overcooked. In short, they never had much life, they lost in shipping most of the life they had, and the cook then cooks all the life out of them.

Now Lets start with your garden

Remember that the spot where you plant must have plenty of sun. You can build your own soil if you have to. But you can, not supply sunlight, except maybe by cutting a branch off a tree to let sunlight through or by taking down a board fence. If you live in a small town or in the open country and have a choice of sites, a good piece of ground is one that slopes just enough to drain easily.

If it slopes south or, better still, southeast so much the better. Dig a hole a foot deep and see what kind of soil you have. Normally the top few inches will be much darker and much more crumbly than what lies below. This is your topsoil: it is dark because it contains “humus” decayed vegetable matter. The subsoil below it may contain minerals but it lacks humus.

Put an ounce or two of each in a small container and find out from your County Agricultural Agent or from the Department of Agriculture in your state capital where to send them for analysis.

The analysis you get will tell you whether you need the three elements plants need most, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Results of the analysis can also show whether fertilizer and rain are significant factors in your garden.

Also it may be able to determine whether your soil is too acid and needs calcium. If it does, you should spread agricultural lime on it, not quicklime. Commercial lawn fertilizers and garden fertilizers are available which combine nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

If you can’t get your flower bed soil professionally tested, there are now on the market inexpensive “soil kits,” which are advertised in garden magazines and at Amazon.

Technorati Tags: container gardening, gardening, plant care, plants, vegetables