Gardening when it's wet

By Rennie Phillips

Our neighbor was telling me about how he's having a time getting his garden tilled and planted. This is so true this year. Our local weather forecaster said we have gotten right at 31 inches of rain so far this year. Normally we get about 55 inches a year, so we are way ahead of normal. I remember one year we got something like 80 inches of rain. Wet everywhere. Made for a wet year. If the ground is sandy then it will work even when a little damp. But if the ground is clay too much water turns it into almost quicksand. One can know if he has clay soil when his feet get bigger the more he walks in the clay.

If one tills his garden when it's too wet the ground just seems like goo rather than soil. I hate to work my garden when it's too wet. I remember one year I kind of mudded in the tomatoes. They just don't do as good. We are fortunate to have the high tunnels. A high tunnel looks just like a greenhouse except the high tunnel can be opened up. It can be opened up at both ends and both sides so it's essentially a garden with a plastic roof. This year we have worked our outside garden when we can, but when it's wet and rainy we work in the high tunnels.

A couple of times in the past I've dug holes for our tomatoes and then planted the tomato in loose dirt I found where it wasn't too wet. My gardening buddy Monte has muddied his tomatoes in several times.

Our outside garden tends to be sandy, so it dries really quickly. Several weeks ago we had several dry days in a row, so Marge and I put down plastic mulch all day long. The plastic mulch is three feet wide and a real thin plastic. We lay down the plastic and then cover about 4 inches of plastic on both sides which keeps the wind from blowing it away. One can buy a machine which does it automatically but man they are expensive. So we do it the hard way which is by hand. We were wore out, but the mulch was down. I could plant in the plastic mulch even when it was wet. That's how we got our hill garden or outside garden planted.

There is one option that could work if you can't work your garden soil. Years ago Monte and I went to a gardening seminar up at Patton, Missouri. Much of the ground up there is rocky, so this gardener took top soil bags of soil, cut a big X on the one side of the bag. This Xed part of the bag was what he put down. He then cut a kind of box out of the top leaving the plastic around the outside edge. Then he simply planted his garden in this top soil. Some may have to do this where it's so wet. He didn't dump the soil out but left that plastic around the edge. Really good idea and his reward was a nice garden. At the same time he laid cardboard down the walkways between the rows of bags. No weeds.

If your unplanted tomatoes are like mine, they are getting really tall. I normally never lay down my tomatoes but will have to lay some down this year. I'll lay them down and bend the plant so the Top 10 or 12 inches is above ground. I lay them down in the same direction so I know where the underground stem is on the tomatoes. That way if you need to drive in stakes or cages you can avoid hurting the stems on the tomatoes. Remember when you plant your tomatoes or any transplant to water them in with a high middle number fertilizer. Mine is something like 9-45-15. It doesn't take very much.

Watch your tomatoes closely. With all this moisture there is a likelihood that all our tomatoes will be affected by fungus of one kind or another. There are a number of fungicides at local garden centers or stores that sell garden supplies. Simply ask them for a fungicide for your tomatoes. These fungicides are relatively safe and years like this might be a necessity. Also watch for ants and aphids. When we've been working in the garden we've noticed a lot of ants. It seems like where there are ants there will be aphids so pay attention.

Where it's been raining a lot most likely this rain will have leached some goodies out of your garden soil. You may have to side dress your plants with a good fertilizer like 13-13-13 or mix up some fertilizer and water it in. Kind of weird having to water in fertilizer when it's already too wet. Also when your tomato starts putting on fruit the plant will most likely need calcium. The overabundance of rain will have leached the calcium away, which will cause your tomatoes to have blossom end rot. I use two fertilizers, which I run through my water system with one of them being specifically for blossom end rot.

One other thing about this year is the temps at night. We are still really cool at night. And there are only a handful of tomatoes that will blossom and set fruit when the temps get down in the 50s. One is Stupice. I'm trying a new one this year that is call Moscovich. The tomatoes are quite small, just like Stupice. Most of them will be 4 to 6 ounces, but a small early tomato is a godsend when one is craving tomatoes. I don't think Moscovich is quite as hardy as Stupice. Stupice has potato type leaves, so its leaves look similar to the leaves on a potato plant.

We planted corn this year. It seems like our corn blows down every year about the time it gets ripe, so we end up picking corn on the ground, which is no fun. But we had corn in the freezer, so we decided to plant it. Some was dated in 2012. We planted it pretty thick figuring some wouldn't germinate. Wrong. It all germinated. So we have a good stand of sweet corn.

Coffee, to go

I roasted some Ethiopian Yirga Cheffe coffee, so I've been drinking it for a few days. I sure enjoy it. It's a little cleaner cup of coffee than the Guatemala I had been drinking. It seems like I can think better when it's quiet. A good cup of coffee tastes pretty good as I type.

Have a great week with an occasional cup of coffee or tea.