Good rule of thumb around here is if it burns up before harvest time from the heat plant it in the fall garden.

Well we were just moved into zone 7 but as that is Ozark Mountain area I’m trying to be conservative and do 6/7. That leaves a lot open but bugs are the big concern. I could grow anything in IL prairie soil but AR has me learning all over. It isn’t just ‘oh look a looong growing season’ there’s bugs, heat, bugs, lack of water, bugs and more bugs. Very different from growing up. Never realized that plants could stop producing if it got too hot, just thought cold was the problem.

Have you tried the over-winter seeds at Territorial? Plant in mid-summer to fall and harvest in spring. Looks like an idea, but want to talk to someone who has done it.

I go nuts at seed ordering time….

The zone you live in would be real helpful to figure out what you can double crop.

Idea for you: Raymond does peas in a block – just till, sow like wheat, rake/till in and let grow. Harvest by working though sitting on a small three legged stool. The ones that get missed when little get to dry and become soup peas. The double row worked for 30 years so the peas should also. (green peas not southern cow peas) Otherwise green peas aren’t worth the effort kwim.

We have a 100 gallon a day self imposed limit also. But 100 gallons a day down the graywater pipe, into the catch tank, up to the water barrel in the barnloft via sump pump and to the garden via 300 feet of 3/4 black plastic tubing means the tomatoes and squash doesn’t dry out. 100 gallons a day, used strategically can keep 5000 sq ft alive. One gallon will soak 5 sq ft, that’s 500 sq ft a day every ten days for half of our garden space. Like I say, “it can be done”.

For dryland stuff don’t till the cover crop under. Just mow it real close with a scythe and plant in the stubble. Use the “hay” as mulch when the seed emerge or install the mulch at transplant time. Gives the worms something to do. That only works for bed planting – the dirt never gets stepped on. For row cropping… why the fuck would anybody row crop anyway? Intensive cultivation is what doom/ permaculture is all about. Leave the row crops to the agri-business workers (formerly known as “farmers”).

I’m just getting into the cover crop thing here myself. All these visions of sitting by the fire with my feet propped up all winter long kinda bit it when I realized that to take this gardening thing to the next level ment I was going to be working the garden year round. The problem here is rain. In the winter we get 70 to 100 inches, and in the summer none. Well not exactly, but the 0.01 inch so far this summer don’t amount to squat. Any fallow soil in the winter is beat to something thet resembles sandstone with all the nitrogen washed out. This year the plan is to take the fallow spots and plant rye with vetch. The vetch will make nitrogen which the rye will uptake and store in the stalk. All will get turned under in the spring to build humas and provide nitrogen. So that is one problem with a bit of a start to fix. Steve Solomon has a good collection of cover crop info at Soil and Health. http://www.soilandhealth.org/index.html

The next small detail here is that we are fundamentally out of water. Currently down to about 100 gallons a day on the irrigation well. Happens every year about this time, so no real shock, but I’ll be counting days and cutting showers short when we finally have to switch to the water tanks. So in an attempt to find a solution, me and the missus cut a willow switch and witched a couple of places in the yard. Needless to say I’ve been busy with a shovel. So far It looks like there may be some pretty good water if I can get a bit deeper. If nothing else, it keeps me from thinking too much about this stinking war we are trying to get going. Anyway, Hey Ain’t Farmin’ Great…..

Tired John