*happy dance*

A few days ago, I had a dream about creatures that look like meal worms being inside vegetables that were cut open.

Then I had a dream that my hands were cupped full of seeds and there were meal worms squirming around in the seeds.

This morning, I had a dream that a large part of my plastic mesh fence blew over onto the garden. I went to the garden and my neighbors laughed at me for my lousy fence and when I pulled up the fence to stake it in, all of the soil beneath was carpeted with seedlings. And they didn't have any.

I've had a lot of dreams about the garden, but I think this group means something special.

I haven't been able to work in the garden for days because of all of the rain, but I thought I'd check it. We had rain again today and we got another .25 inch. The bird feeder was completely empty and seeds were scattered everywhere.

I straightened up the fence with the longer poles I bought this weekend and filled the bird feeder.The brussel sprout seeds I scattered are sprouting! Delicate lines of sprouts show where the lettuce and carrots will grow and all of the alums are shooting up green stems!

I'm not sure I should be so giddy. Honestly, this isn't about the wonder of nature, it's about validation that I didn't screw up.

I can hear a lot of birds at the feeder - all kinds of song. I will gladly buy bird seed for having that sound in the evening.

It's rain again

 We had a wicked rain storm again last night. Thunder and lightning and driving rain that sounded like hail.

I checked the rain gauge this morning and for all day yesterday and last night, we had 2.5 inches of rain. That's nearly 5 inches in the last 3 days. We might get rain again tonight.

This morning my squash seedlings were flattened and the leaves were pasted down with mud. The plastic mesh fence caught a lot of wind and  came loose in places - the peas couldn't hold on to it. All of the water highlighted the high spots with sand and low spots with silt. I can level things. Everything is very fixable and it's kind of nice to have a test like this so early in the season

It's going to be good. Hopefully it will be warm enough in 2 weeks that I can get serious about transplanting the peppers and tomatoes.

It looks like the brussel sprouts might be sprouting and the onions are spouting too.

Good stuff.

1st Market day of the season

I went to the Farmer's Market for the first time today. I was looking for the guy who sells cat grass and seeds. He's not there all season, so I was really happy to find him. I got oat grass and wheat grass seed for $5. It's plenty to keep a couple of pots in rotation to keep Emma happy.

I also acquired some head scarfs, sun-dried tomato and roasted garlic oil with balsamic vinegar and I got some mendhi and a bindi from my friend Judi.

It's been stormy for several days now. I stopped by the garden and checked my rain gauge. We got .5 inch of rain last night. We had another really heavy rain this afternoon and we may have more rain tonight.

There are tornado warnings in Minnesota again tonight. Yesterday, a tornado touched down in Kiester, MN (near my hometown) according to a Twin Cities station, but I couldn't get feedback from anyone on FB for details. Social media is the way to go for rural disasters. People can post without electricity or phone and the word can get out fast. Two years ago, there was a lot of damage from a tornado that hopped through that area. I was worried this might be the same, but according to today's news, only one farmstead was hit and the owners actually lived in a farmhouse 2 miles away, so all were safe.

We're in for possible tornadoes in Minnesota again tonight. Before tornadoes come rain, wind, and sometimes hail. Sometimes thunder and lightning.

We won't see the super moon tonight, but we'll get more rain. I'll check the rain gauge tomorrow. It may be around 2 inches.

Rainy Soltice

I checked on things this morning before the rain. The small salad greens are matted to the soil - totally flattened. I'm going to start them (again). I'm not sure it's going to be OK for them until all of this rain stops. My carrots haven't sprouted at all and it's been weeks. I've still got soybean gaps.

Today was an ELL tutoring session with Zhenfang. She brought me seeds that are either coriander or a lettucy-green plant she gave me to try yesterday. I'm going to start these seeds indoors. It will help me figure out what they are, and I hope they'll last better than they might in the muck outside.


Happily, the tomato plants are still making babies. Anatoli is happy and has asked/hinted in his very broken English that he wants some because I have so many plants and they are already bearing fruit. I've also gotten requests for green tomatoes from two non-gardeners, I've promised some to Wyman (lives on my floor) and a new guy in the building named Ron.

The thunderstorm last night brought us more than an inch of rain according to my garden gauge.  It was overcast most of the day, and rained again at 2 p.m. Shortly after, we had severe weather and tornado warnings in this county (Hennepin) and the surround.

I fell asleep for a few hours (I sleep a lot), so I missed any excitement that may have happened. It's coming on 8:45p. The clouds are parting and rays of sunshine are beaming down between the gaps.

The parting of the clouds, and the sunbeams are more impressive than this. Cellphone
camera into the sunset does not a pretty picture make. Retail lights are coming on.
Ach, suburbs. I try to not look down at the shops. Sky only for me.

 I've just checked the forecast. We'll get more rain after midnight, showers and thunderstorms tomorrow, and some rain on Thursday. We won't have 80F temps until next week. I stopped by a hardware store today and came home with a shovel. I'm going to re-dig the trenches in the garden a little wider and a little deeper.

My apartment overlooks the garden (from the 12th floor) and though I'm too high to see the garden without a stretch, I can hear the neighbors working (hammering stakes today), wind chimes, and birds.

