August and September are pay back months. That’s when you get paid back for all the time, water and effort you have invested in your summer garden.
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other Southern Hemisphere Gardner’s will just have to bear with me on this. I do know it’s still winter in your gardens. But Spring is on it’s way.
You may find your harvest basket running over with summer squash, okra, onions, garlic, eggplant, tomato’s and cucumbers. Apples, berries, grapes, plums and early pears are waiting to be picked, for eating raw fresh off the tree and vines or processed for your freezer, canned or made into jelly and Jam.
Their is so much needing done that it’s hard to find time to just set and enjoy your garden, fruit and berry orchards.
My tiny garden was truly tiny this year. What few plants that survived our long running drought, the tomato worms, squash bugs, cucumber bugs, vine bores and grasshoppers eat.
I mounted my tiny spring tooth harrow our John Deer tractor today and harrowed my tiny garden plot. It’s (the garden plot) dry as old buffalo bones. A lot drier than I thought it was. I’m jerking up dirt clods larger than my fist. It will take a lot of rain to bust up dirt clods that large and that dry.
The chemical war I conducted on my tiny garden plot this past Spring has worked out well. I put down a heavy dose of preeminence and sprayed all my weeds, mostly bind weeds with a combo of 2-4-D and glyphosate herbicide. It accomplished a very effective kill of weeds and prevented other weed seeds from germinating all Spring and Summer.
I will repeat this treatment next spring (around mid February) before tilling my garden plot and installing my drip irrigation system.
Maybe I can post a few pictures of my tiny very dry, garden plot and some of my home/handmade farm helper implements I have made (as needed) over past few years.
Not from the U.S.A. Leave a comment telling us about your home town and country
Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your comment(s)
Town & Country Gardening 
Shame we can’t swap weather for a week or two. Here in the north-west of England we’ve had heavy rain showers almost every day for the last two weeks. Just what I didn’t want – our sweet corn was ripening nicely till the end of July, but the cool wet weather we’ve had since then has stopped the ripening process dead. Now the husks are beginning to split open, revealing pale unripe cobs inside. Last year we had a fantastic crop – this year I suspect we won’t get any. I guess that’s gardening for you!
Congratulations on finding my blog, by the way. I haven’t publicized it because I do it mainly for family and friends. However, everyone’s welcome to have a look if they want to.
Hope you get some rain soon.
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One thing about a small garden in an English town – used bathwater keeps the grass greener on our side of the fence! Thanks for liking my Dogs of Wensleydale – are there many working dogs in your parts?
WT
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Re willturnstone Thanks for dropping by for a visit and for your comment(s)
This is mostly wheat farming and cattle feeding area. Most every farmer or rancher has a border collie or a Australian blue heeler riding along with them to help work the cows when they need penning up or to be moved to another pasture.
Happy Gardening
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I can relate to dry. I just read today that Seattle only gets 7 inches of rain in the summer and is one of the driest places in the country during this time. I believe it. We have to water every week at least to keep our gardens alive. Good luck to you with your work on yours.
Peace,
Steve
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Yes, this time of year is particularly busy in the garden. What is your opinion about no-till gardening? We have be trying a layering technique the past few years. The idea is that the less you turn the soil, and the more you cover it, the fewer weed-seeds you expose to germination. Of course, being in the Appalachian Mountains, we have access to endless piles of leaves, as well as our neighbor’s barns full of manure.
Oscar
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Thanks for dropping by for a visit and your comment(s).
Minimum or no till is a response by farmers to the rising cost of fuel, tillage, planting and harvest cost. It’s all based in production cost (per pound) verses after harvest profits.
Best no till crops are tall crops like corn and dense vine crops like some squash, cucumbers and pumpkins that can shade out weeds. Planting areas must be near weed free before attempting no/minimum till cropping.
Heavily mulched gardens are a good start. Mulch retains moisture and reduces the number of weed seed that can and will germinate. Your plants are still competing with weeds for soil moisture, nutrients and sun light.
Without heavy use of insecticides no till may not be a good choice. Many insect eggs are found in old plant residues left in the field/garden.
Many commercial vegetable growers use heavy black plastic between rows to reduce the need to till. In general vegetable growers are not no till or minimum till farmers. They rely on heavy use of herbicides and insecticides to produce their crops.
That is the driving force behind the development of herbicide resistance crops like roundup ready corn and soy beans.
Good luck
happy gardening
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Our garden plots are small enough for hand-weeding… but then most people would not spend as many hours in June doing this as we do. 🙂 Thanks for the clarification of terms.
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Definitely not been dry here in Michigan, especially this past Monday with record breaking rainfall, but that too can be hard on a garden.
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I think that to wet is worse than to dry. When it’s dry I can always set a sprinkler and turn on the tap. But when it’s to wet how do you dry out your garden plot?
Happy gardening
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It was very dry here too. Had to do a lot of watering and it seemed never to be enough.
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I have a ‘mail’ friend that lives in Port Alberni Vancoulver Island, BC. She has been telling me that it has been a very hot dry summer where she lives and that it is so dry that the city is under some kind of water conservation (rationing) system.
Hang in there, it will start raining again, soon I hope.
Happy gardening
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Just today it started to pour and it’s coming down in buckets. I love it. The garden loves it. Much needed!
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Big Smile … Good for you..
Happy wet Friday
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Would love to see your home/homemade farm helper implements. So sorry your tiny garden has been hit so hard by the drought. I guess all of our rain (Tennessee) fizzled out before it reached your tiny garden. I have a feeling your tiny garden isn’t as tiny as you say… unlike my six tomato plants and a dozen sugar snap pea plants… now that is a tiny garden, but I’ll gladly share my harvest basket with you! 😉
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Thanks for dropping by for a visit and your comment(s)
Grin … That’s part of the problem almost without fail all of our rain comes from storms in the Gulf of Mexico or most commonly from weather systems moving from the west/southwest from the pacific.
Happy Fall gardening
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Sorry to hear you’re still suffering from that awful drought, things haven’t been much better in Australia but rain fell in inland NSW today and more is forecast. Here’s hoping it falls on your fields before too long
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Thanks for dropping by for a visit and for your comment(s)
It’s not looking good for the next 10-14 days, but our Fall rains normally don’t come before the middle to last part of September and into October. 🙂
Happy Spring Gardening
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