Soaker hose brigade and other thoughts

My plants are growing well.  The tomatoes are three times the size than they were in this photo taken shortly after planting just a month ago.  Even though you can't see them under the brown paper "mulch", I have a series of loops of soaker hose running back and forth around each side of my tomato rows.  I added an extra row this year because I couldn't restrain myself and planted too many varieties for the area I have.  The back rows are in the traditional cages but the front row is a series of stakes that I have started weaving with sisal twine around each stake and plant.  It worked so well on the Roma tomatoes last year that I am trying it again and also doing the Celebrity tomatoes as well.  I used the longest hose I had to accommodate the extra row of plants.  

One variety of cucumbers are also in the back row of this area and are climbing nicely with small fruits forming on the vines.  I also planted another variety in my window box tower and a pickling variety is in my back garden trellising its way up a old section of chain link fence.  I have several things going in the vertical direction including melons, pumpkins, and squash.  The jury is still out on how successful these will all be.

I planted another crop of lettuce, a heat tolerant variety pack.  I started the seeds indoors and transplanted them out before moving them to the garden under some shade cloth yesterday.  There is just one small row of lettuce left after cutting all the older plants for salad.  The ground has had no rest as I have moved from one crop to the next.

My coworkers have been enjoying the shelling peas.  My family has had a couple stir fry nights with the sugar pods.  They took a long time to mature with the cooler temperatures, but are starting to show signs of yellowing with the recent heat.  The vines are between my rows of peppers, so I am sure the ancho peppers will be happy to get the sunlight the peas have been using.

With the exception of my onion beds, I have wound soaker hoses through the whole garden.  The beans and vines are on a loop with the apple tree and kiwi vines.  I even had enough to go through one of my flower beds which gets the most sun and is also raised, hence, it will need the most water.  I found a local source of landscape pins at the hardware store and bought a box of 100-6 inch pins.  The are good for positioning hoses and holding down landscape fabric or shade cloth.  At $14 a box, they were a bargain in my book, as I never have enough and am taking them from different areas as the hoses hold their shape.

I use quick connects in the garden.  They are a huge time saver when switching up what line is hooked up next.  Most have a shut off on the connecting end so you don't have to shut off the main source to move the water hose to the next soaker hose.  One word of advice:  Buy a bunch of compatible pieces right away.  Brands switch up the male and female ends and then you are stuck with mismatched  sets.  Not sure what I am talking about?  Just ask at the hardware store or garden center and they will point you in the right direction.  Some people take some getting used to them, but you can even put a quick-connect on your watering wands and switch off watering tools easily.

We didn't water our gardens much when I was a kid.  We had a well, which provided plenty of water, but Dad did not like to hear the pump running so much.  Nature took care of most of the garden's needs.  We didn't vegetable garden much during most of my child hood memory with the exception of the year we took over planting and harvesting Hanson's garden plot.  We went from zero square feet of vegetable garden to thousands.  We had so much room that we were even allowed to plant corn, the garden hog that never grew in our own small back yard.  Since that was the summer Dad was diagnosed with cancer, the work fell to us at home while they were back and forth to hospitals. 

We had other gardens, but that is the most memorable of them all.  I learned how potatoes grow and how much dirt has to be moved to hill them.  Mom also shared her childhood memories of their own gardens.  Picking potato bugs by hand and putting them in cans of kerosene was a story I will never forget.  The whole family participated in the ritual to save their winter storage crop.  Funny that this memory came up as I got a message from a friend that their crop is affected right now.  I just hadn't finished this post to publish before hand.  A google search brings up lots of opinions and since I do not grow potatoes myself (space issues), I will share some links.  University of Kentucky had the different classes of insecticides as well as the biology of the beetle (know your enemy) and this guy was just down to earth on how to kill potato bugs.

So get out the hose and help your plants beat the heat.  Next year, invest in the soaker hoses and forget the sprinkler unless you like to run through it.