THE END (of the spring vegetable garden)

Today was clean up day for the spring vegetable garden.  I pulled out the last of the tomato and cucumber plants.  The  bean leaves and vines are in the beds turning into compost.  I discarded the tomato leaves and stems but composted the cucumbers leaves/stems.  To prepare for the summer/fall garden, I spread about an  inch of compost on each of the beds either from our compost bin or from purchased cow manure/compost from Lowe's.  The drip has been turned off theses beds so the direct heat and sun should solarize the beds.  I left the egg plant and pepper plants.  The drip is set for three times a week (45 minutes) just to keep these plants alive until the fall.  My experience is that once the nights start cooling down in the fall, I should have lots of fruit set from these plants.

With the temperature to reach 104 degrees today, we are into the depth of summer when nothing grows.  My goal is just to sustain life.....  The drip is set for one hour, three times a week in the back yard.  I have drip set for about 10-15 minutes for my potted plants about three times per week.  The lawn sprinklers in the front are set to run 15 minutes at each station, three times during the day on my scheduled day to water--Friday.  We are leaving for one month up north and west.  I hope things will be alive when we get back.  We do have a rain sensor set on the system so if it rains 1/2 inch, the system will not water.