Kitchen garden stories

This summer is turning very dry indeed! No rain for the last few weeks and high temperatures are dehydrating the soil. On top of that pests have eaten our Kale and Mizuna. The onions are very small and have stopped growing. The beets are also struggling and are not big. The potatoes too are very small.

It turns out that composted horse manure is not that good at holding moisture. Even after the rain it would be dry inside but wet on the surface. This was after a good amount of rain. I don't think I will ever use horse manure so thick as I did now by filling the raised beds 15 cm with it. In the future I will be using horse manure around the apple trees and berry bushes and in the garden I will only use chicken manure, hay and wood chips. Wood chips are far superior than anything else at retaining moisture in the summer.

As you can see the onions aren't so large

Onions drying

The green house is growing great! Of course I was watering it with collected rain water at least 2 times a week. Above you can see cucumbers growing well.

 Tomatoes are also looking good and we are already eating lots of it. Soon to start packing some into the freezer for the winter.