The peepers, frogs, salamanders and toads are thoroughly enjoying
the overly-wet spring we’ve had.
My
garden, on the other hand, is not.
As of May 31st, our area has already recorded a
total of 39.98“of rainfall, 15 of which happened in May alone. We are only 5” from our average total YEARLY
rainfall. To say that it’s a soupy,
swampy mess around here would be an extreme understatement.
We planted tomato and pepper seeds and starts outside the
first of April. It is now the first week
of June and they have either rotted in the ground, stunted or have been washed
down to the creek, never to be seen again.
One of my sage plants have
basically rotted to death, the marigolds are waterlogged, beans – if they even
came up – are growing s…l…o…w…l…y. What
corn plants Ms. Melman hasn’t been able to reach & chew up are doing ok,
but the squash and beans planted in the Three Sisters mounds aren’t doing very
well.
Pea seeds have gone into the ground twice now, the first
batch rotted and the second batch didn’t do much of anything and it’s already
getting to hot for them anyhow. First
planting of cucumbers and pinto beans shared the same waterlogged death. The
herb garden, which seems to thrive in the midst of heat, poor soil and watering
whenever I get around to it, is also taking a beating.
We did, however, get a great harvest of radishes! White Icicle and Breakfast radishes to be exact.
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| Did I mention that I don't even like radishes? Figures. |
Grass, weeds, moss and fungi are about the only things (other than giant radishes) benefiting
from all this moisture and the goats / mule / chickens /
whatever-the-hell-other animals we have are gorping on greenery. Enjoy and fatten up, goaties, because it’s
going to be a meat-heavy and veggie-light harvest come fall.
So since we actually want to get some sort of consumable
vegetable matter out of the garden this year we are going to have to get more
seeds in the ground. I may as well just
toss them off the back porch & say “Good luck, suckers!” Probably get a better yield using that method.
I wonder if there is a book on Swamp Gardening?
Oh, for so frustrating for you! So. much. rain! And there's not much you can do about it. During drought times, at least we can water to some extent but ya can't take the water out of the garden. I've never heard of a book on Swamp Gardening but I'm thinking you could write it. :o\
ReplyDeleteHey! You could always send some of that up here? Up here to the New Great Sahara Desert in New York. We've had no rain for ages and I'm starting to water the plants with an eye dropper.
ReplyDelete