Rain,rain go away!!!

Our weather, for what feels like a small part of eternity, has been just dreadful.  Our area has been deluged with one day after another of soaking rains.  When you step out onto the lawns, the ground just chortles at you with a robust squishing sound as your sneakers begin to sink quickly into what should be terra firma.  Such is the plight of most backyard gardeners here in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond.
Today is not starting out too much better either.  It is humid with a grey overcast sky and about 70 degrees.  This is actually an improvement of sorts in that it is not raining at this point.   Here's what our better day looks like.

Yeah, it may be grey, but we'll take it at this point.
The weather has presented quite the issue here as those gardeners who had planted their crops before this stretch of london type weather are trying to keep them alive at this point.  And those who haven't planted them yet - like me - are just biding time and watching their transplants sit in idle.  Neither is a very good situation for the crops.
My hydroponic plants are doing okay but not great.  While they are suffering from a lack of sunlight they are growing adequately as can be seen below.  I've stepped up the nutrient concentrations I've fed them to try to compensate for this with very mixed results.  One cannot replace the sun for an extended period of time like we have had.

At this time, I am just waiting for the weather to turn and am doing as much as I can to be ready when the weather breaks.  Much like most other gardeners I would suspect.  I do believe that when it turns, we will be going directly into summer.  Seems that this has been the pattern of late here in the Mid-Atlantic.  We just do not have the ususal progression from Winter to Spring to Summer anymore. Spring seems to have been shortened and the transistions are much more abrupt.
On another somewhat related note, our area is getting a new neighbor of import.  A company called Gotham Greens has just recently announced that they are going to build a 100,000 square foot hydroponic organic greenhouse.  It will be located in the Tradepoint Atlantic business complex which is near my neighborhood.  This is a redevelopment site of the closed Bethlehem Steel Company Mill which had been active at this site since 1889.  The site for Gotham Greens is supposed to be completed in 2019 and will sell to restaurants and the various grocery food chains in the region.   
Well, that's all there is for now.  Hopefully, on my next report, I will have good news about the weather and thus, more to report on.  Until that time, have a great time gardening in your backyard!  Happy gardening everyone! 

And then summer hits with a bang!

Well, between the evening of July 4th and the morning of July 5th, we received over 1.5" of rain.  It was one of those nice soaking even rains that are just so good for the plants.  Plus. it filled my rain barrels with over 125 gallons of free, clean water.  But now, that has been followed up with probably the hottest weather we have seen in quite some time.  This presents a very difficult challenge for your garden.  Today's high was in the 90's with what I would characterize as high humidity.  You just feel it as soon as you go outside.  It's not oppressive but just give it time and it will be.
The challenge is to make sure your soil isn't drying out even though just about a day ago, you just saw some really significant rains.  Heat of this magnitude can sap the moisture right out of the soil just as easily it put the rains down a day ago.  Easy come, easy go anyone?  And your plants will not generally show the effects of this whipsaw until they have transpired the saved moisture in their leaves.  You can go to work and come home and it's like night and day.
To guard against this, you need to give the plants - as illogical as it sounds - a good watering to ward off the weeping plant syndrome.  That's where I will be this evening.  I will use my sprinkler as I do not want to overexert myself in the heat.  I will use the rain water in the mornings when the sun is not so powerful.
On a side note about watering.  There is new proof that watering your garden in the noon hours (12-2PM) is very beneficial to vegetables.  They actually produce better and more veggies.  So, if you can do that without putting yourself at risk, the rewards are reportedly worth the extra efforts from what I have read.
So there you have it.  The never ending challenges facing a backyard gardener.  Go out and give it a try folks.  Gardening is both a reward and a challenge.  Until next time, happy gardening.

Rain!

We've had a dry spell of late.  So much so that my rain barrels were becoming perilously close to being effectively empty.  But this afternoon, it has decided to rain and has been for the last 4 hours.  And, it has been a soaking rain.  I actually went out and checked my barrels and one is now full. Meaning, it has delivered 50 gallons in those 4 hours.  The forecast is for this to continue on and off until tomorrow mid day. Although it has ruined some 4th of July festivities, I still welcome it.
My garden needed this rain and I was at the point of turning on the sprinklers.  With this, I won't have to water until Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest. And when I do, I can use the rainwater and not municipal water.  Always a good thing.   Rainbarrels are such an important part of my gardening routine that I wouldn't know how to act using a sprinkler.  There are just so many advantages to using rainwater. So, I am hoping for more rain to replenish my barrels.  And as usual, mother nature is a much better waterer than I am.  Happy Gardening everyone!

And then, mother nature throws a curve ball!

We've had a fairly dry stretch here in the mid Atlantic recently.  I've run my three rain barrels almost dry so I have been using my hoses to water.  Watering has been an every day thing given the 90 degree weather. Today had promise of some rain here.
And boy, did it ever rain here. We had lightning, strong winds and very intense rains for a good 45 minutes or little longer. The road in front of my house turned into a virtual river.  The winds were very strong for a good 15 or so minutes and it was whipping out bigger trees around.
After the rains stopped and the water subsided in my back yard, I went to inspect my plants.  I was mildly surprised that only 1 tomato plant looked much worse for the wear.  I'll have to try to nurse it back to health.  I tied all the plants off in case the rain that is being called for tonight is as bad as today's.  Just like I always say, you can't control nature.  Happy gardening everyone!