Garden auto-watering

Finally got the drip watering system installed on the new raised garden beds. It took almost all of yesterday afternoon messing with it. Although, I did get distracted by pruning the tomatoes (they are in their pre-pruned state in the picture above) and getting them tied up and supported better; they had fallen over and were starting to grow up from laying down. They look a lot better now and are not so dense with dead leaves/branches on the inside.

pruned tomatoes

Since the sprinkler system is having problems, due to the irrigation well producing a rust or clay that is clogging the valves every time I turn it on, I decided to buy a faucet timer I saw at the wholesale store and bought an adapter so I could hook a hose to the drip system I had attached to the irrigation well system last year. It works pretty good, looks like everything is getting adequately watered this morning, but we will have to see how it is at the end of a long hot day; may need adjust the time up if it is not getting enough.

new timer

water lines

I also transplanted one of the pumpkins on Saturday from the raised bed since there were 3 on each of the two hills I planted in there. They are getting kinda big and invading the tomatoes. I may just have to find someone to take a couple of the smaller plants, but need to make sure I can successfully transplant one before I try that... I moved it into a large bark section of the yard just outside the garden area, where Aimee was going to plant some wildflowers but I guess gave up on the idea. I had to get more dirt for the transplant to make a small mound for it. I watered the heck out of it but the next day the leaves were all yellowing. It looks better today with several waterings yesterday and today.

pumpkin transplant

On the positive side, the one pumpkin plant is going gang busters and has like 15 little pumpkins forming all along it. On another note, the big one on the other mound I tried to get to hang over the side of the raised bed but I noticed yesterday that it twisted the vine and it was kinda splitting. I tried to support it better, but not too successfully, so we get to see how it does, hopefully it will adapt well.

Oh and the lillies are still doing really good, too.

front lilies

back lilies

We had dinner outside that night and ate almost nothing from the store; it either came from our garden or from the farmer's market.