Struggling to get Garden In...

[kimpossible]

I guess I am hoping others will post their stories, so I'm not believing I'm all alone...

I am having a heck of a time getting my veg. garden planted this year. First I had to contend with a huge crabgrass infestation - and it has taken forever to erradicate that (I've actually only managed to clear about 2/3 of the garden & I'm working on it at every opportunity).

Then, our Memorial Day weekend - affectionately known by many beer-drinking Canadians as May TwoFour (a week earlier here than in the U.S.), which is traditionally our "plant out date" - was cold, windy, rainy and we had heavy frost one night.

After all that unseasonable cold, we got hammered with 95F in the shade and sun beating down for most of the following week - no planting out during that, either.

Now, the precious weekend is here again - am looking forward to spending from dawn to dusk getting that #@!% veg. garden planted, and now we have severe thunderstorms & hail!!!

I work fulltime, shift work, & feel like there are never enough hours in the day as it is, but now when I finally get some time to get things accomplished ... Mother Nature refuses to co-operate!

There. I feel better already. Does any one else want to commiserate?

[Sorellina]

Ciao Kim,

I'm so sorry you're having such a tough time...I got my tomatoes in on May 25 during a respite from the heat..remember that wee bit of rain we had and then it heated way up. I had to shade my eggplants for 3 days because they got so shocky and wilty. They're doing fine now but it was touch and go for a while. Sorry you're getting hail. I'm not sure why it missed North York but I'm grateful it did. Hopefully tomorrow will be milder weather and you can get your plants in. It's supposed to be more seasonal, whatever that means, next week.

[montanamato]

Kim ,

I completely sympathize. We had record heat with wind a few weeks back...I manged to plant 15 tomatoes out and lost 2 later...Woodle Orange and Valiant...at least I still have seed for next year. Then cold rains and lots of wind. Yesterday I was able to get another 15 in the garden, and today horrible wind...calling for hail tonight.
I have not got the corn or carrots in yet either.
On the upside my 20 plus containers of tomatoes are really doing well, and I have peppers on Fresno and Tangerine Pimento. Eggplants in containers look super...I just have to get cruel enough to put the remainders out in the garden...We get lots of wind in the fall, winter, and spring and usually by now we have decent conditions...what a drag. No wonder I favor dwarfs , as the indeterminates that live will look similar...'
Hope things improve for you. I keep telling myself with the horrid amount of hoppers I should tone down the garden, but my past experience tells me I should have planted a month ago so plants would be old enough to take the bug chewing...

Jeanne

[barkeater]

kim, I was out last Sunday and Monday in 90 degree weather planting my garden. I had no other choice, and apparantly that was your chance too. The week before, I had the same weather you had with frost in low lying areas, also part of a 2 week stretch of clouds and rain.The locals here traditionally plant this weekend, and we've had an inch or more of rain today with more tomorrow.

Although the plants were sulking during 3 days near 90, they've doubled their size in a week from the heat and rain.

I planted corn May 14, and only a third came up so now I have a lot yet to replant. Hoping now after work Monday I can get the corn, squash, and pumpkins in and be done.

[Gimme3]

Hoping others will get their stories in...Huh ?...)))

Be careful what you wish for...)))

Who in the world...ever had a pair of Peking ducklings...before ? or had a Parents, and a brother-in-law...that individually decided that this is a Fine Time to haphazardly build a flimsy chicken coop an go get some Bantam chickens an a young Rooster ? Or whose in-laws decided in February that a New addition was needed on the back side of their garage, an signed you UP to be Project foreman....one saturday ? any of you ever fixed a flat tire on the rear end of Ford 8N...single-handedly ? How many acres of grass do You cut, an what kind of Machinery do you maintain...for the Purpose ?Guess how many quarts of brake fluid it takes, to entiirely flush out the brake lines on a 94 Aerostar, an how many up/down trips you gon make...all around the vehicle...to Do It RIGHT...)))Ever broke NEW GROUND ?
An if ya did...did ya try an grow Corn on it , first Season ?
How many of ya ever struggled to simply put a big rock in the right position, according to yo Parent's desire...an came to learn that it was simply them havin fun, watchin you move that thing around, an they really dont know where or how it should be placed...lol . Why does Murray try an make their cutting deck with unusual blade and spindle specifications, as if we really needed another pain in the @*% ?. ...Ever had pine trees that you allowed to grow, simply because yo Mama loves them...even if they are slap dab in the middle of a Beautiful pasture...an...if ya did...tell me bout cuttin the grass around em, please...))) or tell about how you spend quality time, simply cuttin off an haulin away...the lower branches.....jus SO you CAN...be able to cut the grass...lol.

