SAVE SOME WATER, NOW. FOR REALS.

 

Remember when we were all, "Save some water, already"?

 

Yeah - well, now we're more like, "SAVE SOME WATER, NOW. FOR REALS."

 

You know about the drought. It's no secret. But what about your summer garden? Can you still grow food while conserving water? 

 

But, of course.

 

Here's our shortlist of water saving techniques for the vegetable garden. If you, say, also get rid of a water sucking lawn in the process, though, that wouldn't hurt.

 

*Excerpt from our coaching update*

#0 MULCH

Yeah, so there's not usually a #0, but what we're trying to say here is that

if you only do one thing to save water this summer, this is the thing - MULCH.

 

A 2" layer of bark or straw, black or green plastic, a single layer of cardboard, a few layers of newspaper, dense shade from low growing companion plants (nasturtium are totally pros at this) or densely spaced main crops (see #3 below) are the way to go. 

 

I'm naming the next farm dog, Mulch.

 

No sun on bare soil! For reals, now.

#1 Water smart

Install drip irrigation
This is one of the most effective ways to conserve water AND the best way to water your vegetable plants. Here's an all-in-one kit that will drip irrigate a 75 square foot garden area. Get nuts.

Check all of your irrigation and fix the broken bits
Test your system for leaks, clogged drip emitters, calcium encrusted manifolds (the big main head that all of your drip lines connect to) and missing bits and pieces that the naughty squirrels made off with during the winter. Then fix it and get to growing while saving water, already.

 

Plant in raised beds

Whether you construct raised garden beds from boards (just not treated railroad ties, please), concrete blocks, scrap metal or hay bales or just mound up soil a foot or two deep, raised beds help promote drainage, warm the soil faster, avoid compaction (you won't be as likely to walk on the raised part of the bed) and focus water at your plants' roots rather than indiscriminately *around* the plants. 

 

 

#2 Water like you mean it

Know your plants' water needs and then don't overdo it

Know what kind of watering condition your different vegetables like and go with that instead of blanket watering everything. Seriously. For instance, tomatoes like infrequent deep watering (think 3 days a week for 10-15 minutes) and lettuce likes consistent shallow watering (think daily or every other day for 5-10 minutes). 

If you can't provide specific watering conditions for each type of vegetable (I get it - we have automatic drip irrigation, too, and lots of different stuff planted together in the Test Garden), follow these four rules that will, generally, appeal to most of your warm weather crops:

1. Water deeply - This encourages deep root development.
2. Water infrequently -This keeps the soil from leaching nutrients below the plants' roots.
3. Water in the morning - This gives the plants a fighting chance of being able to take up the water before it evaporates in the hot sun and gives them the turgidity (upright strength) to power through the hottest parts of the day without flagging (falling the hell over).
4. Water at the roots and not on the leaves -This discourages disease and gets water to where the plant can use it. 

 

#3 Plant wisely

More IS better...in this case anyway

Sure, there are spacing requirements listed on your seed packets and seedling starts and such, and these are good guidelines for most situations, but when we're in a bind for water, resources and space, these requirements can be overly conservative. Instead, look for the "spread" or "width" size for the plants you're growing and plant to the edges of that area rather than including extra space. 

So, for example, tomato spacing is usually recommended at 30 inches (2 1/2 feet) between plants, but if your tomato plant's spread is 3 1/2 feet (or 1 3/4 feet on center), you can plant your tomato plants at 1 3/4' apart so that when the plants reach maturity, their leaves and branches will touch/overlap a bit and there'll hardly be a flicker of sunshine that hits that soil to dry up any moisture that exists.  

Cover seeds

Loosely cover germinating seeds with a floating row cover to keep the soil mo-ist enough for the seeds to germinate without risking them drying out.  Plus, it'll keep marauding birds from eating all your seed. Bonus!

No sun on bare soil! For reals, now.

It's time to make a mess

It's been raining. OH HAS IT BEEN RAINING YAY WOO FINALLY!

Phew.

And it's about to clear off a little and warm up a little and hey wait! What's that I see? Is it big vigorous cover crops going to flower?! 

Why yes indeedy.

It's time - before we get all underway with spring planting fun and excitement and WHICH TOMATO VARIETIES ARE YOU TRYING THIS YEAR and such - to prep that soil for a big planting season ahead.

And the first step in spring soil prep is to take down those cover crops and winter food crops with enough pre-planting time on the calendar for those crops' plant material to be broken down and incorporated into your garden soil.

Let's make a mess, shall we?   

