Does that also mean that the colder the temperatures got, the bigger the difference? If so, that’d be great for winter protection of perennials.
That is the pattern, yes. I don’t know why.
Interesting! So it’s probably not super helpful for making a warm winter into a spring, but it is super helpful to make a cold winter into a cool one. That’s useful to know!
My hypothesis is that there’s a maximum amount of heat the water can exude, and there are diminishing returns because it tops out at some point. It would make sense because water makes hot temperatures cooler, so there’s probably a zero point along the axis somewhere where the presence of water makes no difference to temperature. That’s just a hypothesis, though.
Just going off memory, that point is probably around 40 - 50 degrees.
It did make a huge difference in season extention. I never had a last frost date after March first. Fall frosts were more problematic, but as long as there were no early season freezes (20 degrees or lower) I grew into early December.
I was working on a gutter system to refill the tanks so I could water during the winter, but it wasn’t finished yet when I sold the property.
Very, very nice. Season extension is exactly why I like the idea of a greenhouse. That, and protecting perennials that aren’t quite hardy enough for my zone, naturally.
My sneaky plan is to use David the Good’s grocery row gardening system to have perennials that aren’t quite hardy enough for my zone in the middle of my garden beds, which I will keep small with pruning. In winter, I’ll mulch them well, surround them with cold hardy crops like brassicas and peas, put water jugs around the edges, and put a hoop house over the top of the whole garden bed. I’m thinking that’s a sustainable way to keep them alive, all the more so because it requires no extra work besides what I would like to do to grow cool season crops through my entire winter anyway.
My thinking is that doing something like that is particularly important with citrus, which fruits in the winter. I’m planning to try kumquats, which are more cold hardy than most, and can easily do well in a small space.
I’ll tell you what I did, which I don’t necessarily recommend for everyone, but in my situation it has worked and I had the ability and resources to do it this way.
Firstly my beds are aligned with the flow of the water off the property. The pathways were dug out with a shovel to about 12 in deep. That soil was deposited onto the beds and then the paths were backfilled with wood chips. I did the same thing at the bottom of the garden where the water would drain and pool during winter and create a mud slick. I have a friend who is an arborist and he brings wood chips for me. I had about 12 tons dumped in the lower area. I spread them about 3 ft thick. I also cover my entire garden with chips 2x a year
that has been about 5 years ago and now it feels a lot like walking on cork. It holds a tremendous amount of water without the topsoil getting soggy. I dig out the pathways and re-mulch every two to three years.
It’s definitely challenging having a wet site, and I think high tunnel is a simple but possibly expensive solution. If you live in a warm wet climate, raised rows and wood chips could be the answer. Good luck!
I’m liking the idea of having berms and swales, and planting on the berms in winter and in the swales in summer. That may give me what I need for wet winters and dry summers without changing the shape of my garden. It may also give my summer crops a bit of frost protection, which may give me the chance to plant them a few weeks earlier and/or still have them producing a few weeks later.
The trickiest question is what to do with bananas, which I expect to want more water in my summers, and less water in my winters. I’m wondering if planting on a slightly raised “island” in the middle of a big indentation may give them the benefits of both swale and berm. I’ll have to experiment.
I’m still considering swales also, but there seems to be some difference of opinion and whether you should use them in wet climates with clay soils or not. Since I would need to add them to the slope that runs toward our front door I always worry that it could cause foundation issues or possibly a mudslide situation. Anytime we have over a half an inch of rain I have water percolate from the drainage ditches along the road down through our front yard toward the low point along the property line.
Hmm. Maybe, to prevent a mudslide situation, you could add swales and put gravel in them? Do you think that would work?
Jeremy,
Sometimes, intrusive/expensive changes aren’t needed to deal with certain rain events, small, incremental “shaving” of the soil could help.
This is a video I really enjoyed, the total video is worth the watch, but 51:00-57:00 gives a good example of the principle Sean (from EdibleAcres) uses:
Maarten