Radishes and Carrots and Lettuce, Oh My!

[Whitewater]

Oh, no, it's raining again. Just when my plants were finally starting to pick themselves up and look around them after coping with too much rain *last* week.

*sigh*

You know, I know there are a lot of people out there who are desperate for rain, who are watering every day and watching their plants dry up and blow away, and I feel for you, I really do.

But to give you some perspective, it's just as bad to watch your plants curl up and struggle and drown and die and know there's nothing you can do about it.

I have soil that drains amazingly well for being mostly clay, but still.


Whitewater

 

[digitS']

Difficult gardening weather is difficult gardening weather, Whitewater.

I am in almost the "same boat" but not quite. Of the last 46 days:

13 have been above normal, and
33 have been below normal.

Rain will start tonight and continue thru most of the day, tomorrow - we are told. Some forecasters say the the high won't break into the 60's . . .

I ran the rototiller for over 3 hours yesterday. If your clay drains well, my gravel does even better! Imagine a gravel driveway with some good dirt mixed in. That's about what I've got to work with.

We've had some 24 hour rain records set lately. But for here, all that means is that we had a few good rainstorms. One record was for .66". I don't think that would be a record in most parts of the country.

DW said, "do you really think you can till out there?" I set the depth to about 2" and killed weeds like crazy without getting bogged down. Of course, I had to be real careful about where I put my #13 feet walking behind. I can create something similar to asphalt treading about on wet ground.

After I broke 2 shear pins on the rocks, I went home. It is something of a standard I try to maintain.

digitS'

 

[Whitewater]

Today, my worries about my garden seem silly.

My brother just lost the tips of the two middle fingers of his right hand. It was a freak accident at his workplace -- he's a shipwright and a new incoming boat to repair (they restore wooden ones) fell off the trailer and crushed his fingers. I (and Hubby) stayed at the hospital while he had surgery, and a bit afterwards. Our parents are 3 states away. I'm the only family he has right now.

And I was just diagnosed with Aspberger's Syndrome, in addition to everything else. Quite literally, I was in the assessment appointment when bro was getting rushed to the ER.

Too much rain in the garden? Not even on the radar, comparatively.


Whitewater

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Whitewater,

So sorry to hear about your troubles -- it is a lot to contend with in a very short time! These things seem to come all together, it seems to me!

Breathe deeply & do the best you can. We are all here to listen when & IF you need us.

I do hope your brother heals fast & comes to terms with his situation & that you will get the help you need for dealing with your Aspberger's Sydrome.

Wishing you better times & less rain in your garden!


Hattie

 

[Whitewater]

Thanks, Hattie! (btw, not ignoring, just . . . need some time!)

We're getting still more rain in the next 48-60ish hours. And my Mortgage Lifter is JUST NOW getting its groove on. *sigh*

And I have to re-sow half my zukes, apparently those blasted children pulled up more than the one they admitted to. And I looked again at the cucumbers and decided I need to plant a couple more seeds so that our chicken coop gets a better vine-type screen from the alley. It's a good thing we all like cucumbers around here! LOL! Oh yeah, and the herbs and the strawberries desperately need to get weeded.

Next week. Now that Hubby and I finally finished building our chicken coop, well, except for some little cosmetic stuff here and there, I'll have time to really concentrate on the green stuff.

But all of that is more about keeping my mind and hands occupied, if I don't have something else to think about I'll drive myself nuts about my brother and all the rest of it. Gardening is an outlet.

I find that getting in the dirt really helps soothe the emotional aches and pains in my life. It's so good to weed, too! I can take all of my frustration out on those awful plants that try to take over from what's supposed to be there.

I harvested 16 strawberries today. And a dozen yesterday. And there's more on the way! I look at the berries and think about the cycle of life and it helps ease my mind.

One of many reasons I garden. And I'm not surprised that my stress levels rise in the winter, when I can't get into the dirt -- but all that's going to change from now on, since we're going to be responsible for chickens now, I'm planning on growing chard and spinach through the winter for our hens, in rubbermaid totes, under a couple grow lights Give them something to eat, give us something fresh as well, here and there. Not roots, probably, or tomatoes, but maybe lettuce as well. The basement never gets above 65' F.

We'll see. But now, it's 4am and I have to get to bed! Hopefully I'll have happy garden dreams.


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

My strawberries are rotting on the 'vine' (plant?) because we're getting way too much rain. They just have no chance to dry out. Ever.

