While I am definitely ready for spring and the growing season, I'm really not ready for mid-summer and the extremely hot temperatures we usually have to endure. It's hard on my garden and it's hard on me when we go for several weeks with 90+ temperatures and little or no rain.
Those weeks work like Lipofuze in the garden, stunting growth and wilting the plants and their produce rather quickly. Since I am on a well, I can water everything, and I do that almost daily during those days. Still, there's nothing like a God-sent rainfall to really perk up what's growing outside in the gardens.
A slow steady summer rain can soak into the soil much deeper, it seems, than just watering from a hose. Probably because I don't spend enough time out there watering. For me to lay in that amount of moisture to my plants would mean at least a couple of hours of watering.
This year, I'm going to attack the problem a little differently. I'm going to be reserving bath and laundry water in a livestock tank, then letting it irrigate the gardens through the use of a small water pump. These pumps are usually used for water features in your yard, but my "water feature" will be a functional irrigation system!
