The crops are planted. Here in Southern New Mexico, it's warm enough to get the tomatoes and peppers in. The peppers are sweet and should turn from green to red. The tomatoes are a slicing variety to be used for sandwiches, marinara sauce, and salads.
The circles in the center of each photo are not stepping stones, they are an old, and hopefully good way of keeping plants watered. They are ceramic watering pots. The unglazed pot is buried in the ground and filled with water. The glazed top keeps the water from evaporating. Because the buried pot is unglazed, the water seeps slowly through the pot and waters the roots of the plants. That's the theory, anyway. We're about to find out if they actually work. One pot is made from the red clay body we use in class. The other three, as well as the lids, are made from EM 200.
The garden was planted and the pots filled on Wednesday. The red pot was empty today and the three white pots were only slightly down. I'm not sure if this is a property of the clay or if that part of the garden was particularly dry.
In one of the shots, you can see something that looks rather like fat grass. It's NOT a weed. That's some garlic that Jim put in a few months ago.
Where we are, the ground is probably 95% sand. Great drainage but horrid for trying to grow anthing. Last year, Jim laid out the rail road ties, filled in with bags and bags of potting soil, and welded up a fence for the garden. We live in the desert and have lots of rabbits which come and eat anything that grows. The only way to have a garden is with a sturdy fence.
