I'm putting this is gardening for beginners as I thought it may be of use to someone just starting out or experiencing unexpected drought conditions.
Last year my rain barrels were topped off in July and I eventually had to drain them before freezing weather set in. This year has been the complete opposite as we're experiencing the worst drought of my lifetime (and I'm no spring chicken). According to drought maps, our area is designated as D3 but I expect it to be D4 by the next update. Farm ponds not fed by a reliable spring are either dry or dangerously low. Most farmers haven't been able to get a second cutting of hay and crops have suffered. We were in the area of a local waterfall last week and it's merely a trickle when it's normally a rapid.
Here on my little bit of paradise, it has been a learning experience. I expanded the area of one of my gardens by three and managed to get the majority of it planted. It has definitely been a learning experience.
Any beans I planted were watered enough to get them established and then only watered when plants showed signs of stress. I'm not harvesting as many beans as in past years, but enough to have green beans almost daily and a need to freeze the excess. My dry bean mixes are really starting to produce and thankfully I don't have to deal with them rotting due to excessive rain. One of the mixes was from Going to Seed and another is a soup bean mix I threw together. I'm also growing an Appalachian bean Grex developed by a grower in my state and should harvest a good amount of seed to grow next year. I also participated in a bean trial and one variety produced several meals as well as at least half a pound of seed, while another produced a handful and struggled. The final bean of the trial has had luscious foliage but took three months to flower. I currently have 2.5" pods on this variety but whole I may be able to harvest some as snaps, I have little confidence of harvesting mature seed.
The only tomato that has thrived is a variety called Ten Fingers of Naples that is my preferred paste tomato. I watered the plants as they were getting established, but only once during the drought and they're so lush and productive that I have to get on my knees to look into the foliage jungle to find ripe tomatoes. All of my other tomatoes have pretty much died from lack of water.
I also grew a sweet pepper mix from going to seed and they were transplanted into native soil which had previously been covered with cardboard and partially decayed wood chips. They were watered in at planting time, but since the purpose of growing them is to select the varieties that will thrive, I haven't watered since. About half of the plants are flourishing and are loaded with peppers, the other half are yellow and struggling. The only plant I lost was due to vole damage and of course it was one of the ones that was doing great. The only other variety I grew this year was Corbaci from seeds I saved the previous year. I'm not really a pepper person but this is probably my favorite variety and it always produces well. Producing so well this year that I've had to harvest several times to keep the plants from bending over due to the weight. I'd estimate at least 20-25 peppers per plant and they're still blooming profusely. These were transplanted after I pulled the garlic from the same bed and I initially wondered if they'd thrive.
I harvested cucumbers for the first time in years as they usually succumb to insect damage before producing. Maybe it's because they are growing alongside the beans on the trellis, but I'm harvesting enough to have at least one every day. Corn however has been a failure. I do hope to have an early or two for seed but not setting my expectations high. Kale that self-seeded in a garden bed behind the house have performed well too. Other crops didn't do so well, but you have that even in a good year.
So what have I learned from this? I've learned which varieties/mixes flourish in drought conditions and more importantly what beds/areas of my garden need work. The tomato bed was new and consisted of a bit of everything: compost, leaf mold, composted chicken poop, biochar, a few bags of organic soil mix and basically whatever I could find around the property. It's a shallow bed so I have no doubt whatsoever that the tomatoes have rooted in the Rocky clay beneath, which may have been their salvation. I'm participating in a winter pea trial and obviously they'll go into the beds that performed poorly. One of my bean mixes included cow peas and they're producing well. This is my first experience with them, but eager to see if they produce that well in a year with sufficient rainfall. Every bed that was heavily mulched with shredded leaves last fall has performed pretty well too. So while the season is winding down, I'll be gathering inputs to improve existing areas.
While we may never again have a drought of this magnitude in my lifetime, I've gained lots of experience this season. The crops that have flourished will be noted and seeds from those crops grown again next year to see if results are the same. I'll also begin to landrace some of the bean varieties as over the years I've selected the ones with exceptional flavor and think it's time to throw them into the genetic melting pot. I also have a warm fuzzy feeling when I see my neighbor's gardens dried up and finished, while I'm almost at peak production and should be able to harvest until frost
