Garden dries out

The funny thing about planting gardens on time is that the weather just might end up hating you for it. I couldn’t have predicted when we beat the light rain shower that day that the next 2 weeks would be a continuation of the rainy misery we’ve suffered through here in the Midwest. And now that it’s sunny and my plants are all flooded out, the coast has cleared enough to go in and inspect the damage.

From 3 rows of sweet corn, 5 plants made it through the deluge. The cantaloupe came up in a fury, but I’m worried that it will wilt fast under the weather now because it hasn’t been able to leaf enough to shelter itself. Our herbs are starting to pop bravely back through the soil in the basket but they are behind schedule severely. Pumpkins are up and growing, but I didn’t even mean to plant those; they’re just volunteers from last year. Our strawberry plant drowned and subsequently fried, suffering a death rivaled only by the Spanish Inquisition, while even our indoor tomatoes have slowed their growth because there wasn’t any sunlight for them to absorb. The only two plants which came up nicely were the beans (eaten by our overpopulation of groundhogs and deer) and the peas. Hopefully the peas will survive the sunlight and give us a few flowers before they die from the sudden season change.

It’s a sad time out in the gardens, but since there’s extra seeds we’ll give it one more chance I guess. Hopefully it’ll get better and hopefully my guesses are wrong, but this isn’t looking to be a very wet summer. If I was a farmer, I’d really struggle convincing myself to put in all the effort on the slim chance that my harvest comes out right this year. Good luck to all that are out planting right now or making hay.

Sunshine at last

I've been watching everyone else blog and report on the rain for the last few weeks, and we don't live on a flood plain or near one of the hugely overflowed rivers this week, but it has been wet here as well. But in an effort to avoid beating the dead horse, I'll refrain from elaborating on just how much water we've gotten. Needless to say, the breeze the last couple of days with 85F and sunshine has been a much-needed blessing and there is finally some hope of recovering the pastures and getting a vegetable garden in.

Record rainfall here for the month of April doesn't even begin to describe how soft the ground was getting, even in our yard. The dog finally started refusing to even go outside because she got tired of having to deal with the rain and stepping in the mud. Out on the farms, the pasture hasn't even been able to grow grass to keep up with the appetite and hoofprints litter the ground, damaging the roots of the plants so it's going to take a while to recover.

I remember a few years back when the dams almost breached because of the rain then, but that was on frozen ground with less absorption and increased direct watershed flow to the dam. This is different because the ground took everything it could first, before it started a mass migration according to the law of gravity.

But of course, our damage and the local crops not being planted long after they were due is nothing compared to the damage I saw today from the tornadoes in the South. It was unbelievable to see the footage from the tornadoes and even more astonishing to see the damage after. The South hasn't seen a swath of devastation like that since our very own Sherman marched to Atlanta and the resolve of the populace to bounce back is impressive. I saw a show this morning that highlighted the projects and groups who are helping to rebuild and those people should be commended for their efforts.

Hopefully this week we'll finally be able to start working the garden soil and planting all the starters my brother has going. Now if we can just avoid a long-summer drought or corn prices will be through the roof. It feels really good to have a hot sun beam down and to not have to run from car to building to not be soaked, but I worry that it won't be long before I wish that sun would be covered by some clouds again.