d-July mid-October

Seedlings in pots and trays are hard to keep moist and require daily
tending. Fortunately, growing transplants in little pots is not
necessary because in autumn, when they'll be set out, humidity is
high, temperatures are cool, the sun is weak, and transpiration
losses are minimal, so seedling transplants will tolerate
considerable root loss. My nursery is sown in rows about 8 inches
apart across a raised bed and thinned gradually to prevent crowding,
because crowded seedlings are hard to dig out without damage. When
the prediction of a few days of cloudy weather encourages
transplanting, the seedlings are lifted with a large, sharp knife.
If the fall rains are late and/or the crowded seedlings are getting
leggy, a relatively small amount of irrigation will moisten the
planting areas. Another light watering at transplanting time will
almost certainly establish the seedlings quite successfully. And,
finding room for these crops ceases to be a problem because fall
transplants can be set out as a succession crop following hot
weather vegetables such as squash, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes,
potatoes, and beans.

Vegetables that must be heavily irrigated
(These crops are not suitable for dry gardens.)

Bulb Onions (for fall harvest)
Celeriac
Celery
Chinese cabbage
Lettuce (summer and fall)
Radishes (summer and fall)
Scallions (for summer harvest)
Spinach (summer)

Chapter 5

How to Grow It with Less Irrigation: A-Z

First, a Word About Varieties

As recently as the 1930s, most American country folk still did not
have running water. With water being hand-pumped and carried in
buckets, and precious, their vegetable gardens had to be grown with
a minimum of irrigation. In the otherwise well-watered East, one
could routinely expect several consecutive weeks every summer
without rain. In some drought years a hot, rainless month or longer
could go by. So vegetable varieties were bred to grow through dry
spells without loss, and traditional American vegetable gardens were
designed to help them do so.

I began gardening in the early 1970s, just as the raised-bed method
was being popularized. The latest books and magazine articles all
agreed that raising vegetables in widely separated single rows was a
foolish imitation of commercial farming, that commercial vegetables
were arranged that way for ease of mechanical cultivation. Closely
planted raised beds req