Finally! A little moisture, this time provided by Mother Nature and not Mother Hose-Dragger.
I feel happy for the perennials/flower beds. I tend to adopt a sink-or-swim attitude toward them, as I have not been very generous with my watering. They're mulched to high heaven, or, at least they used to be...the chickens love mulch. The only care I really attend to them is a dilettantish dead-heading with the pruning shears.
The veg gardens fare better in a drought. Yes, these beds are heavily mulched, too, but I spoil the vegetables much more. How can I help it? These favored things grant us food as a reward. My only concern now is the tomatoes might split with this quick uptake of water. Hmm.
4 comments:
What it is with chickens and mulch? I have one bed that I just cannot keep them out of. I have to run out with a broom every five minutes and yell until they find something else to get into. Yesterday I didn't see them for awhile and found them dustbathing in the swiss chard. Glad you are getting some precip. I'm hoping for an afternoon t-storm myself today.
Enjoy the free water! Yay.
(Mulching? I should be mulching? Ohgod, I'm a boob in the woods. What should I use?)
M: Good thing your girls were only dustbathing in your chard. Mine consider chard a primary food source (if they can get to it, that is!)
CC: You naif. Actually, mulch helps keep moisture in, thus worms happy. I have clay soil, which tends to crust up at the top layer so mulch prevents this. Mulch = anything handy. I use grass clippings in the warm months, leaves in the fall and spring, and straw in the winter. If I still had a snooty city garden I would probably buy the stuff: cocoa hulls, buckwheat hulls, etc. NEVER the strangely colored stuff you see at a gas station, though.
Thank you, El. I have clay soil, too, and I'm a little nervous about what the garden beds are going to look like during our rainy winter. I had already decided on hay (or... something) for then, but -- jeepers! I'll put it on now. Merci.
(Gas station mulch? Oh, you must mean in their garden beds... Funny how there's such an American tradition of Gas Station Gardens. But -- cute. Wouldn't it make a great coffee table book?)
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