Growing Food: Adjusting

This has been a highly unusual spring. In the past three weeks, we've gotten at least four inches of rain, which is almost unheard of here on the high plains. As I mentioned in my last post, the older people say it hasn't rained like this in 80 years.

See that line on my bedroom window? That's a worm. It is five feet in the air. When the worms are literally starting to climb the walls, you know that soil is totally saturated. I have never seen such a thing.

This means some adjustments are in order in my garden.

See, our garden is set up above all to maximize water retention. This is necessary because we are typically watering with a hose. That's why we plant everything in trenches or cells. That's why I mulch as much as I can. That's why I tend to space my plants closer than the recommended spacing.

But now these things are starting to be a detriment rather than a benefit.

The semi-permanent lake in the lane on the other side of my garden fence is a good gauge of the wet conditions lately.

It's a good thing I don't have a lot of old hay to mulch with this year, because I definitely don't need it. The only bed that I had mulched--the cabbages--is so wet it has colonies of grubs all around the plants. These are the nasty ones that someone told me turn into june bugs. I do not want them in my garden. And yet, there are literally dozens of them, hiding under the mulch and flourishing in the saturated soil. I even found a little slug in there. A slug! 

I pulled all the mulch off that bed and have spent hours digging around the plants in there, unearthing nests of grubs and squishing them between my fingers*. It's totally disgusting, but the easiest way to get rid of them.

I am certainly not going to be mulching my tomatoes. Even if the volunteer lettuce wasn't in there, it wouldn't do the tomato plants any good. They're in half an inch of standing water every time we get a downpour. Which is almost every day lately. Mulch would just encourage more of the grubs, I'm sure.

Thankfully, our soil is generally pretty loose and seems able to absorb an astonishing quantity of water. Although we could definitely use some sun and heat now, the plants seem to be doing pretty well with all the water getting dumped on them, but it's been a strange year in our High Plains garden for sure. It's a good reminder that gardening requires constant experimentation and adjustment. 

So tell me, my fellow gardeners: How's the garden weather where you are?

*Or, more preferably, getting my sons to do it for me. They relish this task, and will actually aim the grub so that when they pop it with their fingers, goo shoots out at their target. As long as their target isn't me, I don't care.