I Know Why The Iris Didn't Bloom

I have just dug up the entire bed of iris in the front ( top of driveway) garden, We finally got rain-so i knew I could dig.let it get dry a few more days-murder. clay doesn't give.

To my surprise, the earth turned up easily-and was brown, not red. Loam! incredible! I haven;t cleaned that bed our properly since the electric company killed off trees and damaged the Iris, fortunately the daffs and daylilies weren't up at that time of year.I have over the last seven years occasionally weeded, put some straw mulch down from time to time, and threw fertilizer at the daffs occasionally. that;s it. Bruce plowed the fan shape and we did put in about 10 bags of topsoil when we first planted.that was just a nod-barely covered the surface.

Anyway, there are so MANY iris I don;t need to replant, the survivors should fill in nicely.( those too close to other plants i left alone; and no matter how you dig, bulbs/rhizomes actually, always seem to leave pieces behind)

so what I also found was..the iris, with the natural weed mulch and the garden building it's soil nicely-were buried too deep! the rule for iris is-backs to the sun. Literally. you don;t even want the whole bulb covered.

both my back seats in the van are covered with iris bulbs up to about waist high. Yes, I will have hundreds to give away-and 2 more beds to go. One can just be lifted with the broadfork I think, so they sit at a higher level.. all the iris will then be separated, and leaves on each fan cut back in an inverted V to save on water loss and encourage new fans (where your flowers will be next spring) the plants are so clean- the dirt still on them so rich, I'll definitely put everything not usable in the compost. not one plant shows signs of iris borer! (holes, )

natural methods work!/ this was just sort of by accident..but it just makes me more determined to invade as little as possible-no plowing, use deep mulches, and stand back and watch the show!

100 degrees and no rain in sight

yup, we are getting a super duper large sized July. we haven;t had an official reading of 100 degrees in ten years! 2 days of this-then several in the low 90's ( more normal)

If we were having rainstorms with this, it wouldn;t be so dire....but once again, we are in drought. We have been 6 of the eight years I've lived here.the 1 1/2 years of rain drowned everything, oh well.

the poyculture/ multiply planted beds are definitely doing better as far as moisture. tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, squash basil-love the heat. and I don;t have any corn to worry about high heat( it may not tassel and pollinate the ears properly at high temps). I worry about the cucumbers, the shrubs, etc. the forest part can take care of itself.

so I water. and water. and kind of worry about the well ( we have guests who have left toilets running, faucets open...sigh)

goats are in shade with lots of water. puppies will be brought in by about 10 AM-not back out until 4 or 5.and we all wait-for summer to return to normal.

gotta take water to the little trees up front...

Garlic!

Geena, my niece, got to use a broadfork for the first time. And so now we have tons of garlic; I am quite happy with the crop.Dugansky and Inchelum Red. lovely things.

the shallots are another story. tiny and withered; the first blow was the snow plows running over the bed, the second was extensive heat and rather dry conditions. I will save the little guys and try again with them this fall.They may need to go in sooner than the usual instructions for more cool time in the soil.more compost too.

the tomatoes are amazing though the six month old puppies have knocked them over several time; all the broken branches were plucked of tomatoes no sitting on the deck  rail to try and ripen.We still have some lettuce and beans are on the way ( the polyculture has been excellent for these dry conditions. really holds the moisture)