Monday, July 19, 2010

Monday Garden Club


Monday again. Time for a garden update.
This is what we woke up to last Thursday morning. I'm actually surprised that the damage wasn't worse. The weather overnight was so severe that we had the kids sleep downstairs in the living room in case we all needed to make a mad dash down to the basement. The lightening alone was terrifying enough but when a big CRACK of thunder followed along quick and loud, Binny freaked. Not a fun night. She finally crawled in bed with us around 2 and both kids got up when the Gardener left for work at 5, oh and it was still raining and storming. Shortly after the sun started to rise, the storm moved out over the lake and it was over, leaving us 3.2 inches of rain and one hell of a mess to clean up.There were branches down all over the yard and shingles in the back field from the barn, again in addition to the muddy, mosquito-y mess in the garden. The worst was that the sunflowers (and pole beans!) fell over with the heavy rain and high winds. They uprooted just like big old pine trees. The ground was incredibly saturated and the whole garden was one big muddy mess. My brother came by that morning anyway to borrow a trailer and was quickly recruited to help stake up the sad looking sunflowers and ferocious pole beans that had already started curling themselves onto the tomato plants across the aisle.
It was just a quick fix until I had a chance to get a lot more staking supplies the wind went down and the rain had a chance to soak into the ground.
Did I happen to mention it was muddy?
So after 2 days of staking and re-staking after the wind would blow down the sunflowers and the piece of re-purposed conduit and baler twine they were staked to, they are back up and not one pole bean plant was lost in the process!
I also trimmed up the leaves on the sunflowers again, allowing the beans to continue to climb up the stalks and not branch out onto the leaves and tangle themselves together. It also allowed for some room between the sunflowers so they aren't constantly being pushed around by their neighbor sunflowers in the wind. The tomato garden was hit pretty hard too but I'm having trouble getting the plants to stand up in their wimpy cages. Seriously, does anyone have a better way of staking and training tomatoes other than the flimsy wire cages I use? Maybe next year the Gardener will build something better for me. Hint, hint.





Now for all you gardeners out there who wish to participate, either leave a comment on what's growing in your yard, or post a Monday Garden Club update on your blog. Don't forget to drop your link in the comments and I'll add it to this post.

11 comments:

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

Wow that was severe weather. Glad you got everything staked again. The sunflower is gorgeous. I'm jealous of the watermelon too.

sheila said...

WoW! That is some damage right there! I'm still in awe of your sunflower/bean idea. And I love that pic of your daughter with the pickins for the day. Beautiful!

Sorry I didn't post today. I'm still getting back in the swing of things, lol

Wild Child said...

Thanks for adding me without a comment yet. I was working hard this morning at work, trying to get loose ends tied up for our opening this weekend. And now I'm eating leftovers of what I made with the garden produce.

Cheers!

Wild Child said...

Ok, I just went back and read your whole post (I do that sometimes, comment, then read) and your "uprooted like big old pine trees," yeah that hit close to home with the stuff at work. You know what I mean, you saw the pictures. Glad your sunflowers went up faster than our clean up. :)

Riot Kitty said...

Glad the damage wasn't worse...I remember those Midwest storms quite well.

Julia said...

Wow, that was one nasty storm! I'm so impressed that your pole beans totally made it through! Mine aren't doing so well and they haven't had nearly as hard of a time.

Here's mine: http://www.easyecotogo.com/2010/07/my-not-so-green-garden.html

Anonymous said...

I am so jealous of your huge yard! Love it. Unfortunately I am also looking for a better way to stake tomatoes. They have flopped over my whole garden and I think over shaded my peppers :-(

Here's a link to my garden update: http://thelocalcook.com/2010/07/17/csa-garden-update-717/

Out in Them Sticks said...

Wow, love your sunflowers!! Everything looks delicious!!!

Managed to swing a post. http://outinthemsticks.blogspot.com/2010/07/monday-garden-update_19.html

Shady Lady said...

Oh my! What a mess!! The photos are gorgeous, though. I'm getting hungry just looking at them!

Tami said...

I planted pickels this year, but have no idea what to do with them. Anyone know how to can them? HELP!

Gift of Green said...

Your garden looks spectacular. We've had a slew of 100+ days with no rain. No zucchini yet. ; )