The garden of a lazy we occasionally.

[Did67]

Summer, it's a little lottery ... A bit dubious even if you do not really have a way to water.
Autumn winter, must see. Do not forget to make m2 of lamb's lettuce!

Last summer, apart from sowing and transplanting, all my vegetables spent the season without watering.

In 2015, I watered quite a bit. With my 400 or 500 m², a few "water towers", it's quickly 50 m3 !!! So even my 9 m3 are ridiculous !!!

[olivier75]

Sicetaitsimple,
The summer will be hard, but in my vegetable garden the automatic watering also breaks down, is not plugged in, not everywhere Etc. Not all vegetables are greedy in water, and the organoleptic qualities of the rest are boosted.
I cultivate to the maximum in the offseason so that everything takes root as well as possible.
It should also be remembered that my plants are not used to watering, and I am not there 3 weeks in a row, all the time .... the seedlings remain random. I will be there 10 days at Easter to implant the fragile ones as much as possible.
The lines are perpendicular to the slope to recover a maximum of the summer rains, and a maximum of the shaving sun of spring and autumn.
Lamb's lettuce is a little too quick for me, I prefer spinach for salads, I still bought some this year, purslane too, following Didier's focus.
I spend a lot of time comparing varieties and trying them out.
Olivier.

[olivier75]

I do not think that permanent boards take up more space. To check.
Olivier.

[Did67]

purslane too, following Didier's focus.
I spend a lot of time comparing varieties and trying them out.
Olivier.

Purslane is an excellent "anti-drought" plant! But she is cautious ... So to cultivate the summer.

Lamb's lettuce is an excellent fall / winter / early spring salad. For fall, I recommend the "big leaves", which grow quickly. To pass the winter, the "Louviers' shell" type jaws, with small leaves, which resist even a fairly severe frost. It hardly rises as soon as the earth is hot (^ although there are now one or two "all-season" varieties ...

Do not forget the "winter lettuces", which develop, apple, in early spring ...

[Did67]

The lines are perpendicular to the slope to recover a maximum of the summer rains, and a maximum of the shaving sun of spring and autumn.

.

With a cover of hay, and numerous anecic worms, the water no longer drains! Last year, with the heavy rains which caused damage everywhere, I did not observe the slightest flow of water in my garden, however on a clear slope!

[olivier75]

Apart from the large strip that crosses the garden, and the bottom, I keep the grassy alleys, part of which is sown in white treffle, hoping that the evaporation, dew, recovery ration is positive. I'm more on your last post, to keep more vegetation between the hay.
Even if I went otherwise, permanent strips of 120, the width of the boot, and grassy alleys of 60 to mow seems to me the ideal of the lazy.
Olivier.

[Did67]

Yes yes, we agree ... Grassed alleys, I reinstall them, as and when ... Especially as a refuge for auxiliaries ... At the risk, in fact, of "consuming" a little of water ... I do not think that the results can be positive, but with legumes, with deep rooting (trying to pull up a clover, an alfalfa, a trefoil trefoil!), it should remain "bearable" in the overall assessment ... Incidentally, it is a source of natural nitrogen - via the mowing of legumes distributed over the cultivated parts.

[olivier75]

Didier,
To come back to the permanent hay cover.
Going on a blanket in the fall is in my opinion absolutely useful only for the first year live on meadow. I guess and hope that then we can unfold more as needed. The end of the season and winter are spent with leftovers, unharvested parts and weeds. In the 1st vegetable garden I never had enough material for the whole year on its entire surface, and I cover as I go. The land does not become difficult until April.
Cover a little late in addition to allow better warming.
For the bulbs, for example, mine went through the hay unrolled above this fall without any problem, put in the spring it should be similar.
Olivier

[Did67]

You're right. I too am much more flexible.

I currently have two areas where lamb's lettuce had been hard-sown in the fall, then I saw almost nothing coming (we get cold pretty quickly, at the beginning of November I think). Coming out of winter, as I was going to cover with hay to prepare beds for the seedlings, it finally emerged en masse. So it remained "naked" and it still is ... (and it dries up and hardens with the time we have !!!)

I see weeds much better ...

Hay becomes more of a food for my herd of soil organisms and a very slow-acting complete organic fertilizer ... And the lethal weapon that replaces the hoe or the tiller when it comes to tidying up a bit. ...

So yes, I need to revise my speech a bit!

[sicetaitsimple]

Last summer, apart from sowing and transplanting, all my vegetables spent the season without watering.

I was a little taken aback when I discovered this message, remembering that from the beginning of August 2016, I was cursing with my garden hose after having used up my 600l of rainwater previously.

But hey, there is an explanation (even if other parameters come into play), it's the rain that falls! I compared the data from the weather station closest to my home (St Jean de la Haize 50) and those from Didier (I took Strasbourg Entzheim).

strasbourg St Jean
June 159mm! 81mm
July 55mm 15mm
August 35mm 27mm
September 38mm 44mm

Who said that it rains in Normandy limits Brittany!

For those who do not know it, here is the link of the site:

https://www.infoclimat.fr/climatologie/ ... 00074.html

You have the data (temperature, rainfall) month by month and even day by day for years for all the French stations.

I think it is particularly interesting for those who would like to "optimize" the volume of a rainwater storage, so as to do it neither too large nor too small.

Edit: the array does not appear as typed (spaces have been removed), but I think it's understandable anyway