My “main” garden was entirely dry this year, in a manner of speaking.
We didn’t get as much water in winter and spring as is normal for this area, but more than I am used to.
It’s raining right now, which reminded me.
I had woodchips brought in over the winter, and planted mostly on the edges of the woodchips. I did not use culinary water for the garden.
Watermelons thrived, as expected. 0 culinary water use. 30 seeds planted. 19 came up. 9 produced melons. Some of those melons are obviously better suited to a drier environment, as the plants died during or shortly after rainstorms, when the soil was waterlogged.
3 plants survived the heat and started producing again, but none with time to ripen. Possibly two crops, and keep the shorter season plants for the fall?
The zucchetti population was at the other end of the woodchip piles. I have no idea how many I planted, but I ended up with maybe half a dozen plants that really thrived and produced. Again, 0 culinary water use.
All the zucchetti plants that survived were vining forms. I ignored the squash bugs. One plant got what I thought was bacterial wilt, but it ended up being one of the strongest producers and survived to the end of the season. Other plants got infected toward the end, but they weren’t my first choice for seed production.
I kept the fruit of 3 plants for seed production. This was 1 tatume cross and two zucchini crosses. Highest production, strong vines, not affected by squash bugs.
As before, none of the pure spaghetti squash lived to produce seed. The pumpetti are segregating toward small, thin shelled fruits so I didn’t keep any of them.
Plants got infected with vine borers toward the end of the season, after the major production window, so I pulled the plants.
Sweet potatoes were also spaced along the woodchip edge and not watered otherwise. The primary purpose of the sweet potatoes is to fix the heavy clay soil.
We didn’t get a huge amount of green, but enough. I checked each plant and left most of the tubers in the soil. Many had grown out toward the woodchips, where most of the water would have been, but there’s enough in the soil to indicate that my technique may work. I harvested enough sweet potatoes to make slips for next year.
I planted canteloupe in another area, with just a thin layer of woodchips. No culinary water. Four plants produced, including one that had amazing aroma when ripe, but the taste was normal cantaloupe.
As before, a major disadvantage of growing dry is that the plants will focus on a few seeds. Many of the squash seeds look full, but dry empty.
Watermelons will instead cannabilize the majority of seed formation and only produce the seeds they can fully ripen. So you may get a cantaloupe or a zucchini that had has lots of amazing looking seeds but most dry flat, while you open up a watermelon and it looks nearly seedless, but those few seeds are fully ripe.
Tomatoes didn’t do well until after the heat passed, but now they’re loaded with green fruit. Until I get the soil fixed, they’re nice to have but not a priority.
Anything I planted straight into the grass, without benefit of woodchips, didn’t produce.
Progress is being made and there will be more progress next year.
On the other hand, there are also similarities. Here, nothing planted straight into the grass produces, and woodchips do wonders as well. In general, mulching is the best strategy for mostly everything.