Winter Watering

Even though it is the middle of winter that does not mean we can forget about watering.  We've had very little rain the past few months. Here is a drought map of Oklahoma.  Note that Payne count is in the "exceptional" drought area.

It has been pretty cold the past couple of weeks, but today has been very nice with the temperature rising to the upper 60s.  So, I decided I would drag out the hoses and do some watering.  I watered the blackberries that I've been struggling to keep alive the last couple of years and some of my herbs.  Even though they are dormant, they still need some water in the winter.  

I also watered the peach trees that we set out in 2011.  These poor trees have suffered through 2 hot, dry summers and are miraculously still alive in spite of my forgetting to water them or, more likely, being too much of a wimp to leave the comfort or our air-conditioned home to brave the heat to do so.  They even rewarded me with 2 peaches this year as described in the following blog entry.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2012/06/peaches.html

So, it was at the urging of my guilty conscience  that I made sure they got a nice drink today.  I thought this picture of the sun shining on the water droplets from the sprinkler was rather pretty.

You can see Tom's compost pile in the upper right background.  This one is currently "in the works".  On the other side of the picture (upper left), you can see a smaller compost pile through the branches of the peach tree.  This one is "finished" and he has been spreading it on various garden areas and raised beds.  We do not use chemical fertilizers on any of our plants, so we have to have a lot of compost!