Wet and dry gardening

I have been harvesting cabbage since my return -- and it finally dawned on me that I was seeing something pretty special.  I bought a six-pack of cabbage starts at Seattle Tilth's spring sale.  The ones that didn't fit in my raised bed I added to my ornamental bed in the front yard.

The difference between my raised bed and my ornamental bed is water.  The ornamentals get none -- I designed it to be drought tolerant and haven't watered it since the first year it was planted.  The difference between the cabbages is visually clear.  The well-watered raised bed cabbage is smooth.

The un-watered ornamental bed cabbage is heavily "savoyed." 

If you click the savoyed cabbage image to get the larger one, you can see why.  The wrinkles and crinkles catch water and hold it (sometimes all day.)  The watered cabbage doesn't need wrinkles because it gets what it needs from the soil.

going where I didn't want to go...

Today I stretched hose under the deck so I could set-up a soaker hose for a small, summer-veggie, raised bed.  I got the task done -- but it didn't look fun.

From either direction:

When you are a scaredy-cat with a big imagination -- even this is a tight space.  I seemed to make it through unscathed but then I am never really sure until a day later when the bug bites show up, or don't.

Fruit starts force a jump start

... and all is good.  UPS dropped a 5 foot long, triangular tube shaped box on my doorstep right before dinner.  The kids were so busy pretending they were animals that I was able to wrestle it into the garage with minimal fuss.  And now I have the promise of summer fruit stashed in various places: strawberries in the fridge and blueberries and kiwi in the garage.  (Thanks Raintree for the owner's manual with the tips on what to do if you are not ready to plant.)

There is nothing like having too much to do to help a person prioritize. Suddenly I know that I am not going to mess with a fancy drip or emitter watering system.  In fact, I think I will water most of my vegetables by hand this year -- which will probably turn out to be a very popular decision with the kids once things warm up.