05

The weather has started to get really dry which is typical for this time of year here. Usually our rain starts to taper off in April and then heads toward a really dry June, July, and August. We got 1/2 inch of rain on Easter Sunday, but have not gotten any rain since. I know some of you are wondering where all the moisture goes since we did get over 100 inches of rain in only 7 months time but this land does not hold water like darker earth does. Our soil is a mixture of sand (lots of sand) and clay. We have to continually feed it with compost to make it produce vegetables in any quantity. If you do incorporate an abundance of compost it really rewards you though. This is one of the reasons bio-intensive gardening works so well here.

I have been comparing the double dug beds with the no dig beds, and so far I still am impressed with the double dug beds. They seem to produce better and larger vegetables than the no dig beds. So far the double dug beds have been easier to tend also. I am not giving up on the no dig beds yet. I want to give them at least a one year trial period, and probably will give them as much as a two year trial.

What a blessing the chickens have been to the farming effort. They take vegetable scraps and turn them into usable fertilizer in a minimum amount of time. It never ceases to amaze me at how fast they can make vegetation disappear. We had two large beds of collards left over this year, and they seemed to really love them. We would pull the collards by the armfuls and toss them over the fence to the chickens. In less than twenty minutes they would all be gone.

We planted several beds of watermelons this year, and right now they are starting to put on small melons. The bedding materiel from the chicken coop really comes in handy here. We take the soiled straw and place it around the watermelon plants. It not only cools down the soil and holds in the moisture, but it fertilizes the melons in the process. Since melons require a lot of fertilizer, this is a second plus right from the chickens.

Here is a tip for the best, sweetest tasting corn. You do not have to put the corn into boiling water immediately to have the best tasting corn. Instead, pull the ears early in the morning before the dew is off of it. This is the time of day the corn is at it's very best and has the highest sugar content in it. Leave it in the shuck and store in the refrigerator until you want to cook it. Try this just one time, and you will never have it any other way.

Happy gardening

Byron Tumlinson