foxlinecityfarm

relief!

The first rain in over 1 month……

Well, we made it!!!!!  The rain came.  I actually had to cry a bit as the rain drops fell. I don’t think I realized how much anxiety was held inside without rain for over 1 month.  It was a dry windy difficult day and we made the decision to hand water the pumpkins and winter squash as their leaves were flopping like big elephant ears in the hot breeze.  The drip line irrigation was doing it’s job but it just was not enough in all the heat and wind.  And then the long wonderful rain came at suppertime that day and again the following day too.  Relief on so many levels for us, the plants and the land.  Everything looks so perky, the grass greened up before our eyes-Really! The watermelons doubled in size and the pepper plants grew tall overnight.  All quite amazing.  The frogs in the pond sung to one another all night long and the next morning I felt like we stood a few inches taller with straight backs and strong shoulders.

So, with the rain came cooler temperatures and we were able to get many more crops in the garden that were waiting for transplant in the greenhouse.  Fennel, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower.  I was afraid to transplant in the extreme heat and dry soil.  We will get another round of carrots seeds planted today and hopefully beets too.  Both these vegetables do not germinate well in high heat.  A 5th planting of beans have just poked their noses out of the ground.  The new summer squash patch is doing really well and the tomatoes have started to ripen.  We have started to dig the potatoes and WOW!!! I think it will be our best crop ever!!  All the transplanted lettuce has really responded to the moisture and is growing big and juicy under the row cover.  I believe we are on the other side of the carnage in the summer squash patch.  17 plants went down and 7 remain…..no fatalities in a few days.  We will be on summer squash rationing until the new patch is up and producing in about a month.  All CSA boxes received some sort of squash this week but not in the bounty that we planned.  The big surprise for us is the abundance of Eggplant this year and oh so early. What a difference from last year when we had to put row cover up in double thickness and hope to get something before the hard frost.

Now somehow we have to find time to weed!!!!  They too have shot up everywhere with the moisture.