Rain!

Having never lived in a drought stricken area, but having grown up in southwest Louisiana, where I would have sworn that it rained every day . . it’s just so weird to live without rain, and with water restrictions. I’ve learned to appreciate every drop of rain we get and in this area, it never matters what you have planned — if rain threatens or is predicted, most of us don’t complain. Rain takes precedence over most everything else.

We only get 3 or 4 good rains per year and sometimes they can be 4 or 5 inches, and sometimes it just pours so hard quickly, which isn’t my preference for how we get rain but no one ever asks me!  🙁

Last spring, I had just planted the garden and we had one of those gully washers. It was the first time I realized that part of my garden sits on the slightest incline. I wondered why my beets and lettuce never sprouted. I watered, I watched and nothing . . til I noticed that completely outside the garden, there was lettuce and beets sprouted. All those seeds had washed away during the big rain . . along with my top layer of dirt! I did harvest a bit of that lettuce but none of the beets made anything. I replanted in the garden and all was well.

A couple of weeks ago, the spinach, carrots, lettuce, cabbage and radishes had been planted . . in the area with the incline so when the rain was predicted for this week, I covered the area with plastic. Even with the plastic weighted down with rocks, some of it blew away before the rain ever started but the garden did fine.

Rain

Over a two day period, we got 2″ of rain. Most folks in the area reported more but I’m happy with 2″. It was gentle and steady and didn’t ruin my new plants. It was just enough rain! The ground with be dry enough that we can work outside this weekend without dealing with mud.

We have a gorgeous weekend predicted. Sunny. Highs in the upper 70’s. Lows in the mid 40’s. This is my favorite time of year!