For the first time all season, our veggies needed water beyond what falls from the sky. In a regular season, we irrigate via drip tape–a thin plastic “hose” that runs the length of the bed and drips water at regular intervals. Drip tape is an efficient way to get water to the root zone and, because it doesn’t get the leaves wet, drip irrigation doesn’t pose the same disease risks as overhead irrigation.
This, of course, hasn’t been a regular season. When we were planting these crops in July and August, it seemed like it would never stop raining, so we decided to save the money, plastic, and hassle and forego a lot of drip tape. I still stand by that decision, but it means that we’ve had to make some alternate plans to deal with this dry spell. So, Landon’s been hustling around our fall field with a pair of sprinklers on T-posts, making sure all the thirsty crops out there get a drink. He won’t be running around for much longer, though–it looks like the sky is just about ready to take care of things again.