My view from above.

It Smells Like Rain. Again.

The soil in our garden is strange to me. Instead of black, rich topsoil like that where I grew up (at least 2 feet deep), the garden soil is really sandy with dirt that is more like silt.

When I dug a hole for my water storage, I got almost 15 inches before I hit a 1.5 inch layer of sand. Below that was a dirt layer where I've found insulated wire and pipes. Below that is a compacted clay mix. I came across enough buried pipe that I had to stop digging. I'm not sure what was in this spot before the building was made in 1981, but the stuff left behind is under our yard and garden; our top 1-2 feet of soil are a cover job for the construction junk below.

Sand collected on the surface of the soil after the rain.

When it rains, the rain will flatten the surface of the soil. When it's smoothed out, the water rolls off instead of absorbing and pool in low spots. The silt gets washed off the high spots and sand is left behind. Since I've trenched a bit  between my beds, the trenches fill with the silty dirt, I scoop it up and put it back on the bed and mix it in after the rain.

If it has rained, we all go out with hoes and small cultivators to scratch up the surface of the soil. If we don't break up the sand on the surface, it turns really hard like concrete, which makes the water situation worse. The turning of the surface also helps with weeds, and gives the surface texture to attempt to keep the soil and water in place.

I've got two problems. The rain keeps washing away the top of the soil. The other problem is the overcast cool. We really need a stretch of warm, sunny days to dry things up and put them to rights. The plants just won't grow when it's this cool.

A shiny, sandy crust after the rain. Seeds trying to break out.

The latest soybeans I planted are coming in very slowly. Many of the first set of seed I planted rotted from the cool damp. This second set is barely breaking through and there are still a lot of bald spots. I can't scratch up this surface because I don't want to disrupt the seeds that haven't emerged yet or the root systems of the very small stuff.

According to the news, Minnesota farms have had twice the amount of rain we'd normally have and the crops are half as tall. Standing water is starting to drown the plants and hay that could be harvested can't be because heavy equipment would get stuck in the mud. It's too early to say the crops are badly damaged, but more rain is worrisome. Though I live in the suburbs now, I grew up listening to KBEW in the morning before school with Paul Harvey and the daily commodity prices. Somehow crop status was burned into my brain as a measure to determine if all is right with the world.

The rain is supposed to start in the next few hours and it is supposed to rain on and off for at least three more days. Severe weather is also possible.

Think good thoughts for us.

Rainin'

Yesterday, there was a deep rumble in the sky that promises more rain than electricity in the storm that was coming. I'd been sleeping most of the day (thanks fibro) so I was glad to find a reason to go out in the rain.

I have no idea why people run to escape the rain. In a little rain, it seems kind of hysterical to run away from it. In heavy rain, one minute more isn't really going to change things; wet is wet. I've never been terribly particular about my hair or my outfit, maybe that's the rub. There is nothing about any measure of downpour that will make me run from it. I love the rain.

Today I had more energy than I have had in days. I had an appointment and ran errands (alien-abduction-like lost time in the craft/sewing store). First the radio talked about a freak storm, then I could see it coming when I left the grocery store. I did my daily garden check before the rain came, but I wound up scrambling to get the cloche back on the delicate plants.  The wind had turned wicked and I did not want to lose any plants. I've already lost 2 tomatoes to wind this year. Last year 60mph winds (tornado nearby) literally spun my bush green beans and pulled them out of the ground. Today, I didn't have enough cloche to cover everything - it felt like I was choosing one child over another.

I checked the rain gauge, and we had 2.5 inches of rain before this storm even had a chance to start!

The storm's passed and I can see the sunset happening. I'm going to go un-cloche the kiddies once again so I don't smother the poor darlings. I'm gonna check that rain gauge too.

My cup runneth over

It was so foggy and rainy this morning, I didn't think I'd get any garden time. There was a peak of blue sky this afternoon, but before sunset, the clouds had rolled in and more rain is coming.

I decided to check on things before dark. Everything that was still in the soda bottle seed starters were completely soaked and many overflowed with water. According to the rain gauge, we got nearly 2 inches of rain last night - too much for my containers.

I planted everything from containers - tomatoes, brussel sprouts, peppers, and squash. In the ground, it looks like a lot of plants. Zhenfang brought me some sweet peas to fill in a gap where the seeds haven't sprouted. She's got a 20' fence with sprouted peas so far. *envy*

Everything already in the ground looks good. The carpet of weeds that are coming in are actually dill. They've grown just enough now to let the feather leaves loose. It grows wild here. Once it gets about 3 feet tall, it goes to seed. The seeds drop, and repeat several times per summer. Like last year, I'm sure we'll have continuous harvests of dill, so if you'd like some, just let me know.

The gals from Ukraine have collected what they call Russian dill seeds and they've offered to share them with me. They've told me that American dill doesn't smell the same. I've kept some seeds from last year, but I don't know what kind they are. I'll clarify the kind I've got when it comes up.

Leaving the garden tonight, I really don't have room for anything else in the garden. I have maybe 2' to keep my gardening tools and stuff. All is well.

Grow baby, grow!

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. ~Robert Louis Stevenson