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Comment by Ellen on June 14, 2012 at 1:04pm

Six weeks, and counting, no rain. People, water your trees, and shrubs, if possible.

Serpentine garlic(not elephant garlic) is about ready to harvest. There are fields of bottle waterers at the farm keeping things  sprouting, growing, slooooowly.

Comment by Ellen on June 4, 2012 at 11:04am

Update.....

We are getting a small reprieve from the hot temps, but not from the drought. Ephraim, I know, does not want to hear about the lack of rain, or water  at the farm, hey....he is from Alabama, and is used to planting thousands of acres in drier conditions of black peas, okra.

We had no delusions about drought here in Indiana, just did not expect it so soon. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, okra, black peas, amaranth, radishes, cabbage, at the farm, planted with tons of mulch, doing well. Of course the  beans, sugar snaps, greens, corn, are not doing so well. All squash/melons have been planted, and have self waterers this year.....a system of up-ended filled water bottles with a few holes in the cap. Ephraim decided to give this a try....whereas Andrew, and I wanted to drill a small well, since there is a wetland spot smack dab in the middle of the farm, dried up on the surface  of course from the drought.

http://www.drillyourownwell.com/

On our personal home plot..... with a controlled water source, sugar snaps did great, fava not so great, elephant garlic has been fascinating to watch grow(going to plant lots more in Oct.). Greens are really  happy in a hoop house this year.

Comment by Katrina Oakley on May 3, 2012 at 2:52pm

Oh Ellen! that's just beautiful!

Comment by Ellen on May 3, 2012 at 2:24pm

Fava is blooming.....yay!!!! Hope this heat wave doesn't discourage them.

Comment by Ellen on May 3, 2012 at 2:22pm

Comment by Katrina Oakley on April 30, 2012 at 10:05am

I just did a blog post here for teaching kids rainwater harvesting.

Not sure why your fruit is getting so big, our peaches are still just lil tiny green dots. but looking healthy just the same. I love peaches too. Don't really care how big or small they get, you sure can't beat the taste of a fresh peach! MMMMMM

Comment by Ellen on April 30, 2012 at 9:54am

OK....will do Katrina. It is a good investment for our home garden spaces, not the farm. There is no spigot, or water source there. So whatever the farmers plant at the farm has to be planted with lots of humus to retain moisture, through another possible drought, or plant  more drought resistant vegetables It is difficult to convey this to certain farm groups such as the Burmese, Laotians, they do not understand drought, the soil , how to be proactive with mulch/humus, or haul water in when needed. The Africans on the other hand understand fully.

Trying to incorporate more fruits at the farm, then again, water is an issue, means more work, more water.

Ummm.....peaches, hope you get lots this year. Our personal fruit trees are loaded with fruit also.....think they only lost topmost fruits. The apricots are getting huge already.....what's going on to make them so big, so early???

Comment by Katrina Oakley on April 30, 2012 at 9:26am

Hi Ellen! So far so good here up north. We have some peach trees that were loaded with blooms, now they seem to have some very nice looking little green peaches. We didn't do anything to them, they are too big to even try to cover. Still have our fingers crossed for another bumper crop this year!

and hey, if you want to use your tap water with confidence, contact me, Multipure has a new garden hose filter.

Comment by Ellen on April 27, 2012 at 12:57pm

Knocked off ice from top of our hoop house. Covered most everything with row covers(agricon), sheets, last night, even the blooming blackberries, clematis.  How is everybody else making do? I do not remember ever having so many frost/hard freeze warnings in the late spring such as this.

We will invest in more dwarf fruit trees, and hedge berries, makes it easier to protect dwarfs from extremes such as these. A great idea for  rows of dwarfs to protect from frost/freeze, hail, torrential rains, birds, is to use trellises as a frame, then drape row covers/netting over these. We are using PVC flex tube  for mini hoop houses,  with netting, over sugar snaps, fava,  garlic, makes it a 'snap' to throw row covers over and attach with spring clamps.

Comment by Ernest Rando on April 10, 2012 at 6:04pm

Great Idea Thomas, my own perspective is that Churches have some of the best lawns and roofs to start planting in. All you have to do is buy some seeds and start putting them in the ground and start inviting people over for lunch and to help out. This is a slow solution but one that I have seen work many times and it is what gets me to new places. Please keep us informed and share your photos and invitations with us.

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