Help me save my roommate's garden!
Hi guys, I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba with three roommates. One of my roommates has a garden in our backyard. He asked me to take care of it while he's gone for the next month, and I agreed, but then he left without telling me what he wanted me to do. It's a vegetable garden, I think he has cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes... there's other things in there too but I can't remember.
How often does this thing need to be watered? Is there anything else I need to do to make sure that my roommate doesn't come home to a dead garden?
Thanks in advance!
Posted Jul 14, 2011, 8:07 PM UTC
610
All of these are pretty resilient. Try to give a good watering at least every 2 days if it's pretty hot, and every day is it's fucking sweltering. If it rains, don't water. Water by using as slow of a drip as reasonably possible at the base of the plants - Spraying with a sprinkler is pretty inefficient as far as water goes and not good for the plants. I'm guessing he doesn't have drip irrigation set up which does this for you.
Avoid disturbing soil. Don't hose the top inch of soil onto the plants like you're having a water fight with the ground. Don't spray dirt onto the plants in general. I see people doing this and I cringe. I like the watering process to be no more disturbing to the soil that a rain would be.
Anyway, go look and see if stuff is eating his plants occasionally. Are black or green things swarming on a leaf? Crush them and wipe their guts in the dirt and grass. Is a caterpillar chewing on leaves? Rip it from the mortal coil with a colossal boot stomp. Are other bad things happening to the plants due to insects? Be ruthless. Develop a hatred for bugs that eat your plants.
Outside of that, plants basically do everything on their own.
I like your attitude towards garden pests.
But don't kill lady bugs, wasps or praying mantises!! Those are some of the good bugs!
OR bees for Loki's sake DON"T HURT THE BEES!
Brilliant, thanks for replying! I would have just turned the hose on the garden, I didn't think it mattered whether you got water or some dirt on the plants. This garden WILL stay alive until he gets back... and then I'll throw something at him for not leaving me instructions, haha.
Thanks again! <3
You're welcome! I remembered one thing: If you see really yellow sad dying stuff on plants, remove it. Remove it even if you see the foliage going down that path. It's a relief to the rest of the plant to get rid of the straggling material. Rather than produce for the plant, that stuff just wastes.
Likewise with diseased stuff... If a leaf or branch of some plant has weird fungus on it or crazy black sad patches that slowly grow over the plant, don't hesitate to pinch it off. I initially typed pinch as punch - Good thing I caught that. Horrible instructions for a beginning gardener.