Water!

Garden update from Saturday June 5th.

This may look bad, but thanks to the hügel mound design, and the materials assembled to construct them, our beds were not water-logged as of Saturday afternoon. We are not set up to use irrigation, we are hand watering this season. Given this coverage, a cover-crop planting along the North side of the property would be pretty successful.

General State of Things

With the high heat, I’ve been watering for an hour each morning using the timer (as agreed on in our last meeting) which sets off a pair of sprinklers just covering the rows, but not completely. There is now another hose with the garden wand attached to it, also out, watch for kinks in the new hose line. By walking between the rows you can check to see how well moisture is holding. You can also test the difference between the uncovered soil, and those parts covered with leaves. Watch the hose to be sure it doesn’t sweep over the plants.

Any feedback on this sign would be appreciated. I’ve found the main faucet in the “off” position once, and the timer and splitter disconnected from the faucet another time. I left a voice message with the main office at the church, but have not been able to connect with the priest, Father David, this past week. If we, as a group, are not able to leave the timer in this set up position we will need to establish a regular schedule to water the garden for an hour with the sprinklers and spot-watering by hand as close to daily as possible, while temperatures remain in the 80’s and higher.

Please review and select a day.

Regular Things to Tend

Weeding

Hand watering

Covering the beds with leaves, and then hand watering

Finishing up the mounds with the last two rows

Laying walkway with cardboard and wood chips

Special Tasks ( $60*)

Weed-eating the south side of the property, around the raised beds and the area where weed cloth is down. Part of the weeds border wire fencing, and quite a bit of irrigation that looks to be meant for the raised beds.

*This is labor to value differently because we’re not all working on it together, but it’s critical to do for community perception.