I'm trying not to be discouraged. My poor little garden :( The heat has beens so intense here it seems to have actually baked the soil in the containers. Instead of being spongy and absorbing of water, the soil in the containers has become hard and brittle. I realized this when my poor plants seemed to be dying even with twice a day watering. To help, I took a skewer and poked holes in the soil and deeply watered. Today, a few things are going to be transplanted into larger containers and everything is getting a water bottle for self watering. Also, I need to get my hands on some compost - I think the plants need some additional nutrition and I want to try to avoid fertilizers if I can.
The lemon tree is still doing well and the lemons continue to grow. The green beans are growing and I think we may start to see it flowering in the next 2-3 weeks. The blueberry plants we bought last week at the farmer's market seem to be having a hard time in the heat. They are getting new, larger containers to day along with water bottles. I think I may put them under one of the larger trees on the property. I think the heat from all day direct sunlight might be too much right now, while they are still in containers.
We have been harvesting cherry tomatoes and now yellow pear tomatoes. There is nothing like yummy home grown tomatoes.
Updated: I transplanted the blueberries into large containers. I think this will help so much. Poor things. When I moved them, I tried to crumble the soil around the roots only to find that it was dry as a bone, even with the deep watering and poking holes into the soil before watering. When I transplanted them, I broke up the dirt around the roots and watered the roots well, then put them into nice potting soil in the container. Then I watered again, really well. I'm hoping to see improvement today. We also moved the poor little watermelon plant that was dying. Its in a pot now with potting soil. Hopefully we can bring it back to life, then plant it in a kiddie pool to see if it will grow and make watermelon.
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6 comments:
The hot, hot sun was the focus of my post today as well! You are being very proactive. When you are having a heat wave, shade is the kindest thing you can offer your plants. In that area you have us all beat because you can move your garden to a shady spot!
Next time you transplant try puting some dryer lint near the root ball. It will absorb water and make that water available to the roots of your plant. Also put mulch on top of the soil in your planters. It will help retain moisture and keep the plants a little cooler.
Thanks for the dryer lint tip. Several plants will be transplanted tomorrow and there is always lots of dryer lint around here :) Thanks also for the mulch tip. My tree has mulch but the rest, poor babies, don't yet. Time to add some.
I didn't know the dryer lint tip either. I hope your plants do better with that.
Dryer lint! Wow....who would've thought?? :) I cannot imagine it being so dry...we're getting swamped here! :) Sounds like you're doing your best to take care of things though. Keep it up!! Can't wait to see how the things you transplanted today are doing next week.
We're just getting into the heat wave season...it sure a chore trying to keep up with it!
The heat is insane without any relief in sight. I've watered my garden twice today! I think one of my zucchini will die.
Good tip about the dryer lint. I'll have to try that. You could even do that in an in the ground garden too.
Lori, we had blueberry bushes planted in the ground and two years ago the drought killed them. They were even planted on the north side of the house and got much shade. I've read since they are drought intolerant. What do the berry farmers do?
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