Dry garden update

The dry garden was a qualified success. I watered between 2 weeks and 1 month apart, with the exception of a hard rainstorm in August. Approximately 1 out of 3 of the plants that came up actually flowered—the winners there appear to be zucchini and pumpkin. Only one of the butternut bloomed. Of those that flowered, apx 1 out of 3 got female blossoms and set fruit. This was pretty much expected, since most of these plants are used to a great deal of water. Those that survived and fruited will be more drought tolerant in the next generation.

Sun is much more important with the dry garden than it is with the normal garden. I planted part of the dry garden in partial shade (about 7 hours of sun per day) and only one plant fruited. Blossoms came on a month later than the “sun” dry garden, although the shade dry garden went longer between waterings as well.

I planted zucchini, butternut squash, pumpkins and spaghetti squash. Zucchini was the hands-down winner, probably due to already being acclimated to this area. Most of the zucchini plants came up, and all blossomed, although only one is actively fruiting to this point. I seem to get fruit in “flushes,” apparently based on the watering schedule. When I watered, within a day or two female blossoms popped out, between four and six blossoms each time. This did not happen with the pumpkin or butternut.

The zucchini ripen more quickly and smaller, and the patterns are slightly off from the expected for the variety.

Squash may be a plant better suited to an area with a longer growing period for dry gardening, although I did get a late start. I'll try squash again next year, but in a different area, and protect the seedlings more than I did this year.

The watermelons got "dry" farmed in a sense as well, as the area they're in got watered only once every ten days. They thrived, doing much better under their mulch than the watermelons in the main garden without mulch. The specifically drought tolerant watermelon was actually getting too much water and really struggled until I pulled the watering back to every ten days. I think it will do even better next year, when it's every two weeks.

I think as my soil improves "dry" farming will become a more viable option.