Too much rain? Anyone having problems with their gardens?

Posted Monday, May 21, 2012, at 12:44 PM

Beth asked me to see if others were having troubles in their garden with too much rain. That interested me because out on our hills we are in the deficit column to the point of me not planting anymore until I see a better trend. So my problem is a lack of rain, not too much.

WHAT SAY YOU?

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Not one drop of rain in a week or two on the hills of Raus!!

-- Posted by RausJacks on Mon, May 21, 2012, at 12:58 PM

There seems to be a happy medium on 231N area of Shelbyville. Nothing struggling, zukes are waist high on me with leaves that look like elephant ears. Flowers all over my garden, tomatoes seem excited and look perky. I planted my brocs too late, so I'm gonna till them up and start my punkins.

-- Posted by craftin_mom on Mon, May 21, 2012, at 1:15 PM

RausJacks, we fell your pain, or dryness, until two days ago. We had some brief, HARD showers since then, but we'll take it. :-)

Hoping for more today. Plants are doing well because of heavy mulch but the edges of the lawn still show cracks in the soil.

craftin_momm glad you reminded me to go check my zukes. Once they start, they seem to grow to harvest size overnight.

Time to harvest all my garlic. I was slow last year and pretty much lost the crop.

Here is a blog our daughter started about her staircase garden. Since I am the proud papa, I am enjoying it, maybe you will too. http://baby-stair-garden.tumblr.com/

-- Posted by stevemills on Mon, May 21, 2012, at 1:43 PM

I haven't watered the garden in about a week, but some of the plants, like my snap peas are starting to get yellowish on the leaves. I live minutes from the Bedford/Rutherford line and we have had plenty of rain over the past few weeks. Saturday, we had a really hard downpour.

This is my first time at gardening, so it may be something that I am doing wrong. But, our lettuce, tomatoes, corn, garlic, carrots, apples and sunflowers are doing perfect. We even had an early picking of the strawberries.

We do grow organically, meaning that I do not use any pesticides on any of my plants. One problem that I tend to have is that the weeds seem to try and crop back up into the garden.

-- Posted by -Beth- on Mon, May 21, 2012, at 3:18 PM

Sometimes my "fat fingers" do things I can't even guess. I spent about 15 minutes typing a reply to you Beth, only to have it vaporize. Here is the short version (typed on Word first).

For your first year in gardening, you are doing extremely well, especially to be doing it organically. Not that organics have to be tougher, but I believe it requires more observation of nature and knowledge of your specific garden environment. Too often, gardeners just run to the store and buy the "magic bullets".

This time of year snap and snow peas are going to start yellowing and dying. They are a shorter day and cooler weather crop. Many lettuces are also, so depending on what you planted, they may start getting bitter and trying to bolt (go to seed).

I used to certify organic market gardeners and farms so I would love to discuss organics with you through this blog. If however, you would rather discuss things off the blog, write to me at Steve@bedfordtradingpost.com

-- Posted by stevemills on Mon, May 21, 2012, at 4:54 PM

To grow our vegetables, I do not use any substance on them. I do sprinkle crushed egg shells around the perimeter to keep out the slugs/snails that may wonder into the garden. Otherwise, it is simply regular dirt, water from the water hose, and the sun.

Everything that we grow we eat or freeze. I don't have a giant garden or anything special. Just a couple of wooden framed areas using 2x4s to make rectangles. We dug up the area using a shovel, an old hammer (the claw part works perfect for pulling out the grass and weeds), and lots of hard back labor. It took me a couple of hours a day for about a week to get the area dug up and loosened. I started back in February on the dirt, since the ground was soft.

We thought about extending the garden next year and planting different vegetables, even ones that we don't eat, to give away to neighbors or to others who may want fresh vegetables.

-- Posted by -Beth- on Mon, May 21, 2012, at 7:45 PM

We are in a drought. I had some rain this weekend and I hope we get a lot more. Especially with all of the 90 degree + weather we'll be getting soon....

-- Posted by espoontoon on Tue, May 22, 2012, at 6:35 AM

Looks like we are done with the rain for a while. My garden is very limited and I am beginning to plan for a Fall garden instead.

-- Posted by stevemills on Tue, May 22, 2012, at 6:44 AM

Wartrace had been very dry until yesterday evening. I have not been able to dig in the ground because it is so hard when it is dry. Of course I can water heavily before I plan to dig but that adds one more job to the mix and the Spring garden chores are already on overload. The rain/hail storm came in fast and furious last evening dumping an exact inch of rain according to the gauge ......... That doesn't count the hail which was busy making confetti out of the last few trays of tomato seedlings that were placed on the porch in the morning. Even though they were tucked under the patio umbrella they got caught. It doesn't take much to shred those tender leaves. I hope our park got a good soaking...... It's going to be a hot week.

-- Posted by Palindrome on Tue, May 22, 2012, at 1:43 PM

Has the farmer's market opened yet? If so, what day/time? Thanks!

-- Posted by craftin_mom on Wed, May 23, 2012, at 9:52 AM

Believe they opened the 15th.. "The Shelbyville Farmers Market is held each Tuesday evening from 4:30 - 6:30 in the Main 4H Pavilion at the 4H Fairgrounds just off of Route 128 on the North side of Shelbyville. "

-- Posted by stevemills on Wed, May 23, 2012, at 12:16 PM

Not setting up at the horse show grounds anymore? I didn't know that, thanks Steve!

-- Posted by craftin_mom on Wed, May 23, 2012, at 10:50 PM

That is the news from their website. If someone knows differently, please let us know. I rarely get time during the work week to go downtown, so....I have actually never been there.

-- Posted by stevemills on Thu, May 24, 2012, at 6:29 AM

Re Farmer's Market--their website must be outdated. John Teague's column in May 29 T-G contains the following reminder " Farmers Market opens at 3 pm on Thursday, June 7, at the Farmers Market building on Celebration Drive in Shelbyville." This is the same as last year's hours.

-- Posted by jbillswms on Tue, May 29, 2012, at 11:45 PM

Thanks jbillswms. That must be the cause of confusion (partly me) because I took it straight from their website. I will take a moment to point that out, or maybe your comments have already alerted someone.

-- Posted by stevemills on Wed, May 30, 2012, at 7:05 AM

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Steve Mills

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Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter and live on a farm outside of Bell Buckle. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.

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