Do you really only water your veggies once every three weeks with the soaker hose? I read your last column on gardening during a drought, and am trying to conserve water, but I'm not very sure how much my plants need or how much they are getting. I have veggies in raised beds and they seem to be doing well, but I am currently watering most days. Can I cut back? I'd appreciate any advice.
In My Garden Blog:
Southern California Coastal & Inland Valleys
June 4, 2009
By
Yvonne Savio,
Pasadena, CA
Save some lettuce seed while replanting the rest of the bed with cucumbers, squash, peppers, and more heat-tolerant lettuce.
Spring Into Summer?
Everything in my garden is growing grandly, with daytime and evening temperatures comfortable for people as well as plants. Beets are deliciously sweet. Tomatoes are full of blossoms and expanding fruits. Reseeded lettuce plants are providing salads along side plants eaten from all winter and spring that are now maturing their seed heads. Pepper plants are still tiny but set with flowers. Cucumbers and yellow crookneck squash, which I seeded when I pulled out the bolting lettuce, are several inches high. I'll plant another batch of cukes, squash, and beets in another 3 weeks, when I pull the last of the sweet peas and cabbage. And, another batch another month after that -- for continuous harvests through fall.
Part of the magic is due to our still-continuing mild spring weather. With daytime temperatures in the low 80s, and evenings in the low 60s, plants are developing at a steady pace.
What keeps plants happy is the dual benefit of soaker hoses under 4 inches of composted horse-stable bedding. The once-every-three-weeks, hour-long seeping of water into the soil and organic matter makes sure the roots a foot down are moist. The mulch keeps evaporation and weed germination to a minimum, while maximizing microorganism activity to break down the bedding into nutrition for the soil and plant roots. And, during more dramatic temperature swings, it moderates soil temperature so the roots can thrive.
New to my garden this year is edamame (soybeans). About half of the seeds are up a week after planting in the bed that had had the broccoli and spinach all winter long. After pulling, I'd incorporated a bag of manure into the 10' x6' space and relaid the soaker hose so the strands were one foot apart. After seeding, I watered the seeds in, covered the bed with 2 inches of compost, and watered that in. This is my reseeding and replanting process between each crop throughout the garden.
Growing in containers, awaiting planting in another month for late-summer harvest, are tomatoes I started from seed in late February -- Big Beef, Black Brandywine, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Crimson Carmelo, Green Zebra, Marvel Stripe, Pomodoro Cuor di Bue (a friend brought me seeds from Italy), and Sugar Sweetie.
Join the discussion!
--
We welcome your questions and comments about this column. Care to share your gardening thoughts, insights, triumphs, or disappointments with your fellow gardening enthusiasts? Join the lively
discussions on our FaceBook page and receive free daily tips!
- Add a comment -
Beginning gardener from East LA | June 4, 2009 | 5:37PM
Yvonne Savio | June 4, 2009 | 6:00PM
Hi, Beginning Gardener from East LA-- Yes, in this weather, once every 3 weeks works. Your watering so frequently keeps the roots in that top inch or two of soil, since they don't have to grow any deeper to follow the water as gravity pulls it down. Early in the spring, you have to "teach" the roots that they have to "chase" the water downward by watering deeply but infrequently. For seedlings, this means twice a week only for the first week until they get "connected" with the soil. Then, water once a week for 2 weeks. Then, once evry three weeks. This is more easily accomplished when 2 inches of mulch is placed on top of the soil when the seedlings are first transplanted, since it holds the water in place, lessens evaporation, and moderates soil temperature. Since we're still benefiting from the low-70s daytime temperatures, you can help your plants transition now by watering 2 times a week for 3 weeks, then once a week for 3 weeks; and make sure to add that mulch! By then, our "real" summer heat may have started, but your plants will have developed deeper roots so they'll be able to withstand the heat. Since you're in East LA, you may want to visit me at our University of California Cooperative Extension Common Ground Garden Program office at 4800 E. Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, LA 90022. See our website for lots of gardening info -- http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/Common_Ground_Garden_Program. On our homepage is the invitation to join either or both of my elists -- one on Community Gardening and Food Security, and the other on School Gardening. We offer seasonal basic gardening classes, and I email the announcement flyers to those elists.
Beginning gardener from East LA | June 4, 2009 | 7:01PM
Wow - thanks for the quick response! I'm a first time gardener and that was my first ever post. :) I appreciate the advice and will definitely try to teach my plants to go deep. Does this go for tomatoes as well? I've heard that they are less tolerant of any dryness. Thanks again.
Yvonne Savio | June 5, 2009 | 12:35AM
Hi, Beginner-- Yes, even more important for tomatoes, whose roots can go down 3 feet!
Dave from HB | June 5, 2009 | 1:48PM
kyrr
Dave from HB | June 5, 2009 | 1:50PM
OOPS. Your advice on watering is right on. I learned from a retired farm manager who always told me I was watering far too much. Just seeing dry ground on top is not a sign of dry soil. You have to dig down at least the depth of one trowel. I have added a yard of compost to my backyard garden every spring and fall for the last 45 years. I am now completely organic and enjoy fruits and veggies with REAL flavor. I also make my own compost and raise red worms to feed my garden.
Yvonne Savio | June 5, 2009 | 2:30PM
Hi, Dave -- Congratulations on 45 years of deliciousness! Happy plants make happy eating and admiring! There's nothing so satisfying as saying, "I'm going into the garden to pick dinner"!
Nancy - Inland Empire | June 8, 2009 | 2:06PM
My husband is doing the gardening this year since I am recovering from several falls. Most of the things we have planted are doing pretty much as you have said. However our Zucchini squash plants are now getting their big upper leaves chewed up by almost half.The smaller squash plants coming up in the same hill are not effected. Hasn't spotted any varmits near or on them. We have done zuchini for many years but never saw this happen. Last year we had a racoon and a number of possums trapped by the vector control because of them eating up our squash plants, along with Okra and other things. They had been displaced by the building going on west and south of us by the 210 freeway. Do you think some others may be back? However they didn't eat the leaves before just the squash themselves. HELP ! Thanks and I love your column.
Yvonne Savio | June 9, 2009 | 2:41AM
Hi, Nancy -- Maybe take a couple of pictures and chewed leaves to your local nursery where one of the Certified Nursery Professionals can make an educated guess. Also, go to the University of California Integrated Pest Management website -- www.ipm.ucdavis.edu -- and check under "squash" for the possible varmints! One trick that deters cats is to poke chopsticks (or something similar) into the soil every couple of inches around the plants -- the cats can't fit in between and don't seem to want to push them down. Draping netting on top also deters them cuz they don't want to get their paws/claws caught in it.
