Saturday, March 28, 2009

Flooding at the Homestead

It has been raining for the last 3 days. The streets have been flooded, huge trees have fell across the road throughout the town and tornado warnings are in affect. Last year I was told there was no rain and this year it seems like it will never end I so wish I had my rain barrel collection system in place around our home.

My garden is in jeopardy of flooding. The backyard is taking a real beating from the rain. It's like a swamp back there. I let the dog out to use the bathroom and she was like "Uh-Uh", "the hell with that" she ran back in. Eventually, I got her to slosh around in the rain until she eventually did her business and came screaming back in and relieved to jump back into her king sized doggy bed.

With all this rain coming down I am so happy I started raised beds. They provide great drainage. If you can see in the last photo, the raised bed all the way to the far right has not been prepped, I just threw wild flower seeds in there and said, "Grow". In contrast to the other 7 raised beds that were prepped properly they are draining very well. I guess with all the layered organic material that I have placed under the vegetable beds the worms have done a great job turning the soil so the beds are able to drain all the way down. I hope the beds don't reach there tipping point. Only time will tell.

8 comments:

Shelley said...

I am just curious - where do you live? Because your weather reports seem to coincide with ours! I live near Houston Texas.

ATW said...

I live near Midland Ga, southwest of Atlanta I have noticed that the weather all the way from the gulf and out towards missisppi tend to be the same most of the time.

Sue said...

Your garden looks so nice, despite all the rain. Hope it stops for you soon!
I use raised beds so my garden thaws earlier. They are great for all sorts of conditions, aren't they? :)

ATW said...

Sue-I hope it stops to. And I wasn't planning on using raised beds this year. I am so glad I did. There are so many benefits with the number reason being, Great drainage and also easy to weed. I don't think I would garden any other way from now on.

Kenneth Moore said...

whoa, dude! In my head, your garden spanned acres and acres. It's amazing you can do this all in just a backyard! And I hope the rains have eased--it's been dreary and wet here in DC, but nothing monsoon-like.

ATW said...

Ken- following blogs like yours, from people across the planet, I realized it only takes the will and little bit of ambition. I always wanted the proverbial 40 acres and a mule, but I soon quickly realized that I plant my stake in the ground whereever I feel comfortable at. I wish I kept the pictures of my garden that I started in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Iraq.

ChristyACB said...

We're in the same boat here. Our second weekend of rain plus just happened and with the wind whipping up too, it is hard for the new gardens to hold their own!

My raised beds are doing okay with the draining too, but the baby plants are still hurting some. Few total casualties, but a whole lot of them seem to have decided rapid growth isn't for them right now.

Ugh, I'm just so sick of all this rain and wind!

Keep your chin up. We'll be in the blazing heat and wishing for rain all too soon. :)

ATW said...

Christy-we suffered from some of our little plants that didn't have a strong root system. namely our radish. But most of them are doing good. Im worried about the onslaught of slugs with all the humidity out and all this week it will continue to rain. Im happy with big sighs