Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Dry as a bone
We are still in the middle of a drought period - no real rain since July 14. That's 3 weeks. It is starting to be desperate down there. I can do no other work apart from watering and harvesting. It's so depressing.
I got my first tomatoes! Unbelievably late this year, next year I must start earlier and use cloches.
I am also keeping this year an Excel sheet so I can keep track of the growing periods of each crop. For example, the first tomatoes are MoneyMaker type - they have a growing period of 133 days, so it seems. This will make it easier next year to backwards count and to sow at the optimal dates. And as I know that the French beans crop in 60-70 days, I am sowing a last batch now that I will pick before the first frosts!
The crops are looking tired, they are thirsty for a really big drink, not just survival rations. The pumpkins and butternuts have fruited excellently but I must keep watering so the fruit can swell enough. The courgettes just keep giving and I have more pattypan squash at the moment. Those excellent Cobra climbing beans have started cropping, they are just too good. If there are some more left in the packet, I will erect some stakes and resow, as they are a very fast cropper too (barely 60 days). Some watering has prompted the strawberries to fruit again. They have not done too badly for their first year but the drought has been hard on them too.
I got my first tomatoes! Unbelievably late this year, next year I must start earlier and use cloches.
I am also keeping this year an Excel sheet so I can keep track of the growing periods of each crop. For example, the first tomatoes are MoneyMaker type - they have a growing period of 133 days, so it seems. This will make it easier next year to backwards count and to sow at the optimal dates. And as I know that the French beans crop in 60-70 days, I am sowing a last batch now that I will pick before the first frosts!
The crops are looking tired, they are thirsty for a really big drink, not just survival rations. The pumpkins and butternuts have fruited excellently but I must keep watering so the fruit can swell enough. The courgettes just keep giving and I have more pattypan squash at the moment. Those excellent Cobra climbing beans have started cropping, they are just too good. If there are some more left in the packet, I will erect some stakes and resow, as they are a very fast cropper too (barely 60 days). Some watering has prompted the strawberries to fruit again. They have not done too badly for their first year but the drought has been hard on them too.
Labels: beans, drought, pumpkin, summer, tomatoes
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 10:17 AM 
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