When to cut down cover crops

This is always a big question because, when you look at the garden with its bushy cover crops growing all lush and green when everything else in the garden looks rather puny and uninspired, it's hard to make yourself get the shears out to cut that good looking stuff down to the ground.

Aw, po-po cover crops, dying an early death at the hands of the ruthless gardener.

But as soon as you see blossoms hitting the soil and flower buds forming - IT'S TIME.

Flowers on the soil means beans on the plants. CHOP CHOP!

And when your last frost date is March 1 and you're planning to start planting by the beginning of April, you want to give those ruthlessly chopped crops at least a few weeks to a full month to be broken down in the soil.

This way, when you go to plant into that garden, all evidence of your brutal destruction will have vanished and, in its place, will be gorgeous healthy soil full of rich organic matter and happy soil microorganisms and bacteria ready to help out your spring and summer crops.

You want this.

How to cut down cover crops

Once you've made peace with the whole BUT THE COVER CROPS ARE SO GORGEOUS THAT I HATE TO CUT THEM DOWN, get out your shears and pruners and get out there.

The key to getting the full bang for your cover crop buck is to get the plant material cut into small pieces and to get the plants themselves cut off at soil level. 

By doing these two things, you'll give the soil microorganisms and bacteria lots of material to work on and in the right bite-sized pieces so that they can make quick work of your cover crop. By cutting your plants off at the soil level, rather than pulling them out completely, you leave the roots in the soil for the microorganisms and bacteria to work on and add lots of organic matter to the soil, too.

When you're done taking down your cover crop it should look like a chopped salad out there. If you have big stalks left over, save those for building your compost pile (stacked like logs at intervals in your compost pile lets air circulate so it never smells like poo) rather than trying to chop them up into your soil.

Why to cut down cover crops

Sure, we could leave the plants in the garden and let them go to flower and then to seed and then die back on their own time, but there really are good reasons to cut them back before they've set flowers and seed.

• Nutrients - Once plants start to set fruit/seed, they're starting to use the nutrient reserves in their roots. You want those nutrients, especially from legume crops (for nitrogen) like fava beans, bell beans and vetch, going into your soil. Be ruthless! Chop chop!
• Pest control - The longer plants live on in the garden, the more susceptible they are to disease and pests. So, that gorgeous mound of mustard greens and mini orchard of broccoli will be the perfect place for the first hatches of harlequin beetles, aphids and cabbage moths once the rains clear off for a split second.
• Planting - You want to grow a spring garden, right? Right. So, you need to make room for them and prepare that soil accordingly.

So - get out there and get to chopping. If it makes you feel better, think about all of the happy tomatoes and cucumbers and melons and beans and peppers and and and that you'll get to plant soon into that gorgeous healthy soil.

Plus, you get to make a mess, which is kinda fun, too.

Get that garden started

Are you ready to kick ass in that garden this spring? Because it's time. Sure, it may seem cold and rainy (yay!) and hey spring's still a ways off, but I have news - spring is only 21 days away and, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, our last frost date is only three days away. 

NO, REALLY.

So, get that garden started. 

Get your garden planned, sow your seeds, source your transplants, eat your winter garden to make room for the spring garden and prep, prep, prep the soil, tools and equipment before spring is upon us and you're all, BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS WINTER NOW WHERE WILL I PUT ALL OF THESE TOMATO PLANTS?!

Don't stress though - here's a quick guide from our Test Garden to get you going... 

*Excerpt from our monthly coaching update*

1. Plan your garden 

If you know what you grew last season, then you're halfway to planning your spring garden. And if you didn't grow anything last year or you have a new growing space, the only issue will be deciding between all the different vegetables that you can grow. Which, I'll admit, can be a challenge. 

Don't get distracted! Do the needful!

Build a crop rotation plan 

Start a Garden Tracker 

Plant helpful buddies for your vegetables 

  

If you'd like some help (or a lot of help - that's good, too), book a Kitchen Garden Plan session and we'll plan your garden, give you a design to follow and build your crop rotation plan. No stressing! No worries! Just vegetables, companion plants and badassery. 

2. Start your seeds 

For forever-taking plants that don't like to be sown as seed directly in the garden like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, the time for starting your seeds indoors is dwindling fast - so get them going! 

For faster-growing plants like squash, melons and cucumbers that don't mind a direct sow situation, you have a little time before they have to go into the garden - so now's the time to get your seeds in hand and ready to roll.

For early season, direct sow plants like peas (OH SWEET LITTLE SHELLING PEAS YUM), lettuces and beets that like to do their hard work in the cool weather - now's the time to get them into the garden so that WOO you can start your harvests ASAP.

