Perky Lettuce, Droopy Basil

Well it has been almost a week that Farmer Craig and I have been farming Craig's veggies. At first we were afraid that the lettuce was not going to pull through, but over the last week, it has really rebounded!! The time it takes to produce a head of lettuce is supposed to be about 3 months, so we have 2 months and 3 weeks left before we will know if we have had any success. As for now, the lettuce plants look good and that is encouraging.

The majority of the spices look pretty good too, with the exception of one plant of basil. It began to look droopy and wilted about 2 days ago. We were running late and we did not water the garden that morning. I figured that since we had given it a good soak the night before, that the plants would be OK until that evening. That was true for all but one basil plant. That evening when we got home, it looked like it had been beaten down by the sun. The second basil looked ok, just a little dry. There was little to no change in the mint or oregano plants. We watered the garden and hoped for the best. Over the last 2 days it has rebounded slightly, and I am thinking that it may be OK, but we will just have to wait and see.

To Water or Not to Water, That is the Question...
Since Craig and I are so very new at this, we have no idea when the proper times are to water our garden and how much water it really needs. Obviously as we found with the basil, we have to water the plants first thing in the morning to sustain them, but the question becomes: should we be watering them when we get home in the evenings as well? For the last 2 days (since the almost loss of the poor basil plant) we have been watering both in the early mornings and early evenings. So far it looks like it is keeping them healthy.

Maybe the full sun that they sit in for the majority of the day dries out the ground enough that they need both. My only worry is that it is too much water and that they may become sick from being too saturated.

We have tried to find information online about when the right times to water the garden are and how much to use, but the information is so conflicting. I think it may be time to call and ask Ray (our close friend and farming expert) what he thinks.