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Also I have a week to figure out how to keep my plants alive for 10 days. Obviously plan A is to have someone come in and water them for me and I am working on that. Rain isn't in the forecast so I am not gonna luck out there.

I did the double bucket method so that they can last a while without watering and thankfully the peppers kinda like to be a bit dry but I am worried 10 days in 100+ degree weather without water will kill them. I've went 7 days last week without watering them to see what would happen but 10 makes me nervous as hell.

Any ideas?
 
ISUCyclones2015 said:
Also I have a week to figure out how to keep my plants alive for 10 days. Obviously plan A is to have someone come in and water them for me and I am working on that. Rain isn't in the forecast so I am not gonna luck out there.

I did the double bucket method so that they can last a while without watering and thankfully the peppers kinda like to be a bit dry but I am worried 10 days in 100+ degree weather without water will kill them. I've went 7 days last week without watering them to see what would happen but 10 makes me nervous as hell.

Any ideas?
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Could you try a balloon filled with water with just a pin hole in it? This is spitballing I have no idea how long it would last just a top of the head suggestion. If you put it at the bottom of the double bucket it might not lose water until the other water goes down, but not sure about that.
 
ISUCyclones2015 said:
Also I have a week to figure out how to keep my plants alive for 10 days. Obviously plan A is to have someone come in and water them for me and I am working on that. Rain isn't in the forecast so I am not gonna luck out there.

I did the double bucket method so that they can last a while without watering and thankfully the peppers kinda like to be a bit dry but I am worried 10 days in 100+ degree weather without water will kill them. I've went 7 days last week without watering them to see what would happen but 10 makes me nervous as hell.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...


Definitely get a neighbor/friend to stop by and water. Not a bad idea anyway for that length of time to have someone stop in and make sure your fridge didn't die/A/C is done for anyway.

But, when we went to Jamaica a couple years ago in June for like 12 days, we came back and the yard was long but turning brown and my peppers/tomato plant looked pretttttttttty sad. I watered them though and they did come back. So, I can't say I recommend that method especially as your heat will be much higher, but things did survive.

But I think your best plan is to have someone come in at day 5-6 and water everything.
 
There are plant watering systems out there, not sure where your water source is wrt plants.

We have neighbors water when we are gone and vice versa. I let their dog out a lot for them too.

If you know a kid about middle school age who lives nearby, you could pay them.
 
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carvers4math said:
There are plant watering systems out there, not sure where youy water source is wrt plants.

We have neighbors water when we are gone and vice versa. I let their dog out a lot for them too.

If you know a kid about middle school age who lives nearby, you could pay them.
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Yea I should've mentioned that there is no hose on my patio or else I would just get a timer and eat the cost of running the water.
 
https://www.growveg.com/guides/companion-planting-three-sisters-garden-plans/

I tried this for the first time this year, it's an interesting way to save space. Due to deer in our yard, I had to make a chicken moat with the garden inside, this was almost the only way I could have the space to plant corn. It's working great so far. I've gotten into companion planting the last few years so this really peaked my interest.
 
ISUCyclones2015 said:
Yea I should've mentioned that there is no hose on my patio or else I would just get a timer and eat the cost of running the water.
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I was going to suggest getting a digital timer and a soaker hose. You could set it to water daily or every other day for 30 minutes or an hour. If you don't have a faucet outdoors that idea won't work.

When I leave for vacation I just leave out a sprinkler on one of those timers. They cost like $20 or so at home depot for the digital timer.

Those timers work extremely well when trying to germinate grass seed. You set them up to water like 5 minutes multiple times per day. It keeps the seeds moist but not soaking and it really ups the germination rate on grass seed.
 
heitclone said:
https://www.growveg.com/guides/companion-planting-three-sisters-garden-plans/

I tried this for the first time this year, it's an interesting way to save space. Due to deer in our yard, I had to make a chicken moat with the garden inside, this was almost the only way I could have the space to plant corn. It's working great so far. I've gotten into companion planting the last few years so this really peaked my interest.
Click to expand...
When I was a kid we had a huge garden (like an acre) and we always had vining crops like squash and pumpkin growing in the corn.
 
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I have gardened for 40 years and have watered no more than a dozen times. A common mistake is to water too often which keeps the roots shallow rather than going deep for moisture.

You should be fine.
 
I got my garden in about 3 weeks later than I usually do so it's a little behind. Growing roma and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, 3 types of peppers, onions, shallots, and lettuce. A few radishes too but doubt they will be any good as they are more of a cooler weather plant.

By now I am usually trying to give away lettuce most years but I think it's been so wet not much of the seed has taken. Took some of my leftover plastic pots and trying to grow some that way to transplant later. It's not my soil, I have some really rich black dirt from hauling in a couple truck beds of composted manure from the farm a few years back and have a healthy garden every year so far but I think all this excess rain things are too soggy and I hope doesn't promote some disease or fungus.
 
clonebb said:
I have gardened for 40 years and have watered no more than a dozen times. A common mistake is to water too often which keeps the roots shallow rather than going deep for moisture.

You should be fine.
Click to expand...

See that is also why I am doing bucket containers with water in the bottom. The bottom of the bucket is moist to it draws the roots deep into the bucket versus up at the top. I only watered from the top for the first few days after transplant from seedlings. Since then is bottom watering through a "wick". Here is a diagram

12243798_f520.jpg


I am not worried about the peppers so much but the tomatoes love my water.
 
That crazy wind today blew our tomato cages and peppers over, so I have the kids out there propping everything back up.

The tops of the potato plants were blown over too but I am assuming that isn’t a big deal?
 
Tailg8er said:
We have 1 habanero, 1 big beef tomato, and 1 blueberry bush (don't remember the kind, but it's one that is self pollinating - I think), all in pots on our deck. We've been getting 8 or so blueberries a week for 2-3 weeks now. 3 tomatoes plumping up nicely, and have 10 or so peppers - largest of which is about large thumb sized.

I think next year we might take the leap to a raised bed. We're also kicking around the idea of planting a couple apple trees.
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Apples are easy to grow but battling bugs is the downfall! Dwarf and Semi-dwarf work great in a city yard and not hard to prune. Over the years we have had Honeycrisp, Cortland (this variety may not do well in Central Iowa), Bonnie Best (a Jung's Seed exclusive award winning pie apple), Paula Red and Zestar.

Decent soil, some summer and fall watering and deer proofing if needed, are a few things to consider. Spraying may be a real challenge to stay ahead of pests.
 
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We have 4 4x8 raised garden beds. One is strawberries and one is raspberries and ready are veggies. My wage is more of the gardener though. I like making her compost though. Any other home composters?
 
For those of you with raised garden beds what do you do at the end of the season with the plants?

I pulled mine last year and tossed them but wasn't sure if they would have just disintegrated away had I left them
 
I pull mine and put them in my compost bin. It probably depends what you are planting though.
 
Thank god the workshops this week was canceled. I worked from home today and we're currently getting hail. Got my plants down and under protection just 3min before all hell broke loose.
 
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