OK, so we yanked out the garden on October 2. By “yanked out” I mean to say that we tore down the tomatoes, harvested anything which was in any way shape or form edible, and left the rest … without water. Well, we were bright people this year, and turned in WaterSorb by way of drought protection. It worked. The silly garden is still cranking out produce three weeks later. True, we didn’t really leave much … but to come back (we garden at some friends’ house) to find nice, fat Armenian cucumbers is just rather a shock.
We’ll be adding more WaterSorb next year, too, ’cause the stuff degrades in about 5 years, so we added only 1/5 what the recommended quantity was, planning on adding that same amount every year, so that it’d be fairly constant. It should be interesting to see what happens when it’s got twice as much drought protection.
It truly is much like watching a Ballet demise, though. Scary.
Now, back to reinstalling software from the ground up … to make things nice and fresh for the next client. Sigh.
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I should hate to waste any more Watersorb in that location… we wouldn’t be able to get to it to winter garden, as the yard grass will be knee high and hiding I know not what… It seems a shame that it is still doing so well and we’re ignoring it. I prefer to think of it not as the last gasps of Swan Lake but as the last turning over before it goes to sleep… gardens never really die, as we’ll find out next year with the new tomatoes, etc. where we never planted them…
I’m happy to add more watersorb – ’cause it’s going to get to the point where it’s all lush and truly easy to grow things, and it’s part of The Plan for that space. What we’re seeing now is a combination of having used WaterSorb and having used Drip Irrigation: the roots have gone deep into the soil, and are truly drought resistant.
So.
Won’t be winter gardening – will be borrowing the tractor & turning it all under, and then hiring some day laborers to put about 6 inches of compost on top of it. It’ll be nice & ready to be turned again in the spring.