Busy In the Garden
This is a busy season in the garden and most of us are wishing for rain or recovering from rain.
Remember spring when it was cool outside and the garden possibilities seemed endless?.jpg)
Summer's heat dashesd some of those spring fed dreams because watering and mulching take up a lot of time and there are so many fun things to do.
A new e newsletter from Fine Gardening's Janet Macunovich provides watering ideas worth considering - Excerpts and the link
Water makes up 90 to 98 percent of every plant we grow. It holds leaves and stems aloft, just as air in an inner tube keeps a tire round. All the nutrients plants need to grow, color, flower, multiply, and defend their tissues against pests are produced by the solar-powered chemical reactions that take place in the watery soup within the cells.
Twenty years of gardening has taught me to ignore generalities .. .
The first step when determining a watering regimen is to test your soil's water-holding capacity.
First, soak a 12-inch-diameter spot with a hose for about two minutes. After the water has had a chance to settle, thrust the head of a trowel into the spot so it reaches 3 to 4 inches below ground level. Pull the trowel toward you to make an opening, then reach in with your hand to feel the soil at the bottom of the opening. When watered well, soil should feel cool and damp at the bottom of the hole. Dig a new hole in the same spot every day and note the number of days that elapse until the soil at the bottom of the hole feels warm and dry. That's the number of days you can go without watering during a rainless period.
Macunovich reviews each method of watering with her experience-based advantages and disadvantages.
Click over and see if your preferred method is the same.
Remember spring when it was cool outside and the garden possibilities seemed endless?
.jpg)
Summer's heat dashesd some of those spring fed dreams because watering and mulching take up a lot of time and there are so many fun things to do.
A new e newsletter from Fine Gardening's Janet Macunovich provides watering ideas worth considering - Excerpts and the link
Water makes up 90 to 98 percent of every plant we grow. It holds leaves and stems aloft, just as air in an inner tube keeps a tire round. All the nutrients plants need to grow, color, flower, multiply, and defend their tissues against pests are produced by the solar-powered chemical reactions that take place in the watery soup within the cells.
Twenty years of gardening has taught me to ignore generalities .. .
The first step when determining a watering regimen is to test your soil's water-holding capacity.
First, soak a 12-inch-diameter spot with a hose for about two minutes. After the water has had a chance to settle, thrust the head of a trowel into the spot so it reaches 3 to 4 inches below ground level. Pull the trowel toward you to make an opening, then reach in with your hand to feel the soil at the bottom of the opening. When watered well, soil should feel cool and damp at the bottom of the hole. Dig a new hole in the same spot every day and note the number of days that elapse until the soil at the bottom of the hole feels warm and dry. That's the number of days you can go without watering during a rainless period.
Macunovich reviews each method of watering with her experience-based advantages and disadvantages.
Click over and see if your preferred method is the same.
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