On the left, watering in the latest of six succession plantings of mesclun with a basic lawn sprinkler that’s quite efficient for shallow irrigation of newly seeded beds, when there’s no wind. Here you see the last three generations. I started planting four beds at a time, a week apart, and stretched that to nearly two weeks as the sun, heat and regular rain we’ve had so far made the growing fast. With the great weather, they’re catching up to each other—you can see the beds on the bottom right are moving up on the previous planting up top—and I’ll be tilling under a lot. This is absolutely strange for me, in past years, cutting every last bit of available salad greens every week was normal. But the people and planting expansion this year make this sort of abundance the new normal, production levels that assure harvests for all the CSA members, market and stand, even if conditions get tough. It’s not WASTED, I tell myself, it’s organic matter and even nutrients, back to the soil… I’m getting used to it!
sprinklers
Good weather is also strange
These days, great weather is as unusual and unexpected as anything else that comes along. The last month or so, we’ve been getting rain around weekly, with sun in between. Ignoring the two days of overnight cold snaps, it’s been excellent. Today, after a half day of sun and heat, clouds rolled in on a cool breeze, a good inch (25mm) of rain came down in half an hour…and it was back to clear skies! We haven’t touched the sprinklers in ages. Bonus!
Spring rain
Finally, not a moment too soon, 40mm (1.6″) of gentle rain over the last day and a half, with likely a little more to come. Slow and intermittent is best for soaking in. This is great. Things were starting to get really dry: over the last week, I had to fire up the pond pump and (inefficient!) sprinklers to help along the just emerging and newly seeded beds. Now, we’re good for better than a week, for some of the crops at this stage, even two (the clay-loam is great at holding moisture). Some days, gloomy is good!
Sprinklers in action
Two sprinklers in action. Morning and evening are usually good for watering: less wind, less evaporation… Still, sprinklers (a necessary evil at this point) are hardly efficient.
Water!
No April showers to speak of this year means it’s irrigation time already. Sprinklers aren’t anywhere near efficient, but they cover a lot of area quickly. This makes them a labor-saving choice for germination and tiny seedlings, where frequent but light watering is required in dry weather.