Good morning, yes it is getting back to that time of year when the weatherman starts mentioning the dry line. It is because of this dry line that I prefer to be on the west side, even though being on the west side of the dry line means we will be without precipitation. Don't get me wrong I would love to have a decent rainfall event.It is all the other baggage that comes with being on the east side of the dry line that I don't want.
It would be nice if it were only water of the wet kind that precipitated from storms that are formed along this line. Hail is the biggest demon that comes to mind from these dry line storms. Fortunately for us we do not or at least very often get tornado's that can also develop along these lines.
Personally I would settle for just watering by hand until the spring weather settles out and the above mentioned demons no longer raise their ugly heads.
I can handle all the other weather that West Texas throws my way, but the sound of a freight train coming my way and I do not see a train on the rail road tracks just to the north of me that just gives me a real sense of fear and unknowing.
Fortunately for me I have not had a hail storm that meat grinds the garden back to bare earth.
I have seen the leavings from one of these storms in Alpine. It was not pretty!!
It is because of hail that I am experimenting with using my heavy fabric full term on my tomato crop. At this time I have not seen any signs of light depraved plants. This was true even when I planted them on the 25th of January. For over a month there was the single layer of 70 and 2 layers of 19,with no signs of "not enough light".
Through trial and error I have found that 2 layers of 19 can deflect most quarter inch hail. There are only bruised plants. Where as a single layer of 19, most any size of hail will rip through.When this happens, leaves and stems are pulverized from the plants and immediate cleanup is required so that any and all pests are not called to the garden.
The reasons for wanting to see if I can go full term with 70 with the tomatoes are: superior hail protection and a better pest barrier for the whole season. Depending how windy or hail prone the year has been, even 2 layers of 19 can get pretty ratty by the middle of August.
The middle of August brings another pest to the tomatoes.This pest is very easily prevented access to the toms with the use of an intact cover. Tomato pin worms will destroy a crop and all the time it just looks like the tomato plants are tired. Tomato plants fade from the inside out and not from outside in.
Tomato pin worms attack the growing points of the plant. This effectively prevents any replacement of the older parts of the plant and thus the tomato slowly dies.
So any way I am hoping that the heavy fabric is a success and will make it very easy to minimize the effects of two "pests" at one time.
This week I harvested chard, kale , spinach, Asian greens, green onions, beets and turnips.
Sadly the turnips are finished after this week, and the spinach is seriously beginning to bolt. I am making some pea harvests.
The summer crops continue to grow. I have seen some small flower buds on the okra. These first ones usually abort. Although the beans will be in full bloom soon. There are dozens of set tomatoes. All in all everything is looking good for an early harvest in the near future. It is my hope that the veggie transition goes smoothly. So far so good. There may need to be duplicates in the bags. Or if I am unable to completely fill orders I will bill for the portion I do.
Silly me last night I felt that distinct chill to the air that it would get colder than the weather man predicted so I did put extra covers on everything but neglected to drain the drip system.
As usual the first thing I did after awakening was to check the temp. 37 degrees,convection freeze temps.
So it was out to the garden to drain the system, All is well.
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