A Plan for my Vegetable Garden this Year

The calendar says May 11, 2022 as I write this blog, the outdoor temperature this afternoon is 88 degrees. It's sunny and breezy, been quite a bit of that of late and no end in sight. This isn't spring, this is all out summer!

How will these early hot days affect my vegetable garden plan this summer?  

A lot.

The credible go to weather experts are calling for continued La Niña conditions through the fall. This means hot and dry, emphasis on the hot and dry. These tough growing conditions require thinking and planning about the best watering management for the entire outdoor landscape. 

Water isn't free like our Colorado sunshine and blue skies.

Thank goodness our mature landscape has more trees and shrubs than perennials and lawn, all of which are watered with drip irrigation. To keep evaporation down further, every plant and in-between is well mulched. The lawn has just three irrigation zones and it's a newer low water needing bluegrass variety. 

This is Ferris doing a bit of sunbathing after his lunch snack, he loves to soak up the heat and sun for about two minutes, then he's right back inside.

Our five raised vegetable beds are also zoned for automatic watering. However, my concern is that vegetables generally need consistent watering from day one of planting through harvest. 

What's the best way to cut down on my watering footprint this growing season?

Easy. I'll plant fewer vegetables and not plant four of the annual ornamental containers I usually put in each spring. Sad, but it makes the best sense in these dry times. 

Conserving water is always a good thing.

My plan is to put in a couple of tomato transplants purchased from one of my favorite, locally owned garden centers. Unfortunately I couldn't start tomato seeds indoors under lights this spring, we had some scheduled and unexpected trips so I couldn't keep seedlings watered and properly tended to while out of town. 

I will also direct seed one, possibly two martini cucumber plants and a Smart Pot® container (or two) of seeded basil. The rest of any open beds and the fall planted garlic bed (once harvested) will be seeded with a cover crop. Once the cover crop is up and growing on its own I'll stop watering the plants. As it remains over the next year it will provide cover from exposed soil and improve the soil structure and fertility when turned over to decompose next spring.

Rain was plentiful in the spring of 2015!

Dear reader - we're all mostly in the same growing zone 5, and living in a dry/arid climate where water is a valuable resource. In one of my blogs a few years ago I wrote about not saying to others - "you should."  My dear Aunt Helen (who gave me this advice) said no one ever liked being told what to do or how to think. She was right. 

Does this mean you should cut back to conserve water?

My hope and prayer is that La Niña changes its mind, reverses course and brings on the rain.  

I'm not holding my breath or my umbrella.