Road Block

I've fallen and I can't get up? No, but I am stuck and my wheels are spinning. Here it is the second week in June and I can't finish getting my garden planted.

Late last week, we had one heck of a deluge in the form of 5" of rain overnight. It took out roads, bridges and driveways county-wide. About three-quarters of the way out to the highway, our driveway crosses a section line and electrical right-of-way. One of the huge poles suspending the high voltage wires toppled and we found ourselves unable to get out the driveway because of the downed wires.

When all was said and done, we found we were extremely fortunate to have come through the flash flooding with hardly any personal damage at all. Our basement stayed dry, the driveway didn't wash out, and the garden came through very well. About the only thing the water did there was to move some tomato cages (wire wrapped with plastic) snapping off the fledgling tomatoes, flatten the dirt I had hilled up over newly planted potatoes and wash away some tiny lettuce sprouts that had newly emerged. Some of the sapling trees Roy planted a few weeks ago sustained some erosion around their bases so he made a tour fixing that.

Since the storm we've had very cool weather and only a couple glimpses of sunshine . . . and more rain nearly every day. I did manage to get out a couple of days ago to finish mulching the blueberries with peat moss and the raspberry patch with saved grass clippings. Also dodged raindrops to harvest a good bunch of spinach, thin some lettuce and harvest the first radishes, but I haven't been able to do any more planting. And, really, with the current low temperatures and wetness (which makes it seem even colder), I should put off setting out replacement tomatoes, and planting beans and pickling cucumbers for fear the seeds will just rot in the cold, saturated ground. But talk about pea growing weather! And it's true the plants that like cool weather are thriving. I've got strawberry plants that are about 12" tall. They look like they're stretching up as far as they can to reach some sunshine. Or perhaps just escape the mud.

Sure, there are plenty of things I could get involved with indoors during this cold, inclement weather. But there's an uneasy feeling that keeps me pacing back and forth looking out the windows at the unfinished garden. I just can't seem to switch gears and concentrate on anything else until the garden is in. Then I'll feel good about moving on to the next big project waiting to be tackled. (Wood splitting, anyone?)