You probably already have this in place, but...we put newspaper or cardboard around plants, then a layer of compost or just cleanings from the coop or barn, and then top with wood chips. The ground underneath stays very moist and requires far less water. God Bless You!
You need some sunflowers Ernie. They require very little water and grow anywhere. Long tap root like a tree on em reaches way down deep for moisture and nutrients.
I know you and your family can't live on sunflower seeds of course. But the seeds and stalks make excellent forage for animals and we all love a little snack yes?
As an energy source they rank somewhere slightly above corn with far fewer resources going into growing them.
10kids, yeah, we use a "Back to Eden" method of gardening that is very similar to that. It requires a lot less water. I'll post some pictures.
However less water doesn't mean no water. :) I've stunted a lot of my plants already because of our household shortage of water.
InvalidID, I love sunflowers and it's easy to dry the heads to feed to chickens during the winter. There's a couple of problems there though ...
1. We don't till and I don't have a lot of space in the garden right now. Sunflowers require tillage to prosper.
2. It is very windy here. We average about a 20 mph wind most days with gusts up in the 30's. My experience with the big sunflowers is that they can't really handle that. They topple easily.
All of that said, I think when I go into town today I'm going to pick up some seeds. It's not to late to plant them and it's worth the experiment. I'll plant them over in a dry gulch area where it's relatively barren. Dig a little hole and put in some compost and then drop the seed. We'll see if they prosper with no maintenance at all beyond their seedling state.
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Do you have any creeks nearby? I remember folks hauling water from the creek when I was a kid.
Yes, but it's a dry creek right now. And it's not been diverted into the pond.
That's a big dry hole right now but I'm hoping at some point this year it fills up. If not this year then it will fill up this winter.
You probably already have this in place, but...we put newspaper or cardboard around plants, then a layer of compost or just cleanings from the coop or barn, and then top with wood chips. The ground underneath stays very moist and requires far less water. God Bless You!
You need some sunflowers Ernie. They require very little water and grow anywhere. Long tap root like a tree on em reaches way down deep for moisture and nutrients.
I know you and your family can't live on sunflower seeds of course. But the seeds and stalks make excellent forage for animals and we all love a little snack yes?
As an energy source they rank somewhere slightly above corn with far fewer resources going into growing them.
10kids, yeah, we use a "Back to Eden" method of gardening that is very similar to that. It requires a lot less water. I'll post some pictures.
However less water doesn't mean no water. :) I've stunted a lot of my plants already because of our household shortage of water.
InvalidID, I love sunflowers and it's easy to dry the heads to feed to chickens during the winter. There's a couple of problems there though ...
1. We don't till and I don't have a lot of space in the garden right now. Sunflowers require tillage to prosper.
2. It is very windy here. We average about a 20 mph wind most days with gusts up in the 30's. My experience with the big sunflowers is that they can't really handle that. They topple easily.
All of that said, I think when I go into town today I'm going to pick up some seeds. It's not to late to plant them and it's worth the experiment. I'll plant them over in a dry gulch area where it's relatively barren. Dig a little hole and put in some compost and then drop the seed. We'll see if they prosper with no maintenance at all beyond their seedling state.
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