Last week, when I took you all on a little garden tour, our gardens were doing well. We had gotten some much needed rain and did not anticipate having to water anytime soon. Now we have gotten too much rain, and our gardens are suffering .
It is called wet wilt. The ground is simply too wet for the plants and they are basically drowning.
We have lost significant amounts of tomatoes and peppers and the entire row of green beans. Today we noticed that the cabbage and potatoes have also taken a hit.
On June 27th, when we first discovered that we were losing plants, my husband removed all of the straw mulch in order to give the ground an opportunity to dry out and prevent further damage, but with showers and storms adding water to the ground each day there has been no chance of that. We now have about five dry days in the forecast so hopefully the worst is over and all is not lost.
While this is discouraging we must remember –
Do Not Worry
(Matthew 6: 25-34)25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.
As soon as the ground dries up some we will be placing some of the lost plants. My husband was able to find some tomato and pepper plants at a garden center and he also bought more green bean seeds. 🙂
Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care 
Oh no – when it rains, it pours, literally. I hope you did not get the deluge that was expected today. Then mid-afternoon, they began calling for severe weather. I had my handyman here doing his annual chores like the gutters and some patching, up on the chimney flashing repair and I kept asking “if we get all this rain, what will it do to the tar and sealant?” I hoped he’d reschedule, but he said it’s okay. We’ve got an hour left before the storm advisory is over. I was outside with Jim when he was finished and came in to hear the weather alarm going off about the severe weather for all counties. Yikes – I am ready for Fall Ruth.
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We did get enough (too much) of it. It is frustrating.
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Yes, it is … I’ve seen some of the pictures of farmer’s flooded fields … first drought, now flooding. I hope you are able to salvage a good portion of your crops Ruth – you worked so hard to plant and nurture them.
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Thanks Linda, Only time will tell – more rain in the forecast for today. 😦
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I cannot give that comment a “like” Ruth if you had the deluge of rain like we had today around 2:45. It was not much of a storm, but the torrential rain came down for a good 45 minutes. We had rain early, around 5:30 a.m. and again this evening. Unbelievably wet weather. Tomorrow no rain and maybe sun will help you out.
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We had rain on and off throughout the day some heavy this morning. We are so ready to be done with it. That sunshine will be most welcome!
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Yes, the rain is unusually heavy isn’t it? I remember Summers when you’d get a substantial rain like that just occasionally, then you didn’t need to water for a few days, even in August. This being an everyday occurrence is just not right.
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Hey Ruth, we have a similar problem here, the weather has been wacky as crud this year, first we had seriously heavy rains, then high humidity, then a heatwave, then drops in temperatures again followed by more heavy rains and the plants l have growing are all over the place. So it is exceedingly frustrating. I plan to do things different next season.
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Hi Rory. Thanks for stopping by from your new blog and leaving a comment. I had to pop over and see who left this comment. I hope your plans for next season work out better. It is exceedingly frustrating for sure.
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Hey Ruth, the weather is just so out of wack – the last two years especially – have thrown giant spanners into normal season.
Sure, l am working with a new garden here and now and so it takes time to understand what works best – but even in the last garden, the final season there was tricky.
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In the 10 years that we have been at the farm we have not seen a year like this. In a normal year the pond will be over flowing in the spring due to snow melt and early spring rains. In late May or early June when we plant we may or may not have to begin watering. By mid June and July we are hot and dry and needing to water every other day or so.
This year we started out with a ground moisture deficit due to lack of winter snow and a very dry spring. We were in a moderate drought. The pond level was the lowest we have seen it since we had it dug and it filled up in 2013. When the rains finally came they came fast and furious. We have had too much in too short of a time and our gardens are suffering. I’m not sure what we could have done differently. If we were to plant in higher areas then when it is dry we need to water more and when we plant in lower areas when it is too wet the plants are downing. Frustrating indeed!
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Yes, we too have had similar fronts weather wise, everything is no longer as simple as it used to be when we were younger growing up into the world.
I feel mother nature has had enough and is starting to take control again and somehow as gardeners, harvesters, composters and recyclers we must work with her rather than against.
Eco gardeners like you and l do tend to work with nature, BUT, many do not, and as is usually the case – the minority of good has to contend with the majority of bad, so we must find ways yo come to a compromise with how we approach things l should imagine – because l cannot see things returning to what we used to know and had become accustomed to.
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We had a streak of rain that damaged a few of my potted flowers. I have been trimming out the dead bits little by little and they are slowing recovering. Night before last we had torrential rains again and the rain gauge showed that we had received 6 and 1/2 inches overnight. Lots of flooding and damage from it all. But Matthew is right and God is still in control of this crazy journey we are on. I hope it dries up enough for you to get those new plants in the ground soon .
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It’s hard to say how much drying out we will do. There is more rain in the forecast for Tues and Wed. I’m sure we will figure something out for those plants though.
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My ground plants are okay, but I’m tired of dumping water out of pots!
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Most of my pot are under cover either trees or the barn porch so they didn’t get the full down pours. I did repot my geranium because it was water logged and all the mature leaves turned brown. Thankfully as those leaves were dyeing it was sprouting new leaves.
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You had too much of a good thing! I hope everything dries out soon.
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It seems there is no happy medium. We hope so too. It’s supposed to be hot and dry for the weekend. That should help.
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It’s been raining here every day for a week or two. I hope you get a bit of drought soon (not too much though).
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Just some dry days will be good. Oddly the US drought monitor map still shows us as abnormally dry even will all the rain we have had in the past week.
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I guess the saying “It never rains but it pours” is accurate. We’re in the same boat here–everything drowning in rain and instead of constantly watering, I’m constantly dumping water out of containers. Hope your beautiful garden recovers well!
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It’s felt like we needed a boat at times. LOL! I hope you can save your plants in containers. From what we have read once they get wet wilt they don’t recover. We are supposed to have a hot dry weekend so hopefully things will dry up enough so that we can replant a few things.
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