Hooray for rain!

Whew--light rain comes as a gift today!  Sunny days and 90-100 degree temperatures the last week or two have definitely made gardening more challenging.   Our big blue rain barrel holds a day's water for gardening (it takes multiple trips to fill it from the pumps on the end of the garden) so we greatly appreciate the natural cycle of rain for our happy crops.  We get a chance to meet a lot of new friends when we all gather around the water pump to fill buckets with some precious water for our gardens.  It also helps us to appreciate the importance of having access to clean water and deepens our understanding of the challenges and crises related to water around the world.

One of us recently read that water creates a sort of film around the roots of the plants so that they can absorb minerals and other nutrients from the soil.  As a result, conditions like adequate water readily limit or enhance growth in a garden.  We surely have the other elements of full sun and arable land, so water has been our biggest challenge!  Veggies continue to come in and some of our littler garden members gleefully help us gather them and enjoy sampling some as we go.  We are experiencing first hand that inviting children into your garden is a wonderful way to encourage them to try new foods and develop their own love of being outside in a garden!  We've also discovered how much fun it can be to pickle just about everything, a fun new project for garden member Karen (we love her irresistible pickles!). 

Here are some pictures from last week:

 

 

 

Have a great day!  How about doing a little rain dance for us this week? ;)
~Marykaye