I’ve noticed something that has happened to me since the move into the house. I’ve become very invested in the weather. Of all the possible changes I thought I might develop as a farmer, weather watching was not even on my radar. I anticipated deer, bugs, sore muscles, blistered hands, sun burn, long hours and plant failures and successes, but I never realized how important, and yet beyond my control, the weather would be.
In the fall I would watch to see whether or not it was going to rain – I needed the ground dry enough to begin to till beds. In the earlier months this year, as I began to move things outdoors, I watched the temps to see if it was going to freeze or rain. At various times in late February and March because of the overnight temps or forecast for rain, I’ve had two banquet tables in my living room filled with plug trays of fragile flowers. The monitoring of overnight temps became firmly entrenched when I woke up to an unexpected frost and discovered I had lost an entire tray of basil. I know, it’s just basil and I am lucky it was not more, but still… I watch afternoon highs to determine if I have to water before work or wait until after work. I’ve been blind-sided by the wind as well. With gusts of over 20 mph, my plastic greenhouse was not up to the challenge. Day by day, various seams would separate until it was literally turned inside out in one horrific gust after only 2 months of use.
And today, I am watching the rain again, the song “I can’t Stand the Rain” running as a never ending loop in my head. Because of the 4-8” of rain we received Sunday and the current 2-4” forecast between last night and later today, I currently have 8 five-gallon buckets on my deck filled with water that I have poured out of the trays on the deck – and that’s from about a quarter of the trays on my deck that aren’t somewhat sheltered.
Water is pooling in my yard in various places but the most obvious to see are the glossy reflections of the sky in patches of my tilled and composted rows. To be honest, I am not sure if it would be better to have the plants in the ground or better that they are surely root-bound but not swimming in the trays on my deck.
I’ve finally gone and decided to follow my passions and control my destiny and when Mother Nature decides to play her hand and let me know that good intentions aside, I have absolutely no control over the weather. The lesson here? I need a greenhouse and I need to figure out how to make that happen for the 2018 growing season.
Until next time – stay dry!