Market Farming

[Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>]

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 08:32:59 -0400, you wrote:

>You are blessed!
>
>We have not received an inch of rain in a week's time this season, 
>except for one week.
>I've been irrigating since MAY.
>I'm particularly sensitive to this since we are irrigating from a 
>stream, using a HONDA pressure pump, which has cost between $1.75 and 
>$2.05  a filling this season.
>We are in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.
>

We are, except that large parts of my garden are totally
inaccessible due to the thick, deep, mucky mud.  Either it
pulls off both my shoes or I fall down flat on my face!  Or
both. (I'm still recovering from surgery and falling down in
the mud is not recommended at this particular time.) 

The garden plants - in their raised beds (tire-planters in
my case) are fine, but I cannot get *to* them...And of
course, the weeds are about six feet tall from all the rain.
Grrrrr.   

We have heavy, heavy clay and it holds the water forever.
Next spring, we *must* do something to alleviate this
problem:  either put a thick layer of crushed stone on the
paths or dig a drainage ditch to divert water around the
garden instead of through it (or both).  We live on a hill -
it's a fairly gentle slope, but still -  all the water
uphill runs through our place on its way downhill to the
creek in the valley bottom.

There's no happy medium with weather, it seems.  It's always
too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry!  

Pat
-- 
Coming soon:  www.containerseeds.com - vegetable, herb,
and edible flower seeds especially selected for successful 
container growing. To be notified when we open, or subscribe
to our monthly newsletter, visit: http://www.containerseeds.com