plant spacing

plant spacing can be critical in some situations,
if you just follow the instructions on the seed pack you will likely be ok most of the time,

a common issue,
if you plant close the plants will have less soil to get the water out of due to the neighbor plant also taking water out,
sometimes you can plant far enough apart to get light to the plant,
but if you plant to close you can have the plants run out of water if your ground can't hold that much water,

I have another issue
I have 4 cucumber plants that are all growing happy, plenty of light and water for all of them,
I suspect that 3 of them have very good cucumbers, and one is very bitter,
but the vines are intertwined,
so I can't tell what plants to save the seeds from...
it is quite annoying,
so more space on the things I am growing to saving seeds,
I need to be able to tell what plant things are growing from.

drought

the drought,
I guess it is finally real here,
the old oaks are showing signs of dying,
most the oak trees are dropping leaves, and it is way to early for that,
someone I know is having to buy and get water trucked in...
and you just can't truck water into all the homes around here,
even if they did all have water tanks (and many do not)

time for all of us out here to start using all the extreme water saving tricks we know,
and hope you can get a water tank, they are always sold out around here
and there is a wait time for ordering.

good thing that I have figured out a system of growing that does not need the ground water
and already have the water tanks (full of rain water)

hope everyone else is doing as well,

I wonder if sunrise views will be changing, but for now they are still great

good time for garden

it is a good time of year to have a garden,
you can walk out and get food whenever you want,

the ground cherries are not yet ready to eat, but are close

the other pictures will not upload...

have a good week

sorghum

so the sorghum is something I keep trying here and it keeps not being ideal,
but likely is just the types I was growing,
I should have tried all the types the first year,
but I only tried one a year...
at any rate, it appears as if I found a very good one for the area here,
and it is early enough not to get frost damage before it sets seeds like the others were,
and I know this because of what it is doing now

sadly I can't remember what kind it is,
I thought it was a white popping sorghum, but founds my notes and the Texicoa type is circled,
so now I am not sure at all...
either one it is, I get good sorghum seeds, yay !

this cat is just finishing off a squirrel, only the tail left to eat

backup

so I have figured out one system to grow food here without the well or advanced tools,
what is my next goal ?
sit back and relax ?, no...
it is to figure out an entirely different system to grow food,
things fail all the time, the weather shifts, fires sweep through,
you have to have many systems in place if you are going to win
trees are my first thought,
but I have little control over the land I am on, and I would need quite a bit of space to do what I want,
I could just put them in pots, but if they need watered all the time then they are more annoying than the annual crops


on other unrelated news,
I left the water drain on the fish tank open
normally I drain some out and refill about a 1/2 inch a day,
but today I drained out all of it down to the drain plug, remembered it at almost midnight,
that is well over 100 gallons that needs replaced soon,
you are not suppose to change more than 1/4 of the water at a time or you could hurt the fish,
but they can't live very well in 3 inches of water
so I put the water hose on a trickle into the tank,
and I will be up all night watching how it goes,
to bad I don't have anything that will turn off the water when it gets to the top of the tank
it will likely be a long night

advice

don't bother planting anything you can't defend,

a fence is a good start,
my squash did not have a fence, 
knew it was a bad idea, but
was convinced by someone that it would be in place in time,

it clearly is not, and the deer are at work


here is what I did to keep the cats from eating the rice leaves, (and I have no idea why they like it)

defend it or don't bother,

also don't plant and expect to harvest tings you are very allergic to,
I finally just cut the winter grain crop to the ground,
I have no hope of harvesting it so that others can eat it,
I thought I could, but I was wrong,
lesson learned.