Aint no end...to Struggle...there's jus Joy, if ya get thru it...Kim...)))

Mighty Best wishes an Beliefs...that You'll pull thru...)))

[tjg911]

for me this is getting serious. my 10 tomatoes in 1/2 gallon pails, 8 cukes in 1" peat pots, 2 zucchini in 3" peat pots and 12 butternut squash in 6 6" peat pots are still sitting on my driveway. it won't stop raining here, the ground is saturated and i can't plant anything, did i mention i need to seed pole beans too.

out of frustration, i actually put on a 2 piece rain suit on saturday and weeded from 10 to 2:30 pm. from 1 - 2 it rained steady and hard. as i crawled on my hands and knees in hard packed established hard packed pathways my knees were sinking into the pathway! i tried to weed cabbages and when i put my hand on ground that was tilled then hand dug a month later and never stepped on since, i sunk several inches into mud, wet, sticky, thick, sopping, mud.

it hardly rained sunday and if the rain is very minimumal on monday and tuesday i plan to take wednesday off and plant these vegetables. i have never put tomatoes out as late as june 7th and i'm hoping i can get them in on that day!

last weekend sunday was hot but low humidity while monday was brutally hot and oppresively humid so i stayed inside much to my dismay today. so i blew it on memorial day.

it just won't stop raining and when it does nothing can dry out before it starts again. while my area wasn't hit this hard, waterbury, south of me, had several roads and hillsides, entire hillsides, washed out on 6/2 with 7" of rain in 3 hours. the mayor had the governor down on saturday and they are trying to get the town federal disaster money!

the rain is just brutal.

tom

[Catntree]

I've been getting the rain, too....almost 3 weeksof it in May....like 15 inches, and now it's started up again.....managed to till the swamp on the 90 degree day we had and got some stuff in....I'm behind on tomatoes and peppers, as well as squash....transplants also behind because of the cold and rain.

[Gimme3]

TJG ....Tom...your squashes will do fine if you go ahead and plant them, so will your Cukes. On your tomatos....this is one of the Beauties of creating a raised bed. If you can pull up the mud into a high mound, and incorporate as much organic material , like leaves, straw...into the mounded soil, ..the OM will absorb and hold the water excess...to a large degree, it acts like a Sponge. Your squashes and cukes are very sensitive to being containerized, an i believe you'd be better off to go ahead an place them. the window of opportunity for these ...closes, if they ever bloom, while in a container, unless a container is the actual home intended and prepared for them, from the beginning. in other words....weigh the differrence between TRANSPLANT NOW, ...or the consequences of holding them too long, an lettin them grow into reproduction, in a container not intended for such. Both plants (cukes and Squash) love sunny warm soil, and a Multitude of Water.

In time, after a season like this, that you are getting...one really comes to understand the beauty..practicality...fool-proofness...of a Raised bed. Drainage is Assured...thru this technique. Diseases are Rampant ...tho...to a tomato, if the Season remains...as you have described.

Mighty best wishes...that it moderates for Yall, an we sho could Use some of that rain....down south...if the Good Lord is listenin...)))

One other thought...this kinda rain, in yo place...would give you a Bounty of green beans, butterpeas,field peas,lima beans, or Corn, if you had suitably prepared soil. There IS...a flip-side to the Coin...)))

[feldon30]

My first thought is tarps. I can't be the only one who has thought of using tarps. I wonder what the downsides are.

In a raised bed, you're high enough that residual water won't wash in, so as long as you can keep the water out of the bed you can keep the plants alive.

Of course the question is, are several days or weeks of overcast in the ground that much better for tomato plants than growing them indoors or on a protected patio...

[kimpossible]

I know that gardening (and farming) is all about the weather - and you just have to deal with it. Unless it is just an exceptionally terrible season, everything usually sorts itself out.

On the upside, after Sat.'s rain & wind & hail, Sun. was decent enough - wind was still strong, but mostly sunny & about 21C - 72F. Today was good - mid 20's/70's, & more of the same for the next couple of days.

So the garden WILL get planted (of course). I guess I tend to put pressure on myself when I am not adhering to what is "ideal" - not planting out on the first "safe" date, on a cloudy day, with happy plants & that picture-perfect garden....

And yes Gimme,I can totally identify with #of acres of grass to cut, all that time cutting around little trees, hand digging new ground, millions of ideas... not enough time!!

But I guess that's also the beauty of gardening - live, learn, dream, ... what I will do differently next year.

I complain, but I love it!