Rain, Rain Go Away!

The other night we got over two inches of rain in an hour or so. There were also heavy winds. The report from my husband that night was that the garden was flattened. I didn’t worry too much, though. I know that plants bounce back and they did for the most part. The beefsteak tomato plant had to be restaked and I had to move the zucchini off the eggplants. The potatoes looked like something had been laying on them but they have since perked up too.

Flattened potatoes

The rattlesnake beans have reached and exceeded the top of their trellis. The whole thing was a bit saggy after the storm but I think that was caused just as much by the weight of the plants as by the wind and heavy rain. I thought that next year I might make a taller trellis but I don’t want to have to bring a ladder into the garden to pick the beans.

Rattlesnake beans topping out their trellis

 The high amount of rain we’ve been getting this summer hasn’t been too bad for the garden in general. Drainage seems to be good and I haven’t had to water since probably May when I first planted. The chard, however, is suffering. It has been infected with cercospora leaf spot. The fungal disease attacks chard, spinach and beets. Favorable conditions are high heat, high humidity, and prolonged leaf wetness at night. It can survive in the soil for up to two years. Infected plants should be buried to keep it from spreading.

Chard infected with cercospora leaf spot

I’ve been able to salvage a few leaves of chard that hadn’t gotten any spots yet but I think the rest is a loss. I harvested the spinach before it became an issue and it hasn’t seemed to cause too much trouble with the beets. I don’t eat the beet greens, anyway, and we’re not in the business of selling beetroot by the pound. In severe cases, the fungus keeps the beetroot from growing to full size. So, I’ll bury the infected plants and choose another bed for the chard, beets and spinach next year. I’m certainly glad this is just a home hobby garden for me and not a commercial enterprise.

Here are a few more pictures from in and around the garden:

Two honeybees working in an acorn squash blossom

Redneck rabbit

Rattlesnake bean flower

Baby lettuce leaves

Mama deer

Lovely pink turnip

Going to Seed

I was finally able to get out into the garden this evening during a very brief break in the rain. It has been very wet over the last several days. We got more than an inch and a half of rain just over the weekend and it has only slowed since.

Proof that the sun actually exists

I was glad that the rains paused so I could get a little work done. The garden does not look any worse for the recent soaking. I think the raised beds have allowed for decent drainage. The spinach and arugula have needed to be dealt with for some time now. The spinach bolted fairly quickly with the early arrival of hot weather. The arugula has since gone to seed too. I didn’t realize that it would get prickly as it got older. The flowers are lovely though.

Spinach gone to seed

Lovely little arugula flowers

I pulled out all the spinach and most of the arugula. Under the larger plants there were a half-dozen or so seedlings just starting out so I left them. Over the weekend I got a packet of mixed lettuce seeds. It certainly was not an ideal time to plant with the ground being so wet but at least I didn’t have to water the seeds in. It started raining again maybe half an hour after I went inside to wash the greens. I only planted about half the packet so if the seeds end up rotting instead of growing, I’ll have another shot at it.

After pulling the spinach and arugula and planting more seeds

In other garden news, the beets and turnips are growing very well. We’ll be eating some of them soon. All four varieties of tomatoes have set fruit with the Early Girls looking particularly nice. My sugar snap peas blew over in high winds we had a couple weeks ago. I did not realize they were going to grow five or six feet tall or I would have built better support. They’ve bounced back, though, and we should be eating peas by this weekend. And the corn is already knee-high days before the Fourth of July.

Early Girl tomatoes

Bent but not broken pea plants

The corn seems to be enjoying the weather

Oh, and guess who had babies…

Munchkin in the back yard

Yeah, and her too….

Twins!