Neither rain, nor wind…um, scratch that
Posted on May 24, 2009 - Filed Under farm maintenance, seeds, vegetables, weather
So, it’s been a while since my last post. Reasons: I’ve been technologically repressed (my laptop was kaput, but no more) and environmentally depressed (rain, wind, more rain, more wind, tornado, rain, wind, cold snap, rain, wind, wind).
So spring sprung…hooray! Through February and March, John and I had been maniacally planting seedlings inside. Everything we hoped for our outside garden, started early, growing safely inside. Such a relief to actually be ahead of the game for a change. Oh, pride, you kick our butts once again.
Carefully tended seedlings grow so fast inside! Faster than their little pots can hold them. They demand to be outside in unlimited soil, sun and water. Well, they got it. Over 200 seedlings of all sorts were plopped into the ground come mid April.
March comes in like a lion, out like a lamb. April showers bring May flowers. Right? Well, I think Mother Nature got a bit confused. March went out like a stampeding buffalo and took April with it. We had weeks of torrential downpour and flooding combined with super high winds and tornadoes. Then for one night only, sneakily nestled in between, a cold snap in the 30s. This, followed by more flooding and high winds. Nice.
Oh, poor seedlings! Most of them made it through the first set of rain and wind. We had some soil loss and scratched in-grounds seeds floated out to the woods; a few seedling stems snapped under the wind, but most held their own. The night of cold is what did them in. I guess the ground was so wet and the seedlings already so stressed, they couldn’t handle the cold. And all, every last one of our hundreds of seedlings, died. Sigh. So much for being ahead of the game. Of course, we were not the only ones affected. Large and small farms alike lost soil and nutrients, cukes, watermelon and time as no one could plant while the ground was so wet. As a matter of fact, some farms are still waiting for the ground to dry a bit so they can plant.
So we were back to playing catch-up, direct-planting seeds in the ground. Where there was once a Little Jack Pumpkin plant, “plop” a seed hoping to be a Little Jack Pumpkin plant; where there was once an Orange Sunset tomato plant, “plop” a seed hoping to…well, you get the idea. I even went so far as to say a prayer for each seed I placed in the ground. They need all the help they can get. Plus, it gave the whole tedious seed-planting do-over, a ceremonial and zennish (new word) feel.
Thankfully, most of our seeds sprouted and are well on their way. I can look out my window and see foot-tall tomato, squash, pak choy and sunflower plants. Pumpkins, melons, garbanzos, peanuts and eggplant are not far behind. Peppers, watermelon, celery, carrots and beets are kind of straggling, but I think they’ll do fine in the end.
Of course, as I write this, we are again in the middle of week 2 of monsoon conditions…some of my larger plants are leaning 45 degrees due to the winds. As long as it doesn’t get cold though we should be okay. And it is practically June, so no way, right? Right? Yeah, right.
The only positive thing I can say is we still have more planted now then we did this same time last year. So despite all the tribulations, we’ve still improved.
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We feel your pain hon. You guys work your tails off, but it sounds like you have so much done! Be sure to take a step back now and again and admire what you’ve done, you deserve it!
~hugs~
Wow! You all are working so hard. I think you will have a health food market soon in that area.
I can’t wait to move back to my house and try some seedling out myself. Keep up the good work.
I hope Junior is doing well. I think of him often.