Will It Ever Rain Again?

We are now approaching the end of our third week with no measurable rainfall. The last measurable amount we had was a quarter inch, and that was after two weeks of no precipitation. In that it's been six weeks since I last posted a blog entry, I would explain most of that time away being outside watering the garden trying to keep everything alive, and the rest either educating my children or goofing off.

The beets germinated nicely and are coming along fine after stalling in the first two weeks of April due to the cold weather. My potato plants took about a month to send up replacement green shoots to repair the freezing damage. I lost three or four, but all three varieties came back in some form.

The chard looks to be a little slow and thin. Disappointing. The Isar yellow wax beans have germinated nicely but seem to have stalled in this protracted dry period. Thus the daily watering. My okra (three varieties) has hardly germinated at all, with maybe ten plants popping up out of five 40 foot rows. Even okra needs some moisture to germinate!

We are three-quarters done with putting tomatoes into the ground and the Matt's Wild Cherry are already starting to bloom, so we should not be too far into June before we see some fruit. That will make me very happy.

On a bit of a whim, I ordered 100 organic strawberry crowns from Seeds of Change and they are beginning to sprout green leaves. I have water going on them now, which reminds me I need to move the sprinkler.

On a poultry note, the chickens are doing very well and growing like weeds (or weeds when we get rain....even the weeds are not growing much!) They are fiesty and fast and funny. The one remaining Pearl Leghorn Rooster found his voice the last week and he gives a very Peter Bradyish "cockadoodledoo!!!" almost on command. He's not loud enough yet to hear from the house, but when I check on them in the morning, he's more than willing to show off. The rest of the roosters have been slower to mature than this fella, so I'm sure he's feeling pretty superior.

Must make more of an effort in the next few days to journal. I'm off to move the water around and harvest a head of lettuce for supper.