The main focus of this entry is dealing with the drying weather. It has been a couple of months since we had substantial rain, though summer this year was particularly wet. The grass is still green. But looking around the cultivated areas the bare soil is looking rather dead and lifeless, dusty even. To a casual observer it seems hard to believe that I have only just watered my lettuces once last weekend, and my brassicas a week before that. As in they got no water, even when I sowed the seed. Recently I put some valuable imported Quinoa seed strains into my summer vegetable garden green manure rotation to make sure I successfully bulked up my seed supply for next year. They germinated in a week, in recently disturbed dry looking soil, with no rain falling. The green manures around them are coming up as well. The deadness and dustiness of the soil is actually part of the system. By minimising the amount of leaves drawing on the soil moisture you extend the useful lifespan of your ground water reserves. This means you need to weed meticulously (a topic for an upcoming post). When irrigation isnt an option a last gasp trick to save a struggling crop in drying soil is to thin out every second plant. Those remaining will usually quickly perk up, giving you half an edible crop rather than all of an inedible one.

So why do people anxiously water their newly planted seeds? Unless you are well into a substantial drought there is no point in doing so- it is mostly to feel like you are contributing to the growth. Seeds germinate by absorbing humidity within the air spaces in the soil. Being trapped in water logged soil is often detrimental as the availability of oxygen for growth declines, and also because it usually lowers the temperature of the soil and slows germination. This is especially critical for sowing warmth loving crops early in spring when the soil is already cooler than the air.

Normally people water far too shallowly to have much effect anyway. They rely on cues such as the amount of moisture sitting on leaves or flying through the air to feel like they are doing a good job. In reality the moisture that matters is invisible, deep in the soil. By deeply cracking open that soil (without necessarily turning it) you help the soil to drink deeply when the heavy rains come, and give your plants a fast track to growing deep roots down to the stored water.

Watering newly planted seeds also carries some dangers. You are effectively making a promise to those seeds that you will supply them with all the water they need, regardless of how the season progresses. If you manage to keep your seedlings perfectly and generously moist during a dry season for a few weeks, or a month, but then forget to look at them for a week or two you can expect them to suffer severe moisture stress or death. In contrast if you put your seeds in and let the natural store of ground water do the job there is much less chance of things going wrong. The seedlings will develop deeper root systems and may appear to grow more slowly at first, but the reduced fluctuations in growth are of great benefit to the quality of the final crop. Planting seeds at the end of a dry season in anticipation of coming seasonal rains is the corollary of this process, and once again it is better to put the seed into dry soil and allow it to decide when it is time to grow. Strong healthy seeds are quite capable of waiting six months in dry soil to grow (though what comes out of commercial packets often lacks freshness and vigor).

When you do need to water, and it is quite reasonable to expect to water fast growing tender vegetable crops, you will want to do it properly and as infrequently as possible. The trick is to never exceed the soils capacity to take up the moisture, which for most of the heavier soils on the sunshine coast means a long slow dribble into the ground. I had a large concrete water tank installed uphill from my vegetable garden for this express purpose, partly as an insurance against future water restrictions. At current usage rates its generous 8000L capacity would keep my water demanding vegetable crops going for at least six months with no rain. The slow gravity feed relies on no external power, and matches my dark soils slow deep thirst. My raised beds come in handy too as they seep from the sides once they are filled up.

Out in the field crops the chickpeas are flowering and setting pods vigorously despite being at the higher, drier end of the row. At the lower, wetter end the shelling peas are are doing well after weathering pidgeon attacks, but would probably like some more moisture. These two crops together form a perfect pair to hedge against the changing moisture levels. Chickpeas will grow well in even our driest years, while the shelling peas will grow through moderate water logging. Plant some of each, varying the balance in response to the season that year, and you have a dependable source of legume protein for winter. It should be pointed out my field crops are never watered. In a region where "record breaking drought" means 700 mm a year you have to reflect on how unirrigated crops like wheat would find such an arrangement perfectly comfortable. The trick is learning to change our crops as the rain levels fluctuate, and to not throw up our hands in despair when the occasional season yields next to nothing.

So in summary try and take simple steps to improve your soils moisture holding capacity to make the most use of our ample but unpredictable rains. Cultivate deeply without completely disrupting the soil structure. Soil organic matter helps but deep decompaction is far quicker, cheaper and more effective (also opening up subsoil mineral stores). Time your sowings and plantings to make maximum use of rain when it comes, and liberate yourself whenever possible from the hose!

I have uploaded some photos of the farm. From left to right, top to bottom we have:
1- Winter vegetable crops coming along
2- Summer vegetable area with trash pile and green manures
3- My beloved rooster Clarence
4- Field row showing the first plantings of carrots and parsnips
5- Field row with shelling peas on cowcane
6- Same row as 5 showing chickpeas at drier end
7- Recently solarised row (being prepared for maize, kidney beans and pumpkins in spring)
8- Unsolarised row oversown with random green manures and crops (to be solarised for spring buckwheat soon)