Want calendar reminders for these things so that you don't forget? Add the Indie Farms Growing Calendar to your Google Calendar view (click the +Google Calendar logo in the bottom right corner). Done and done.

The tomatoes are excited to meet you! They're social like that.

3. Source your transplants
There are lots of sources for garden-ready transplants this spring, but we're partial to the Indie Farms Spring Plant Sale because obviously.

Check out the Official 2014 Indie Farms Plant Sale line up and keep an eye on your coaching update and Facebook for your chance at an invite. We'll have vegetable and herb (culinary and medicinal) transplants and our whole line up of grow-y goodness posted up in the (hopefully bursting) Test Garden for your shopping and chattering enjoyment. Plus surprises! 

4. Close out those winter gardens
I heard something somewhere that once we get past the shortest day of the winter (it was 12/20/13), we gain a rooster's foot of light a day until BOOM it's summer and the sun's high in the sky again, feeding our plants all of the sunlight they can stand. 

Well, regardless of whether that rooster's foot thing is total BS, the rise of the sun in the sky means that it's time to bid farewell to those winter vegetables so you can make space for the spring vegetables in just no time at all.

So - savor those final broccoli sideshoots, tender winter greens, sweet carrots, wispy pungent herbs and crispy cole crops and when the plants start to look spent, withered and just plain done - pull them out, eat them or toss them (don't compost them if there are even the slightest signs of disease or pests) and get on with it, already. 

5. Prep those beds

Once your beds are cleared of winter crops, it's time to treat that soil to a good solid boost. 

Adding a good dose of Gardner & Bloome's Harvest Supreme to each of our beds is our go-to for replenishing our soil after the winter crops have had their way with it.

Once that's mixed in really well, get a soil test kit and see what's doing in that soil with our step-by-step How To for soil testing and organic amending.

Then drag out those garden structures (bean trellises, tomato cages, cucumber and melon fencing, etc) and make sure they're in good order, make sure you're stocked with good organic fertilizer like worm castings or storebought organic fertilizer and get those garden tools ready to rock.

And then you'll be ready to kick the maximum amount of ass in the spring garden. Which is what we're all after, really.

Save some water, already

Look, I know there's rain in the forecast for the week and that we got a day or two of rain this month, but that doesn't mean we can run around spraying it everywhere because WOO THE DROUGHT IS OVER!

It's not. Not by a long shot. 

But we still want to get those warm weather seedlings started and that takes water, so here's how we save water AND start our vegetable, herb and flower seedlings.

Keep in mind though, if I see you wasting water, I will spank your buns. Just fair warning is all.

Meanwhile, here are 10 ways to save water while growing those badass vegetable gardens this year...


*Excerpt from our coaching update*

Pre-planting 

1. Install drip irrigation
This is one of the most effective ways to conserve water AND the best way to water your vegetable plants. Here's an all-in-one kit that will drip irrigate a 75 square foot garden area. Get nuts.

2. Check all of your irrigation/fix  
Already have drip irrigation? You're awesome. Before you plant a thing, go out there and test your system (aka - turn that muther on) for leaks, clogged drip emitters, calcium encrusted manifolds (the big main head that all of your drip lines connect to) and missing bits and pieces that the naughty squirrels made off with during the winter. Then fix it and get to growing, already.

3. Build beds
Whether you construct raised garden beds from boards (just not treated railroad ties, please), concrete blocks, scrap metal or hay bales or just mound up soil a foot or two deep, raised beds help promote drainage, avoid compaction (you won't be as likely to walk on the raised part of the bed) and focus water at your plants' roots rather than indiscriminately *around* the plants.

4. Rain barrels

Have you done this? It's pretty simple to set up and can give you a reserve of water to use for hand watering during dry periods. Like, you know, now. Rain barrels come in a number of sizes, can be set up to catch water from downspouts or just as it falls from the sky. The beauty is that it doesn't *have* to fully rain for moisture to accumulate since dew and moisture accumulate on roofs overnight and will drain right into your barrels, too. 

Planting time 

5. Plant densely 
Sure, there are spacing requirements listed on your seed packets and seedling starts and such, and these are good guidelines for most situations, but when we're in a bind for water, resources and space, these requirements can be overly conservative. Instead, look for the "spread" or "width" size for the plants you're growing and plant to the edges of that area rather than including extra space. 

