Most of us think about planting in terms of calendar dates—but nature doesn’t run on a calendar. It runs on energy. If you zoom out, the seasons follow a pattern—a rise and fall of solar energy, almost like a sine wave: - Winter → low energy, rest - Spring → rising energy, growth begins - Summer → peak energy, stress + production - Fall → declining energy, root development The key isn’t just how much energy there is—it’s the direction it’s moving. That’s why timing matters so much. Planting in late fall works because you’re aligning with the downward curve. The plant isn’t fighting to grow above ground—it’s quietly establishing roots. Planting in mid-summer does the opposite. You’re trying to establish during peak stress, when plants are already working at their limit. Same plant. Same soil. Different timing → completely different results. When you start aligning your actions with the natural rise and fall of energy, things get easier, not harder.

The guy seems a bit crass although if he can grab the attention of many, looks like a interesting series coming up... https://youtu.be/32kQ9Niy7EA

I'm a home gardener and I like a variety of fruits and veggies. Plus I grow a ton of herbs. This year I really expanded my gardening space and keeping it watered would be quite dauting without my watering setup. Part of this was my husband's idea and part was mine. The first picture shows my manifold and my timer. The manifold is attached to the side of our back deck. It's all brass (including the on/off valves) and takes a single hose and splits it off to 4 outlets. From the left I have - timer, motion activated sprinkler, short hose with sprayer, long hose with sprayer. The longer hose reaches the back of the property line for times when I need to water my compost pile, the shorter one is what I use to water new seeds and my mint beds (in grow bags to contain the spread) and asparagus bed. The timer has 3 independent watering zones. One goes to my raised beds and the jasmine that I planted last year (it runs along two sides of our shed). The second one goes to a small sprinkler for my potato bags, and the third one goes to my in ground beds. The hoses for the raised beds and in ground beds are soaker hoses that have been buried just under the mulch about an inch below the soil surface. With the 3 zones on the timer I'm not trying to water everything at the same time. Plus I can control how often each area gets watered. Right now the potato bags get water every other night and the beds are every 4 days. I just set this up so I'll be adjusting it as I see how often it truly needs to be watered. The potato bags dry out faster, that's why they get watered frequently. I'm pretty sure I'll be adjusting the raised beds and in ground beds to not be watered as often, but it was a bit dry, so I started with a more frequent schedule. I'm thinking that the raised beds might need water more often than the in ground beds. We'll see.

We have an over population of deer here and we’re not allowed to have fences. Approximately 30 to 50 deer live in the immediate area around our home. We live in a residential area and they have no predators. There’s no hunting allowed here. The only thing that ends up thinning the population is car accidents sadly.. Anything and everything that I put in the ground is being eaten. There’s no way of stopping being a hungry and determined deer especially a pregnant doe. The Mom’s stash their newborn babies right next to our back door and in the shrubs around our house. The only thing that they don’t ever eat is boxwood. I’m going to be doing a little container garden on top of the flat roof where our sunroom is. One of the female deer was hit by a car last year and she miraculously survived although a part of her leg didn’t. We call her Hopalong. She is an incredible survivor and has become very tame.

Comfrey was blooming yesterday as well as feverfew which is early for us. It has been very dry and warm comparing to other years so it seems nature is a bit a headed; my spinach already bolting. With that in mind Saturday will 30's (3C) Saturday morning. I have several tomato plants up over a foot tall so might need to start the poly tunnel heater Sat morning to keep them happy. Cover crop of cereal rye, hairy vetch, triticale and red clover is coming along nicely. Will terminate in about two weeks to plant corn and pole beans. My thought is that the clover will remain as a living mulch.