The vegetable garden is also waterlogged and some of my peppers are beginning to show signs of stress.

There's a mushroom in the chicken coop. Which I will have to go out there in the rain and pull up (I have no idea if it's poisonous), because our pullets come home in about 30 hours.

My beans, cukes and zukes are all growing slowly in direct response to the rain. The more it rains, the less they grow.

I am sending a plea out to the Garden Gods: We have enough rain! Please send it to somebody who could really *use* and *need* it!! We don't need any more rain, thanks. We've got more than enough right now.

Oh yeah, and my tomatoes are blossoming, but the blossoms aren't turning into tomatoes. I think this is also because of the rain, but only peripherally -- I think it's too wet for the few pollinators we have to make an appearance. Hence, no pollinated flowers, and hence, no tomatoes.

It's been a very wierd, overly wet growing season so far. Here's hoping we have a chance to dry out and settle down!



Whitewater

 

[lesa]

Ugh, sounds like my summer, last year. May was dry here, but now it is rain, rain, rain. Most people's strawberries were ruined... The other day it was 50 degrees in the daytime! Here's hoping your gardens dry out and everything is happy again!

 

[Whitewater]

Am pleased to report that after a dry 48 hours -- most of which was sunny too -- everything has picked back up. In particular the beans have gotten not only their 1st true leaves but their 2nd and 3rd leaves as well, and the cukes and zukes are working on their 2nd leaves also. One of the zuke's 1st leaves is as big as a salad plate! That's the Black Beauty zuke, the one that performed phenomenally for me last summer.

All of my tomatoes have flowers now, and today I saw at least 3 different species of bee buzzing busily around the flowers, so hopefully we'll start getting tomatoes soon.

I took the chance today (no rain, ground is dry enough to work with) and weeded the veggie garden like a mad fiend, for a bit over 2 solid hours. Might have been closer to 3 hours, I'm not sure. There are no clocks in a garden!

Now I'm sunburned and sore and got dirt under my fingernails, but I am in a much better place, both as regards my garden *and* my state of mind/emotions. I can tell my plants appreciate me getting rid of all those weeds.

We picked up our chickens yesterday and they're doing well, relatively, though they're still unhappy about going from one location to another. Chickens hate change more than I do! They are also having to get used to all the noise in an urban environment, they came from a small rural hobby farm. And being the only chickens as opposed to a 2 dozen hen flock . . . etc. They haven't come out of their hen house yet, but they *are*, slowly, getting used to me, so hopefully it won't be too long before they get back to normal chicken behavior.

I still have to replace my torn-up zucchini plants, but the place where I want to do that is still full of weeds (I had to give up before finishing my patch!). Maybe this weekend, which is supposed to be the next 48 hours worth of sun.

And I still have to plant my second planting of cukes, too . . . ugh, I do not want to think about that. Gotta somehow plant them around the peppers. Oh well.


Whitewater (can't wait to actually start harvesting veggies!!)

reason for editing: can't spell

 

[digitS']

Whitewater, it sprinkled here off and on for much of the day. The important news, however, is that the high temperature must have set a new record. The weather service shows that it never got above 51F!

I actually ran the sprinklers in the little veggie garden and will turn them on in the big patch, tomorrow. It isn't dry just heading that way and the sprinkles didn't help much.

Harvested the last of the first bok choy transplants last week. The last of the first onion sets were pulled yesterday. Cleaned out the last of the spinach sown this spring, today. And, the first transplanted lettuce and the kale are yielding by the bushel!

Obviously, it has been a good spring for the greens - not excellent, but good. I just hope it warms up before the low temps kill the melons and peppers . . .

Steve

 

[Whitewater]

Wow, Steve . . . I don't know whether to commiserate or congratulate! Yay for greens, but dang, the warm weather just isn't showing up for you, is it? I will put in a plea to the Weather Gods on your behalf!

It almost makes me feel guilty to announce that we have our first tomato! Predictably, it's an Early Girl and it's the EG plant that I bought to 'replace' (hah!) the EG that was damaged in *our* unseasonably cold and wet streak.

It's about the size of a marble right now, but considering that it wasn't there at all yesterday, that's good! (And I would know -- all that weeding was done on eye level with the plants, if there was a tomato, I would have spotted it!)

And the 2nd of my two Anaheim peppers has a flower. Here's hoping that they don't have blossom drop like they did with the 1st flower.

Today is the 3rd day in a row without rain. Yay!


Whitewater (although it's 87' and windy and we're under a tornado watch . . . )