Garden Update April 26

Hard to tell but left to right: watermellons, sweet potatoes/
squash, sugarcane, potatoes, snapbeans, peas/cucumbers,
and 8 rows of corn and tomatoes.

Good boogly moogly it's dry!  I haven't had any rain at my place in almost a month (27th of March.)  I have watched several systems go right around my place.  On Good Friday it flooded 10 miles up the road from me, but I didn't get anything but 85 degree wind.  That's not all that great for the garden.

However, it is fairing pretty well  After experimenting with a variety of different sprinklers over the years I have a really good system this year.  I've used oscillating sprinklers, impact sprinklers, soaker hoses and the like.  The oscillating sprinklers didn't hold up to the dirt and would last a month before the gears stripped out.  The impact sprinklers didn't wet the ground within a 5' diameter of the center.  The soaker hoses did okay, but caused a mysterious root rot on the tomatoes one year.  This year I decided to try a couple of Gilmour's low pressure turbine sprinklers.  These puppies are great so far!  I did take them off of the low bases on which they came.  I had a couple of aluminum tripods left over from previous sprinklers.  They screwed right on and worked perfectly.  The settings are nice for getting an even watering.  There is still a bit of a miss in the center like with an impact sprinkler, but the area is only about 1' instead of the 5' that I was battling.  So far they look good, but they have yet to encounter an entire gardening season......or a South GA thunderstorm .......or the baking 100+ degree temps of summer.  We'll see how they fare.

I decided on Better bush and Beefmaster tomatoes for
three of the five barrels.......

Everything is up and coming in very well.  We could potentially be picking snapbeans and digging some small potatoes in a few weeks. (we're down to the last quart of beans from last year.  We nailed it!)  The corn is looking good after the replant. Since my last garden update we set 72 tomato plants and 30 or so sweet potato plants.  They're looking good so far, but the lack of rain has me really worried about the tomatoes.  Everything else is plugging right along: watermelons, squash, peppers, cucumbers.  Even the sugar cane is us to almost a second joint.

....jalapenos and Market More cucumbers in the other two.
The four small pots are peach tree seedlings.  Crossing my
fingers on those for the future.

Still no sign of Bambi yet this year.  The super duper electric fence is still chirping right along...ready for the moment that the sweet watermelon foliage finally entices him/her to take a chance.  I haven't even seen any tracks on the perimeter.  I know it's only a matter of time.  They have found the tender foliage of my apple trees though.  If it isn't one thing it's another.

If it could only get a nice inch or two of rain.  The place would really take off like gangbusters.  But then again.....so would the weeds.  When God provides, he provides for all!  There is a decent chance Thursday.  I better go sharpen the hoe ;)

Y'all take it easy.

Alex