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| A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage Vincent van Gogh 1880 |
We've been having rain.
Frequent rain. Possibly daily rain.
But in a rather peculiar way.
It won't be raining. Then it will be raining, sometimes quite hard.
Then - and by "then" I mean 5 to 15 minutes after a person senses rain coming and rushes around getting all the on-deck hay and lawn chaises under cover - the rain stops. Sometimes the sun comes out. Sometimes it never went away, and there's been a 5-minute sunshower downpour.
We are at the point of General Vegetative Abundance where even five minutes of rain means that being outdoors afterward means wading through soaking wet undergrowth. Exposed soil in a garden bed might be bone-dry a centimeter beneath the surface, but by gosh, the surrounding vegetation is dripping.
I'm beginning to think I need more than one pair of work trousers.
I'm trying not to panic about the vegetable garden which barely exists. First, the usual planting was delayed by the seasonal oddness - and considering how many on-time plantings in my neck of the woods were hit hard by the 26F night in late May, I feel I made the right choice there. But in June, when I fully expected to plant the entire garden in the first week, I've been stymied by a combination of intermittent rain and necessary hours of goat-combing. Also by time spent driving - and then recovering from driving - to various appointments. Does it sound like I'm making excuses? Maybe I am, but it feels more like I'm...trying.
How are your gardens coming along? Has unusual weather this year had an impact on your gardening plans or your plants?
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The weeds have entirely taken over the gardens. I need to mulch but don't even know where to start.
ReplyDeleteBut everything is a beautiful shade of green. :-)
I start by pulling out encroaching plants that the goats can safely eat, and sharing them out to the goats who line up along the garden fence. That's probably not much help to you, though ;)
DeleteSorry you are having a time of it.
ReplyDeleteGood idea to hold back planting. That May frost did a job on the few flowers I put out. I like not watering every day, but the rain is getting old. Here's to a sunny July!
So many people have lost part or all of their fruit crops from that one very cold night. And so many plants were already trying to recoup after having to expend stored energy during the "Spring" we had in the middle of what would normally be Winter. What a year, already.
DeleteIt's been cool here and every growing thing (with the probably exception of weeds of course!) is really slow. Normally we have strawberries available by now but not this year.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on going to the farmers market on Friday to see if anyone has local strawberries. Fingers crossed!
DeleteSometimes all one can do is try. Recently my to-do list items have been steadily moving to the next day, as more critical things pop up, so I feel your pain. And in this season, they're all critical...:-)
ReplyDeleteWe've been experiencing gloriously cool weather and evening thunderstorms - very unusual for here. The tomatoes and beans are happy, the peppers and basil are sulking. You know plants are unhappy when instead of getting bigger and bigger, they get smaller and smaller...that's our basil at the moment.
I hope your weather dries out enough to plant the garden and then continues with just enough rain to give the seeds and transplants a good start.
How far along are you with goat combing? Is the end in sight?
Chris from Boise
The end IS in sight, thank you for asking! Would have been finished by now if the other parties were willing to cooperate a bit more. Glad your beans and tomatoes are looking good :)
DeleteSounds like typical summer weather here, where rain often doesn't penetrate deeply into the soil. Or under my mulch.
ReplyDeleteMy garden is doing okay, but I'm having a real issue with June beetles. They are demolishing my raspberries and one grape vine. I spray daily with neem, but they keep coming back.
Leigh, thank you for reminding me to keep a close eye on my grape vines and raspberries, for beetle damage! Last year I was out there every morning with a jar of soapy water - and gradually quicker reflexes, since when I started, for every beetle I knocked into the jar, several flew off.
DeleteVery similar sequence of weather here in Maine. Crazy mixed up mini-seasons. Yesterday was the first warm day in a while and sunny too, but it rained 4.5 inches last night and raining all day today. Trying not to get too attached to an idea of what the outcome of the garden will be. Que sera sera! But all that work.... sigh
ReplyDeleteThat's the situation exactly - you've hit the nail on the head!
DeleteChiming in again: 34 degrees F this morning. Basil is NOT amused. But not dead either (I think). When I said (above) 'gloriously cool' the weather gods must have been listening...
ReplyDeleteAlso, did I remember to mention that the three screech owlets fledged on June 2? We haven't seen them since, but occasionally hear them in the evening. We're way behind in processing videos, but will eventually post a few more of the best on YouTube. Here's the link for the last fledgling leaving home: https://youtu.be/ECTu-V8Y3ww
Chris from Boise
34F! I've been enjoying our lovely October mornings for the past many weeks, but it hasn't dropped that low! That's got to be some tough basil :)
DeleteThanks for the owl update - I was listening to the locals the other evening after chores, and wondered how your youngsters are getting along.
It has certainly been an unusual year. We were so dry here in .at and until this week in June; now it has rained for at least 5 days in a row. Not downpours, thankfully. But the weeds are beginning to get ahead of me now.
ReplyDeleteThis week we had two days without rain - everyone was marveling at it! - and now it's pouring and the forecast for the next ten days is rain. Nothing to do but get on with things as best I can, but my gosh, what a "season" we are having.
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