About the only good thing I can say about the Late Winter and Early Spring this year is it hasn't been overly cold. We have had a good amount of warmth but very little Sunshine to go with it. It has rained more the last two months than I can remember recently and although I managed to feed this afternoon without mud boots on I did a lot of dancing between muddy spots to do it.
The standing ground water is mostly gone too but only for a short amount of time as it rains pretty much everyday even when it says it didn't or isn't going too. Monsoon rains at 40 degrees. We have plenty of days claiming highs in the 50's and 60's and they ain't lying for about an hour at most when the Sun says hi anyway it gets to 50 some odd degrees. Then goes away.
So bottom line so far it has been just warm enough to not require burning the wood stoves much which is a blessing in and of itself. With this increase in deliveries once again I haven't had time to get anything done even if it had been perfect weather anyway.
Not that I am even remotely worried yet, I typically don't even start seedlings anymore until the end of April or first week of May now no matter how nice March and Early April look. The torrential rains have wiped me out in Mid May enough times I refuse to get caught in that trap again. What I am getting behind in right now is being ready for the explosive grass growth that is already showing signs of starting. For the next few months I need to be prepared to take advantage of any short period of dry times just to keep the grass under control or I will spend more time cleaning out mowing decks than anything else.
I actually got my rain catchment tub put back into place today and fixed my compost side wall that the goats were using as a rubbing post but the mud is too much. I am sinking in to my knees even in the parts of the garden still covered in a half a foot of old hay it is so wet.
It is going to take at least two weeks to dry this out even if it stops raining now and the forecast says that it is just going to get worse the next two weeks minimum.
We are not even up to our official end of Frost date yet but I was hoping to have the garden a bit better in order by now. It is just too wet to move anything and wears me out a lot more to haul stuff by hand in this mud.
At this rate the temps don't bother me much but this constant rain is really a pain and killing my motivation. Of course these daily vehicle drops from hell are not helping much either.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
I've got the same situation out here in the Wild, Wild West. The garden patch is porridge and we're still getting frost. I have a hoop house but I don't even want to get things started in there yet, as I'll need a place to plant the seedlings once they get going and the ground is just too wet to work. No complaints here though. We've needed this rain for YEARS. About all I can do right now is to continue to keep the buttonweed under control. That stuff has milky, sticky sap that will gum up whatever mower you use, and has roots that go to CHINA. That, and the gophers... Those things are taking full advantage of the weed largesse and are breeding like rabbits. Let them go now, and they're eating the roots of the fruit tress come summer. ...It never ends...
ReplyDeletePete - Ya no complaints really here either but I will put more hay down I imagine and not get any planting done until mid May at the earliest. I will probably just let the goats continue to have the garden area and they will still do a number in there on the weeds. Early Spring always sucks for my unused garden areas as the weeds grow so fast and it is too muddy to get in there and do anything about em.
Deleteit has to dry out eventually,,,hasn't it?
ReplyDeletedeb - Oh it will stop eventually, usually about June before it dries out much and July before it is really dry IMO. I have been rained out bad here many Springs because it stays wet and muddy too long.
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