So, for example, tomato spacing is usually recommended at 30 inches (2 1/2 feet) between plants, but if your tomato plant's spread is 3 1/2 feet (or 1 3/4 feet on center), you can plant your tomato plants at 1 3/4' apart so that when the plants reach maturity, their leaves and branches will touch/overlap a bit and there'll hardly be a flicker of sunshine that hits that soil to dry up any moisture that exists while still allowing for enough air circulation to keep the plants happy.

  

Also, planting in squares rather than rows is a good, dense, way to get more from your space without using more water. 

6. MULCH  

I know I've gone on about mulch before, but let me reiterate for those who were checking their phones at the time (I see you out there) - Mulch. OH MULCH. 

Whether you use straw, plastic, bark, cardboard, straw, newspaper, shade at the soil level (shade is mulch!) - cover the soil around your plants to keep the moisture IN and the water-stealing weeds OUT. 

7. Cover germinating seed beds

Loosely cover germinating seeds with a floating row cover to keep the soil mo-ist enough for the seeds to germinate without risking them drying out. 

8. Start plants indoors

Some plants need a head start so that they'll be ready to take off when our weather agrees with their ideal growing conditions and, by starting these plants indoors you'll conserve water by growing them in small containers that can be watered super efficiently via capillary mats or just hyper focused hand watering. Plants to start indoors include long season vegetables like eggplant, peppers and tomatoes.

Post-planting

9. Water like a pro

Firstly - know what kind of watering condition your different vegetables like and go with that instead of blanket watering everything. Seriously. For instance, tomatoes like infrequent deep watering (think 3 days a week for 10-15 minutes) and lettuce likes consistent shallow watering (think daily or every other day for 5-10 minutes). 

If you can't provide specific watering conditions for each type of vegetable (I get it - we have automatic drip irrigation, too, and lots of different stuff planted together in the Test Garden), follow these four rules that will, generally, appeal to most of your warm weather crops:

1. Water deeply - This encourages deep root development.

2. Water infrequently -This keeps the soil from leaching nutrients below the plants' roots.

3. Water in the morning - This gives the plants a fighting chance of being able to take up the water before it evaporates in the hot sun and gives them the turgidity (upright strength) to power through the hottest parts of the day without flagging (falling the hell over).

4. Water at the roots and not on the leaves -This discourages disease and gets water to where the plant can use it.

10. Water only when the plants need it
Yes, we love our drip irrigation and automatic watering, but when it gets hot and the plants need more water, we don't want to rely on the timer to know when the plants need a drink.

Secret: Timers don't know when the soil's drying up. They only know that IT'S 5:30AM! TURN ON THE WATER!

So, yeah. Before you get all "Oh the timer's got this one." and your plants shrivel up from lack of water, do a quick check to see if they even *need* water at all. And if so, give it to them GOOD.

Beans go boom

I've always liked growing beans.

They aren't bothered by much in the way of pests, they're good for the soil (they fix it with nitrogen), they produce a sometimes overwhelming reliable crop and they cover a structure like it's nobody's business.

And a covered structure in a garden can be a really good thing if you don't have a lot of growing space, want to grow both cooler weather and warmer weather crops and tend to have crops that overlap seasons.

Pole beans are perfect for all of these scenarios.

We really like Fortex pole beans because they're a thinner filet bean that tends to get longer rather than fatter if left on the poles a little too long. And, let's be clear, these things grow and produce fast, so plan to be out picking them every day or be prepared to find some big boys dangling off of those vines.

But since they grow fast and have a pretty long garden life (planted in mid-spring, they'll grow until fall), they can be put in once the days start to warm up a bit and the shade from their scary fast growing vines can protect those early spring crops that don't so much love the warming temperatures.

Like, say, lettuce for instance.

Pole bean seeds are also really easy to save for following seasons. Just leave them on the vines until they're dry and the seeds are rattling around in the pods like weird shaped maracas and then shuck the pods and save the beans in a breathable container (a paper bag or envelope works pretty well) for a few months until no moisture remains. After that they can be stored in a jar or plastic bag without worrying about any moisture fouling up the works.

In the spring time, like right about now, put a few between two sheets of a moistened paper towel on a plate in your kitchen for a few days and, while keeping that paper towel wet, watch for them to sprout.

I think this is where the idea for a mace came from.

 

Once they've sprouted, toss any that didn't sprout and then head out to your garden fence, trellis or tepee to get them planted.

Poke a hole in your loamy garden soil about two knuckles deep and drop the sprouted seed into the hole, root down.

Cover with soil, water thoroughly and then wait for the seedling to emerge.

After that, well, ready your harvest baskets because...

Beans go BOOM