Rain, rain, go away . . . please!!!

So, a week after the gigantic downpour which flooded the town of Chetwynd, closed the Pine Pass and overloaded Fort St. John's sewer system, not to mention turning my poor garden into a swamp . . . I read a forecast which says more heavy rain is expected this weekend. The last heavy downpour dumped 4.5 inches of rain into my rain gauge - this forecast says 50 to 80 mm - about the same again!!

Exactly how are my plants supposed to grow??? Sunshine, nice hot, dry sunshine is what's needed right now. For at least 2 weeks, non-stop!!

I have learned something as a result of this rain though. The plants which I took out of the greenhouse and planted in the garden - the tomatoes (Sub-Arctic) and cucumber (Diva, Straight 8 and Spacemaster), definitely like the climate of the greenhouse better. Not so soggy. In the greenhouse, the veges, particularly my Diva cucumber, are growing like weeds - I've had to tie the cucumber to the roof of my greenhouse already . . . the one in the garden is barely any bigger than it was when I put it out there!

Had to replant the peas - only 10 plants of the Little Marvel variety (2 double rows!) I planted sprouted and survived the rain - so I planted a double row of Improved Laxton's Progress, which have grown successfully in other years. Clearly, in gardening, as in many things in life, don't mess with what works! But that's okay - we all love how the Laxton's Progress taste - I didn't get Marvel because of that, I just thought I would try something new - luckily I was going to plant the Laxton's Progress for my late summer harvest anyhow! Also had to replant the beans - all the beans I planted in the house sprouted on schedule and are now in the garden, behind a wind break . . . had a wee issue with the wind blowing the leaves clean off of one baby bean plant, so we erected a wind break. It's just wooden lattice tied to the fence. So, with any luck, these 18 new plants will give us the bounty of previous years.

And with further luck, if this flaming rain would stop, maybe they won't be mouldy either. That happened to me one other year, beans were mouldy because right in the middle of summer, it poured for a week. Think that was last year, as a matter of fact. My corn never matured either, so I've given up on trying to grow corn. At least for now. Maybe in a year of a real good drought, with lots of heat, I'll try it again - in a year like 2006!

Best get off the computer now, and go pull some more of the insidiously popular poplar trees which have decided that my carrot patch is lovely place to grow! Well, it is . . . but only if you're a carrot!