This has been a very dry year. At our farm as well as so many others.
In the distance, we can often see clouds raining above the Chignecto Bay. But they just pass us by. When it has rained, it hasn’t been enough to get moisture down beyond the surface of the soil. It doesn’t help that we have a very sandy, excessively-draining soil. We also have yet to purchase a proper irrigation system. So, we’ve been running our garden sprinklers, our few soaker hoses, and, the very time-consuming, hand-watering. We primarily water the just-transplanted seedlings and then expect our plants to reach down really far for access to their water. All of our seedlings have learned to do this at a very young age and seem pretty good at it. Our direct seeded crops, of course, need moisture to germinate and don’t begin their life very deep above the surface of the soil. As a result, many have grown much slower than we had hoped/planned. If there was ever a year that we were reminded constantly about our need to invest in a good irrigation system, this would be it. I do, though, want to express my gratitude to all of the plants that live on our farm. They have been real troopers and continued to provide us with beautiful vegetables to harvest for our customers. We have not lost a single plant to the drought (I can’t say the same about last year….even though there was a lot of rain early on, the well we were using ran dry mid-summer). And, while we’ve seen our fair share of drooping on hot days, everyone has bounced right back by the next morning (I think I’m referring to ourselves here as much as the plants). So thanks to all the water-seeking roots and thanks to our wonderful deep well that hasn’t exposed its limit thus far.
