Scorching the Garden 2019 Part 6

Every year we grow the peppers and garlic and onions and herbs to make our sauces. Every year we try something new that we hope is better. We ditch something that doesn’t work out. And we repeat and refine those things that promote the completion of our goals. Follow along and steal all our ideas as we Scorch the Garden in 2019.

July has been a wet month, so far. Its been a very, very hot summer as well. The plants are not as big as we would like and this is par for the course for us. They are smaller this year, but like every so far, the growing season will extend beyond September.

Everything is so nice and moist. The cardboard is doing its job very well trapping water and keeping the majority of weeds away. Thing is, with all this rain, the cardboard is decomposing rapidly and there are some patches where it had completely composted.

The weeds we are fighting the most are morning glory and mint. The mint we don’t so much. The morning glory is relentless! Next year, we are doubling up on the cardboard.

We loaded up the wagon with rainwater and compost that is full of chicken poop for our mid-season feeding. Its possible, that part of the reason the plants are growing so slowly is because the compost we were supplied with this year isn’t very good. We know our compost is great and we hope it will give things a boost.

A lot of the wood chips we initially added have washed away or become part of the soil. That contributed to the root area getting too warm and the mound drying out and becoming hard. Piling our compost, which is filled with worms, chicken scratch, and a lot of organic material, it won’t get warm and dry out.

We also still have a ton of wood chips from our delivery last month and we used those to cover everything again.