Rain, come again another day!

Rain, rain, go away,

Come again another day.

Rain, rain, go away.

Come again some other day.

Little Arthur wants to play,

In the meadow by the hay.

Rain, rain, go to Spain,

Never show your face again.

Rain, rain, pour down,

But not a drop on our town.

Rain on the green grass,

and rain on the tree,

And rain on the housetop,

but not on me.

Rain, rain, go away,

Come again on washing day.

Rain, rain, go to Germany,

And remain there permanently.

The rains came this week…over 2 inches – 5.08 centimeters! We really needed it. When you grow up in the desert, as my wife and I did, rain is a special thing. We enjoy the thunder and lightning and rejoice in the way rain freshens everything.

 

Our average annual rainfall in Abilene is 23.78 compared to 14.04 inches in our hometown of Odessa, Texas further to the west. Average rainfall in Texas tends to increase as one goes east. Texarkana on the Arkansas border gets a whopping 48.39 inches a year! In Adelaide, South Australia where we lived for over nine years the rainfall is a mere 520 mm a year (a little over 20 inches). It is very dry from November to April and then gets wet from May to October which is the winter season there. So you can see that I’m used to gardening in dry places.

Nevertheless, this is our monsoon season in Texas and the storms can be fierce. The typical spring storm can contain hail and produce high winds and the occasional tornado. We stay glued to the NOAA radio during stormy weather.

For gardeners, hail is especially dreaded. It can defoliate plants in nothing flat. We have a couple of wire mesh cages built by my son that we put over the more vulnerable plants when hail is predicted. So far so good in our two episodes of hail this year.

On another subject — the combination hairy vetch and winter grass cover crop has been cut down in the tomato bed. I use a very sharp hoe which I re-sharpened about three times during the process. I cut only the top parts of the plants leaving the roots to release their nutrients as they decompose. It was a good workout but now it’s done. In a few weeks we will set out the tomato plants which have become quite lanky.

In the meantime, eat your veggies! Nonnie and Pop said so.

Hairy Vetch and Other Stuff

My usual exercise (when I’m home) consists of getting out in the Charamon Garden and hoeing, lifting, digging, grinding, sifting compost, pulling weeds, etc. Yesterday it was preparing the tomato bed for planting in the next few weeks.

All winter the bed has been growing a cover crop consisting of hairy vetch and assorted winter grasses and a few other weeds. The vetch was the only intentional crop but the winter grass and weeds are inevitable. They grow together in happy confusion/profusion completely unaware that their days are numbered.

I cut them off at ground level (plus an inch or two to get the roots of the winter grass)

Texas — The Final Frontier

This is the first of a series of articles on growin’ your own stuff. Check back frequently for the next installments.

You live in a cozy house surrounded by lawn and a few trees. That’s nice. You are the typical Texan homeowner. You water and fertilize the lawn so you can mow it every week during the summer. Over and over again you follow the same routine. By the end of summer, you are thoroughly sick of it. Then, as cool fronts boldly begin to intrude, you have to deal with all those leaves. It is then you begin to wonder, “Who invented this ‘lawn-thing’ anyway?” When one realizes that all it does is make work and require expensive water and fertilizer, one begins to wonder about the sanity of it all. My question to you is, “Why don’t you kill a large portion of that lawn and redirect your water, fuel and energy, toward growing something you can eat?” When you bought the place, gardening may not have entered your mind. Now you think you might like to grow some stuff. So where will you put the garden? Good question. Let me try to help you.

Space is what you need. Space…the final frontier. You must boldly go forth and find a spot where the sunlight reaches the ground for at least six hours a day in the summer. A few vegetables, such as some peppers, grow well in dappled shade. But, for the most part, if you don’t have a sunlit spot you’re out of luck. The next option is to find a space somewhere else, perhaps a vacant lot or a space along the alley, behind the fence, etc. You must also have easy access to water, but later on we’re going to discuss ways to use very little of that precious and pricey resource. Now that you have found a place to garden, there are several preparatory steps.

• You will need some hand-tools: shovel, digging fork, rake, wheelbarrow or garden cart, trowel and hand fork. It is important to have a place where these can be covered or stored away from the elements when not in use.
• Make provision to get water to the vicinity of your garden (hoses or pipes). You will eventually need to think about drip irrigation – the most efficient way to water in our semi-arid climate.
• Begin stockpiling mulch. You will never have enough! Save newspapers, leaves, clippings, trimmings, and put them in a place where you have enough room to work with them. In Abilene and many other cities in the region, you can fetch loads of mulch from the local recycling center.
• You will need to plan space next to your stockpile for some tools such as a grinder/shredder and, hopefully a cement-mixer in which you will seldom mix cement (these are not absolutely necessary but make life easier).
• Begin a compost pile or bin if you have not done so already. All vegetable scraps from the kitchen, plus tea leaves, coffee grounds, etc. make excellent compost. You can also begin a worm bin which we will discuss later.
• Buy enough compost to cover your garden beds two inches deep and have it on hand. If you have a pickup or trailer, buy bulk compost. It is substantially cheaper than the bagged variety.

Next time: “Finding and Preparing your Space”…in the meantime, eat your veggies!  Nonnie and Pop said so.