Here Comes The Rain Again...

Yep, just like the song! Over the past couple of years I've been tuning into Southern Georgia's seasonal cycle. Mid April into May the last few years you have lots of rain, driven in from both the coastal weather and from large storms in 'tornado alley' in the mid-country. Between those and the warming temps from March onwards, it makes for a usually brilliant spring, where planting is a breeze - and you get wonderful early harvests of garden veg as early as May. This is how it's been since the kids were born. This year, however, has thrown a bit of a curve ball.
The early rains were sparse, and now while playing catchup I've found myself using town water more than I thought I would - and the morning humidity and the occasional shower, followed by temps now in the 90's make things like spinach sprout then instantly fry.

I had been hoping for some more overcast days and a bit of the wet before I had to go out on harvest at the farm, if for nothing else than to make sure the garden was good and watered before I have to leave it alone for a week. Well - be careful what you wish for! A big storm with high winds moved through last night, and I'm left glad that I'd been trying to organize my garden timing and logistics around things like this.

My temp rainwater tub - 50 gallons

It only took 5 minutes last night to go from empty to full with the rainwater tub - I only have rain guttering on one small part of the roof (over the back door) - that's quite a bit of rain. It only took another 20 minutes after that for the swimming pool to go from it's minimum level to hitting the overlow at the max.

The new corn took a bit of a hammering. Although by the time I got around to taking these pictures it had started setting itself to rights. I gently pushed the stalks back into place afterwards and put fresh soil around the bases.

Yep that lettuce that had been nearly ready for transplant was also hammered . If today didn't start overcast I would have woke to see it burnt to a crisp. Despite that, some of these were transplanted to the garden proper anyways. I figure this late Spring I have very little to lose by putting them in.

The ever-half full composting frame chugs along! it's been weeks since I first showed it, and each week I've been putting in shredded paper, large cardboard, leaves from the magnolia and grass clippings - yet every week it stays at the same level - half full. By next year I expect some nice compost out of the bottom, and with something procured to sift and sort it - I might be at the stage where I won't have to purchase potting mix at all... Composted cow manure will still be on the shopping list though - I could get it for free and compost it myself (I have the connections) - but at 2.50 for a 40lb bag - to be honest it's worth it to buy as needed.

So with more rain threatening to come down hard again, I figured there was no time like the present to put in a little work and get things ready to change gears. The window has truly shut on several of the more delicate spring greens - and there's no point lamenting it. The time for direct planting in the garden has also passed. The plan for Spring/Summer I think was fairly solid, but a few mistakes on my end and a bit of strange weather behavior threw a spanner in the works. I'll be tweaking it and trying again next spring.
The plan, as it stood, was to plant out around 1/2 the garden with 'fast plants' and salad veg, while having the other half taken with up with 'slower' plants - those that will put out over the summer.
Even though there were stumbling blocks, such as the attachment to leftover plants like Swiss Chard and Beets (just wait ONE more week, they'll come good! I'm SURE of it!) and late planting of a lot of things (some things I should have planted as early as January - others no later than March), I still got a fair bit out of the run - and plenty was learned.

Any day you don't learn something is a day wasted. And as I tend to think we learn more from our mistakes, I won't be beating myself up over the ones I've made.... just so long as I don't make the same ones again!

Spring, like Autumn is the time for planting. Summer and Winter are for the ripening of their respective crops - and if you've planned it right in Spring, you'll be getting things through Summer. So with under 20 days till Summer starts, we sweep the board clear and change directions.
Starting with the emptying of the overflow containers:

No point crying over a lack of Rosemary or wasting time trying to plant more cilantro - the overflow has plenty of sage and chives that are healthy and good sized. Any available space in the herb garden is planted out with them. I'd rather have plenty of a few things than a little of several - especially if it means garden space that isn't pulling it's weight.
So far I've been pulling plenty of Basil from this bed, and when you consider the cost of fresh herbs - I easily get $5 worth every few days. There's PLENTY. And the more you trim, the bushier it gets - I might try making some pesto at this rate. Sage is catching up and I'll have lots of that on hand pretty soon as well.

From the clump of cherry toms (you see in the lettuce picture) - several were put into spa pots I had set aside. Leaves were pulled back and they were planted the depth of the pot. The nature of tomato plants will hopefully give them a solid root base. The pots were filled with composted cow manure and a good handful of worm castings. These ones I know vine all over if you let them, so keeping them in pots keep them contained and not have them overrun everything else.

Hard to see with the massive carrot tops, but peppers were transplanted into the failed lettuce squares.
Here I deviated from the 'no planting seed' and filled out a couple of squares with the 'queen of hearts' hybrid tomato seeds, in pots they are a very managable plant, and I don't think it's too far out of the time frame for them to come up. If I do it will be a nice bonus, but I have my bases covered in other ways if they don't.

Even the tiny leftover squash plant got a new home. This circular bed I made for a blueberry plant that got knocked over at the farm. I knew it only had a 25% chance of making it, but this way I'd have a place set aside at the end of the year if new plants become available. If I get them from the farm I will be getting a self pollinating plant - if I buy them from a WalMart, or similar, I need to get 2 to have fruit. This soil may be too acidic for the squash, even though it's in it's own pocket of potting mix. But it was plant here or get thrown away. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The planters I used for overflow will now be repurposed for propagation. No more lettuce will be planted though - what I have, if it doesn't burn up, will be transplanted to the garden as fully grown ones are pulled. The others have been amended, turned, and planted out with kale and peppers. In the past (Garden #1) I planted peppers late in the middle of summer and still had them produce nicely all the way till winter, and Kale has proven to be worthwhile addition as a speedy substitute for broccoli or cabbage. Having some to replace the ones I pull out will be cool. Cherry tomatoes are still up the back of the container, where they'll stay until I find space or if they fruit I'll use them to take seed for next year. The parsley in the container next to them I decided to keep, but gave it a haircut. I have my fresh parsley in the herb garden, so I'll keep this around to stock up on dried herbs for winter.

All herbs that have been producing more than I used were trimmed up, along with the very last of the snow pea pods. They've been put in brown paper bags and tied up with a rubber band and stored in my closet under the stairs. The AC intake is there so there is constant fresh air movement - it's dark, and it's cool. I've dried out herbs in there already and it's worked out well. I'll probably store potatoes in there as well if I need to (wishful thinking that there will be a surplus!). 2 ways to dry herbs. Either in a brown paper baggy (I save mine when I go to the gas station for this and that) and shake them up every few days (change bags if they get dampish) and they should dry out in no time. This is a good way to do it if you have a log of stuff to dry and little time on your hands. Another way (one I use when I DO have time) is to trim up your sprigs and gather them into bunches, collect them at the base and wrap a rubber band around them, and hang them upside down from clothes hanger using a clothesline pin. Again, put in a dark cool place, and leave for a few weeks. when they are dryed out, cut them up and put them in a sealable container (like a glass jar - I have lots of them from the baby food days) or even an empty spice jar you've saved.. the good thing about that is that it's already labled :P

Looking to Summer, it's a time for things that have been planted to come good - Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, Squash are all on the menu as it stands - but for these to hit their potential I'll have to be looking towards better watering and fertilizing solutions. I have a few ideas in the works, and look forward to documenting a few low-tech/low-cost DIY projects over the coming months.

As I finish typing this up it still hasn't rained, but you know the second I go out and water the transplants it will come down cats n dogs :)