[migraine] slightly less wailing

[kaberett]

(1) Letter from consultant from previous appointment ARRIVED, so it is with my GP, and I have a GP appointment next week, so hopefully I will be able to start some more attempts at treatment from then-ish.

(2) Give or take the bit where I... have a migraine right now! Which does at least mean that I am likely to have somewhere between ten days and two weeks til the next one, which probably gives me time to actually sort out all the New Drugs and maybe start supplements and such. So that's something.

(3) Also the hospital replied to the queries I e-mailed in and it was all Fine. I have answers to immediate questions, A Note Has Been Made re my request about language, and nothing has been said about whether they operate a cancellations list and I sort of suspect they're in sufficient demand that they don't, really, but also I know that information has been seen so. Time to settle in for the next four and a half months, sigh.

One of the things this means is that I need to do some proper thinking about what it is and is not sensible for me to even attempt to grow at the allotment this year. Tomatoes need watering at least every other day, so a bed full of tomatoes is... not viable, given my regular six-day migraines. I have been feeling upset and avoidant about engaging with needing to pick crops that can be abandoned for a week at a time, but... I kind of need to. (How I am recording this in terms of my Work and Social Adjustment Score, also requested by the clinic, I leave as an exercise to the reader.)

Comments

[chiasmata]

Oh, urgh urgh urgh, I would be resenting the living crap out of this too. I am sorry.

I can’t remember what your watering arrangements are at the allotment. Is there any scope at all for remotely operated timer switches for taps? (Sorry, I am problem-solvey, which may not be what you want right now.)

[kaberett]

<333

Remotely operated timer switch -- not within a reasonable budget. Solar-operated irrigation -- maybe; I am contemplating.

(The Worst Option, obviously, would be to ask the allotment site whatsapp if they'd be willing to cover for me in Bad Weeks, but. Worst.)

[ewt]

Crop suggestions of things that can be ignored once they're in,if necessary:

Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash) but my understanding is that if you use popcorn (or flint corn or some other drying type of corn) and drying beans you can basically harvest the whole lot at the end.

Soup peas -- good for leaving in the ground until they dry, like the drying beans, but you can start them much earlier.

Quinoa maybe? Dunno.

Chard is pretty unfussy. It'll bolt in the heat though.

Potatoes.

Leeks -- can probably get away with watering once a week.

Irrigation options:
I had some success last year using an Irrigatia solar-powered drip watering pump in my raised hexagon beds. This summer I intend to set it up in the greenhouse. I also had some beds that had seep hose attached to a water butt; I could go one day, open the tap, go back the next day and close it, and repeat every week. In a hot wet summer I expect I would need to refill the water butt with a watering can, and it does want a pretty large butt to get decent pressure.

As far as tomatoes specifically are concerned, a plot neighbour of mine waters her outdoor ones once a week, she sinks 1 litre plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off into the ground next to the tomato so they get a litre of water every time. Another thing that can help is planting them *very* deep when planting them out, they'll make roots basically all the way up the stem so burying a good foot of it will mean they cope better with drought. Another plot neighbour is very diligent with cutting off leaves once they start flowering -- not only side shoots, but most of the lower leaves too, so there are only really two or three branches at the top of the plant -- this helps with blight, exposes the fruit to more sunshine so it ripens better, and also reduces watering requirements. I don't think I've ever seen her water the tomatoes at all.

[kaberett]

This is very helpful and welcome, thank you. <333 I am going to be coming back to it once I have a little more brain and am actually managing to plan.

[ewt]

Let me know if you have questions, it was all very train-of-thought off the top of my head.

Mulch is also often helpful. Those wool things are ideal. Where I noticed the most effect of them this summer was actually on the patch of winecap mushrooms.

[ewt]

Also I mean "hot dry summer" not "hot wet summer" I just couldn't type.