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Arugula: very good, do again
Bok Choi: early crop bolted, late crop didn’t germinate well, transplants did better than those left in place
Collards: not as robust but did okay, some leaf damage, check variety and seed source
Kales: did fine (dinosaur did better than usual), some leaf damage, try Redbor next year?
Lettuce: first several crops did great (except for over-fertilized 2nd indoor planting), some rot on denser plantings, thin better, try some disease-resistant varieties next year
Malabar Spinach: not stellar, can’t compete with nasturtiums
Mesclun: did okay in poor real estate, wasn’t reseeded, so became Red Russian kale bed later in season
Mustard: did well, reseeding well scheduled, green lasted longer than red
Perpetual Spinach: germination not great, but did okay in poor real estate
Swiss Chard: did okay, well thinned, research if more fertilizing and/or changing soil pH would help

Beans (bush): Dragon’s Tongue did great, Maxibel were very productive and attractive, Antigua not nearly as good, chicken wire protected bed from bunnies
Beans (dried): weren’t productive (maybe shaded by dense corn plants) bunnies kept away with chicken wire fencing when seedlings were young
Beans (pole): purple did great, try to find Garden of Eden seed again, Kentucky Wonder & Blue Lake did better than Kentucky Blue (beside Philosopher’s Stone)
Fava Beans: did great – productive, no aphids or wooly bear caterpillars
Peas: spring crop productive, Tall Telephone germinated poorly (next to Philosopher’s Stone), Sugar Snaps didn’t seem right – check seed source. Fall crop was highly productive, planted at the right time and covered with shade cloth to keep soil cool
Soybeans: did very well, but needed to infill plant twice, some Japanese beetle damage to leaves

Eggplants: failed to thrive – Orient Express & Japanese White Egg produced better, Black Beauty way too slow (try different variety next year), JWE & BB fruits had lots of small holes – insects (research)
Peppers: not a good year – disease? nutritional problem? over-watering? Potted plant experiment was inconclusive – pots were shaded and plants were from nursery. Lunch Box did better. Corno di Toro and Cheyenne did less well.
Potatoes: very good, do again
Tomatillos: always take too long to produce fruit, fertilize more?, mysterious picking happened mid-season, topped plants when Brussels sprouts were topped to reduce # of smaller fruits
Tomatoes: beautiful plants, excellent productivity, good fertilizing & pruning, Actinovate used in soil before planting and every few weeks for most of summer, lots of hornworms! Also serious rat predation – inflatable snakes helped late in season, maybe try chicken wire? Topped plants near end of season to put energy into ripening fruit. Place taller cherry tomato bed on north side of other bed. Consider non-wood stakes to limit soil-borne disease. Ramapo plants were strange – check seed supplier. Randy Boys not as vigorous or productive as others.

Beets: excellent crop, resilient and productive
Jerusalem Artichokes: flourished in same space as previous 3 years
Radishes: early crop did fine. Late crop okay too
Rutabagas: excellent – good germination and thinning – one was the size of a softball, a few were tiny
Sweet Potatoes: did great, good yield, had more Murasaki than expected
Turnips (cooking): very good, do again
Turnips (salad): early crop was incredible – best ever. late crop never fully matured – not good real estate

Butternuts: high yield, biggest came from 3 sisters plot. Try fertilizing more, maybe grow new super-tasty variety next year?
Cucumbers: good yield, the right ratio of slicing/pickling (4/2), slicing type did better than pickling, mildew not as bad, one plant ended up in 3 sisters plot
Delicata: produced well, planted more this year (fewer pumpkins), vine borers were a problem & were in actual squashes this year
Pumpkins: did well, produced 1-2 per plant (better than previous years)
Watermelon: much better this year, yummy and big, soil-borne disease took half the seedlings after planting, plant twice as many seedlings again next year, rat predation on later fruit
Zucchini: green did better than yellow, fewer borers, second crop didn’t reach full potential again

While I was watering the other day, I was wondering how long to keep the hose on each bed. Of course that depends on many factors, but I’m looking for a rule of thumb.

First I need to know how much water comes out of the hose:

With the water on full and the nozzle on “shower”, it took almost exactly 1 1/2 minutes to fill a 5-gallon bucket. So that’s 3 1/3 gallons per minute.

Our garden beds are about 6×9 feet, or 54 sf = 7,776 sq in. So 1 inch of water on the whole bed is 7,776 cubic inches. There are 231 cubic inches in one gallon of water. So it takes 33.6 gallons (evenly spread) to get one inch of water onto the bed. At 3.33 gallons/minute, that’s about 10 minutes.

How much “rain” does a vegetable garden need? According to numerous sources (like this one), about one inch per week, total. That’s convenient – 10 minutes of hose time per bed per week, evenly spread, if it never rains.

Of course, that’s a very broad guideline. Mature plants with deep roots could probably be watered with the whole inch once or twice per week. Newly planted seeds, seedlings, and transplants need to get water probably every day, because the roots are so shallow and the little plants have no capacity to store moisture.

Too much watering can be almost as bad as not enough. Soil around mature plant roots needs to dry out so the roots can get oxygen. Sometimes yellow leaves indicate too much water. A number of sources say that watering tomatoes too much compromises the flavor (like the discussion in this article about “dry farming”, which claims that stressed tomatoes taste better).

Wilting in the hot sun is a natural reaction by the plants to slow transpiration, so doesn’t necessarily mean that the plant is water-starved. Dig a little hole and see if the soil is really dry before getting worried.

So the answer to my question obviously depends on what I’m watering (mature plants with deep roots – or not), when the bed was watered or rained on last, and the forecast for rain or watering. Therefore my rule of thumb will be never more than 10 minutes on any one bed, usually probably only a few minutes – especially if the soil is already moist a few inches down – and maybe slack off a bit on the tomatoes.

Comments?

(This is a repeat of an earlier experiment from July 2017.)

A: About 1 inch per day – same as in 2017.

The first piece of the garden’s accessibility improvement project went up on Saturday: a custom-made garden gate. Though it appeared in one day, it had been planned for years and constructed over the course of months. Later this season, we will be constructing raised garden beds flanking the gate and replacing the fencing, starting with the entry side of the garden. See more drawings here.

Funding for this project was made possible through the Community Preservation Act as part of the Robbins Farm Park Improvement Project implemented in other parts of the park last year (which also included a stone dust path to the garden from Eastern Ave). Accessibility issues were identified through a Town-wide study of Arlington’s public parks conducted in 2014.

We are grateful for the opportunity to make these improvements to the garden and hope to have them completed within the next few years.