Season had a little bit of everything much to gardeners' delight

By LaVERLE McCANDLESS

Contributor

“That's the way it goes, there is always next year.” Cal C McCandless (and most likely many others)

Mother Nature just did not cooperate with most gardeners this year. Well, the wheat farmers did well, the hay farmers not so well and then there are those of us who are gardeners at home with a small tiller, rake, hoe and other small implements.

It was either too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry and most of all too short of a season. Now there are some gardeners who opted to grow some vegetables, especially their tomatoes in a greenhouse.

Those of us who used row crop cover and/or blankets--it worked OK, but the wind still did not truly get stopped from sucking the heat and moisture out.

We are definitely happy with the in-ground T-Tape (TM) drip system. We used much less water, the plants were well watered and grew to their full potential plus the fact that we still could work in the garden between rows and not step into muck and mud.

The best part of this was getting the big plants, corn, tomatoes, zucchini and other plants roots deep down into the soil so there was even less watering. The roots and stalks were the largest we have ever seen in the garden. The native plant area got extra water this year because there was not enough rain but they are doing great and giving us a grand show of color this fall.

Are you thinking, “no more garden, only lawn?” Remember lawn needs a minimum of one inch a week of water to keep it lush looking.

Once you get your plants established, they don't need this much water but do need a deep watering when the top one to two inches of soil is dry. The winds will dry out the top 1” real quick, so check a little deeper.

The biennials, perennials, shrubs and trees also shade their roots so the water doesn't evaporate as much.

When you are planting native plants, you don't just plop then in a hole in the ground, give them a sip or two of water and leave them on their own.

No you don't! They need a minimum of the first year of nurturing and watering to make sure they are growing roots down and not along the surface of the ground. If the second season and even the third season are dry as summer of 2007 has been, water again like they are new plants.

In the wild, the native plant that survives germinated when it was a wet spring and shaded by other plants to get optimum growth plus the spring and summer season had a bit more than usual rain to sustain them into the winter.

The new catalogs are showing up already. We see more and more short season varieties of vegetables and this is the way to lean. These plants will continue to grow as the weather stays warm and they get the water they need to keep growing.

Just because it says 62 days doesn't mean it is going to quit growing after 62 days, this means 62 days from the time the plant was transplanted into it's final place to first mature or ripe fruit/vegetable. However due to the cool and cold nights, this also stops the ripening of tomatoes especially.

The fun begins now, figuring out what to get for next year, what you are keeping the same, what you are going to do different and what you will try you haven't before. Have fun dreaming.

Questions or comments: LaVerle (509) 455 7568.