Friday, August 1, 2014

in clover

i planted new zealand white clover as a perennial green manure on the south side of the house last week, after i brought in the stands of winter rye and the wheat, in an effort to get it well established before winter...the intent is to intercrop vegetables between the rows next spring and let the nitrogen the clover the bacteria produce feed the plants...it was dry when i planted it but my back yard got .13 of an inch of rain today...not a saturation, but enough to soak the shallowly rooted nascent clover's roots...so i purchased some distilled water on my way home form work and when i got here i mixed up a batch of inoculant and poured it over the clover...this will give the bacteria colony time to establish itself and multiply so it can survive a watering with chlorinated water from the hose and still effectively set nitrogen ( climate digression ahead )...my back yard received 3.59 inches of rainfall in july...approximately 28 % ( and change ) of the june total..summer is drying out ...i know...i had to irrigate the grapes earlier this week since they were showing signs of water stress...i will be keeping a close eye on the rain gauge and on the community garden as well...especially the arborvitae...more on that after tomorrow's maintenance trip.

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