February in the Garden

Daffodils are pushing through the mulch and there are a couple brave blooms.  We haven’t had any rain all month and that is very, very bad.  In the past six February’s that we have lived here, we have averaged a bit more than 9 inches for the month.  So far, we’ve had zippo this year.

In my Master Gardener classes, we’ve been learning a lot about water management and irrigation.  As you can imagine, in California water management is huge.  In class we learned all the math behind calculating how much water a particular soil holds, how quickly it moves through the soil and how climate affects it as well.  Oh, boy.  Math.  Ugh.  We also had a lab where we learned, hands-on, how to install drip lines.  I’ll admit I was feeling pretty good before the lab; I put all of our landscape on drip — planters, fruit trees, and veggies — when I planted our gardens.

So, bonus points (maybe) for being on drip.  But I learned that my lines were not configured correctly.  I had lines that look like this in my flower and herb beds.

See all the lines coming out with different types and sizes of emitters?  Not good.  The line went across the bed and ended.  That’s not good either.  If the line ends, water doesn’t flow evenly so some plants get a lot and some not enough.  That would explain why some plants in the planter do fine and others struggle.  Overall, it doesn’t perform great.  So, I ripped it out and re-did it.

I am also redoing the drip lines around the fruit trees so that they are a continuous loop.  I have 20 fruit trees.  This is going to take a while.

Sometimes, I sit in the greenhouse and think.  I ponder my next project; what to tackle first; how to lay out the lines.  I love sitting in the greenhouse.

I also made up a big batch of seed starting mix and planted some seeds.

Meanwhile, my lettuce, arugula and pansies are doing well.

When my arms and shoulders ache, I tell myself that the flower beds will be awesome and that I’ll have lots of fruit; that all this work will be worth it.  Stay tuned for future installments...