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[bluesgarden]

One of the potential survivors.

I ordered some new seeds today as it's becoming readily apparent that the only thing surviving the rains this past week were the tomatoes, and they were planted after the thunderstorms/hail/rain of a week ago Thursday. The news has since confirmed that during that storm a tornado touched down about a half mile from us and ran for about 2 miles.

We've had 3.15 inches (8cm) of rain in the past two weeks, so it's understandable, but very frustrating. I've been moping around a bit today, looking at the tomato plants hanging on as best they can (or just giving up, depending), and generally being grumpy about the whole situation. The potatoes are almost certainly rotted in the ground. I know a local nursery (Wolfe's - the last stop on my field trip the other day) has some seed potatoes, so I might swing by there tomorrow and see if I can scarf some up. It's getting a bit late, but with some better luck than what's been happening so far, I could still pull in a small crop.

The seeds I ordered were mostly beans - the same two types of dry beans (Ireland Creek Annie and Knearly Yellow Eye), one of the same green beans (Empress) and one new one (Fin de Bagnol as Provider was back ordered). I also ordered more dry beans than last time and as long as it doesn't rain torrents in the fall (who knows?) then it should be okay. I think. I also ordered peas although it's too late to be planting them for the spring - I went with a cultivar that produces in just 50 days (British Wonder), hoping to squeeze in a fall crop, and one called Tom Thumb, which is a mini variety that I could even grow in pots or a cold frame. Tom Thumb is supposed to be cold hardy down to 20°F (-6.7°C), and it wouldn't take much to set up a cold frame.

While I was at it, I ordered another radish I wanted to try (French Breakfast, probably also a fall crop at this point so it turns out a bit more mild) and Danvers carrot seeds, which can go in any time and is another good one for fall/winter. Danvers was back ordered, but I'm not in a hurry for it, so it's all fine.

Then I had to jump over to Seeds of Change to order bean and pea inoculant as I'd used up all of mine last week.


There's still standing water out there as of right now. With three days of dry weather in a row, I can only hope some of it drains.


Some of them are hanging on and still look half alive.


Others, not so much.


Yeah.


This one might still be with us, but only time will tell.

Sooooo... this is the downside of gardening I suppose, when you lose a lot of hard work this way due to bad timing, bad weather, or what have you. The seed potatoes were the relatively expensive and most frustrating loss, although the time investment in the tomatoes is up there. I'm still hoping to replace the tomatoes but it won't be with the same varieties (which is the frustrating part of that scenario).

The melons, pumpkins, herbs, impatiens, lettuce, beets, onions, and leeks rode things out in the greenhouse just fine, although they're desperate to be planted. The carrots, lettuce, and radishes in the garden I'm assuming are a loss, although I can't get close enough to inspect just yet. Yesterday I was checking the peas, which I could see from the very mucky edge, and accidentally stepped a foot inside the garden - and promptly sank up to my ankle. If the boot hadn't been tied on, it would still be out there.

On the bright side I received my copies of the four Grow magazines (special issues of Fine Gardening that were available for 1/2 off) and I've been finding their content actually quite intriguing. They're going to take some more study and I'll be keeping them close at hand this winter when I'm planning for next year. More later on those.