Garden update.

Things are growing along in the garden. This year, I used Steve Soloman's suggestions to grow my garden using very little water. This involved planting very few plants farther apart. While psychologically this has not been very satisfying, as I have fewer plants to tend to, physically/time management/resource usage-wise this has been a great success. I have watered less than five times all summer. If I had a lot of land, I would garden this way every year. However, I don't and my tiny plot of land doesn't produce much using this technique, so I'm looking into soaker hoses for next year.

Lettuce

You can see the amount of space between plants. Soloman teaches that when you space the plants farther they don't have as much competition for water and their root systems really spread out which gives you better plants anyway.

Our cat looks for grass to nibble on. The cantaloupe is growing slowly, but still growing. The watermelon--supposed to be in the other raised bed, met an early death.

I've been reading a lot of permaculture theory this summer. I'm a bit obsessed. Permaculture theory moves in a different direction from Steve Soloman. It doesn't like bare ground, believing plants get more nutrients and grow better when surrounded by other plants. My columnar apple trees, especially this one, are not as healthy as I would like, so I've planted clover and peas around the base of them to see if that improves their lot.

Fierce outdoor kitty on the hunt for grass.

Writing this in November and comparing these pictures to what the garden looks like now, I can say that permaculture is much messier looking than the neat and tidy garden I've got going on in August. That may end up being the sticking point between permaculture and myself, but we shall see.