July 21, 2017
My oak leaf mulch is pretty thin and pulverized now, but luckily Mother Nature has provided me with more free leaves. The madrone trees have shed half their leaves in preparation for the summers lack of ground moisture, and their yellow, gold and amber brighten up the woodland landscape. They are dry, and crackle like corn flakes when you walk on them. There is no sneaking up on anything this time of year in the woods..
I noticed the Buck brush had half their leaves turning yellow and dropping off, and realized that with half the leaves gone, half as much water would respire. They don't need photosynthesis to grow through the dry spell, they just need to survive. A mixture of madrone leaves and pine needles is the only thing I've found that can keep Creeping Jenny down..
July 22, 2017
The green beans are doing really well after I started watering with my water wand. I picked half of a gallon size Ziploc bag, instead of a handful, from my six foot row. Using lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower leaves for mulch was not a good idea because I put them too close up against the plants. Half the water that landed around them got channeled off eight inches away. The mulch leaves should have been eight inches from the plants, then when they dried and started to crumble, I could push them in closer..
I'm using the big green leaves now for weed suppression instead of moisture retention. They form a circle around my tomato plants three feet away. Inside the circle is four inches of loose straw which is still the best mulch I can find. It let's air and water flow through, keeps moisture in the ground, feeds the earthworms and microbes of the soil, suppresses weeds, keeps the ground cool, and reflects light back up onto the under side of leaves increasing photosynthesis..
July 23, 2017
Next to sitting in the garden shade and watching the bumblebees diving into the hollyhock flowers, my favorite thing is watering. The water wand is in constant use now, and instead of an hour of drip per mound, we are up to an hour of trickle per mound. Cracks are still forming in the ground around the outside of the mulch on each mound, so I may need to up it to two hours. My garden is surrounded on three sides with grape vines and their roots penetrate deeply into my planting areas. The grapes are forming and water for them is being siphoned out of my garden..
The heat has returned so I get to spray the cabbage and cauliflower every evening. I don't have to put the water wand down the corn rows anymore because I discovered that laying it alongside the patch, and aiming the holes up at a 30ð angle, can shoot water through about half way. In an hour the whole patch is soaked..
