I feel for you and have had a little experience with this frustration. If I were in your shoes, I think I'd cut way back, for the time being, and just plant a few favorite things which don't require much time or effort. I call these "feel good crops."

George
Tahlequah, OK

I agree with George. In fact, maybe it is good time for some to mention veggies that require little care in the garden for the otherwise occupied gardener. I was reading an online catalog source yesterday that lists "dry farmed tomatos" like Black Krim, Pink, True Black, and Yellow Brandywines, Cherokee Purple, etc. Familiar varieties, but they have been grown, and supposedly adapted to growing, in dry soila, with no supplemental water or maintenance. Now I doubt that would have happened last summer in Oklahoma, but who knows, they may have done better than the "regular" varieties most planted. I am aware that so far it is known to be practiced in areas that receive coastal fog, but maybe we get enough humidity at least, we would only have to supply limited supplemental watering?? I'm attaching a link to the site I'm talking about.

In the meantime, our veggie gurus may have some input, too, not that you don't already know the answers Busy1, but I, as a newbie, would like to see what they have to say on the subject. Dawn??? Carol??? Jay (who probably has to deal the most with dry conditions)??

I'm probably just "California dreaming", but it's worth a shot.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Dry Farmed Tomato Seeds

Hi Robert

I'd been wondering what you were doing and missing seeing you posting here.

It sounds like you have your work cut out for you in terms of having time to garden this year. I agree with George that maybe this would be the year to cut back to growing only what y'all like the most and not try to have as big of a garden as usual. I know that cutting back likely will drive you crazy, and I would feel the same way, but with all the hours you're working, I just don't see how you can grow as much as you normally do.

Isn't it crazy how busy the oil business is again? It sounds like a great job except for the long, long days and weeks.

I hope the rain has stopped for a while. I managed to get all my cool-season veggies planted just before this last round of rain (it dumped 2.65" on us here this past weekend). We had so much rain in January and February that I was starting to wonder if I'd be able to plant anything at all, but two separate dry spells where we went a couple of weeks without rain each time allowed me to get the cool season crops planted in two separate rounds. Now I just hope it dries up enough for the warm-season crops soon. The best description of our ground right now is "soupy".

Hopefully the red potatoes and garlic will sell at the store on the weekends your DW is there so that you don't have to plant all of them yourself.

Hang in there, and squeeze in gardening whenever your schedule and the weather allow, but don't stress out over it. : ) Gardening is supposed to be fun, relaxing and a great form of stress relief. (Keep repeating that until you believe the last part.)

Dawn

Many plants can be dryland farmed, but you have to use wider spacing and you have to be content with lower yields. It is not my favorite way to raise things because you get lower productivity. The other issue in our climate is that stressed plants seem to attract pests, so to dryland farm successfully you take all the time you might have spent watering and weeding and you spend it battling pests. It might not be as big of an issue in areas with milder climates, but it is an issue here.

Tomatoes taste great when dryland farmed because there is less moisture content to 'water down' the flavor, but the plants are not terribly productive.

My dad and his family dryland farmed in Montague County, TX, just across the Red River from the western end of Love County and from Jefferson County, OK, before, during and after the Great Depression. They had no off-the-farm jobs, so had no cash money and had to raise enough food to feed a family with 9 kids and to have enough to barter for what they needed at the grocery store, In a good year, they raised enough to sell some of the crop and had cash money for important stuff like one new pair of shoes per year per person, but in bad years, they mostly survived on corn and pinto beans for every meal and whatever animals and animal products they could raise or hunt. One way they survived the bad years was that they canned every bit of food they could during the good years, hoping they'd have enough to get them through a couple of years if the following year was a drought year.

It was a hard, hard life and World War II literally saved my dad and his siblings by giving them all a reason to leave the farm. None of them went back to the farm to live after the war. I'd never voluntarily choose to dryland farm in this climate, because 7 or 8 years out of 10, the summer weather is going to make it hard to get enough of a crop to make it worthwhile.

You can get a good dryland crop of southern peas and okra most years and of melons too if you have sandy soil, but it still won't be as large of a crop as you'd get in a rainier year or with even modest irrigation.

There is a black-eyed pea farm...well, it actually is a pink eye purple hull pea farm, here that probably dryland farms 90% of the time. I don't remember seeing their irrigation system running most years. Last year, though, they were watering like mad and it paid off because it looked like they had a really great crop.

Dawn

Robert, its good to hear from you. I agree with the rest of the group. Jobs are hard to come by, especialy jobs with benefits and lots or overtime. From what I have heard the oil patch should be going strong for a good while, it sounds like a good time to pay bills and stick a little in the bank. You can garden anytime, even after you are retired like I am.

Larry

Welcome back Robert. I believe I would skip the garden for a year and just spend some of that paycheck at the grocery store. When life slows down a little, you can plant again. You've always been too busy anyway, so relax.

Larry, with your schedule, I don't know how you found time to work at a job. You are always busy with your family.

Carol, sometimes I meet myself, worked at DD Sat., took folks to church Sun. , to Dr, this AM, back to DD this afternoon, back to parents in the morning, hope to work a while in a very wet garden, and then off again. It seems to be like that all the time.

I am really proud of my DD's two DD's. They are 15 and 18 and help also. The 15 year old was with me Sat. on the roof helping patch leaks. Not all 15 year old girls will climb up on a roof and get gook up to their elbows, then come down and clean up and give their mother a pedicure.

Larry, with many projects to go.

started some tomato and pepper seeds in the GH this weekend. I cut way back on how many i started in the past.

Still too wet to get in the garden. Maybe this week, since i'm working night shift, i'll get the cabbage and stuff in the ground.

Go Larry Go!
(and everybody else too!)

Seedmama d/b/a Larry's Cheerleader