May 4, 2023 Gardening Journal

For two years I've tried growing my pole beans in a modified "Three Sisters" method, but with only two sisters (the beans and the corn).  I haven't interplanted the beans with the corn, instead, always planting the beans after the corn has been harvested (or after it was obvious it wasn't going to make anything).

Kentucky Wonder pole beans planted to grow up corn stalks in late summer 2022.

What I learned is that while the beans do grow up the corn stalks, as they approach the tops of the stalks, they get so heavy that they actually cause the stalks to break, and I end up with a big jumbled mess.

Another two sisters "fail" from late summer 2022.

I didn't want to do that again, so I decided that I'd try to grow them up on some type of structure this year.  Lots of gardeners use bamboo canes to support plants, and it occurred to me that there are loads of bamboo canes growing along the edge of my dad's hay field down by the creek that I could have for free - all I needed to do was go get them.  (I didn't ask my dad, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind since they are always trying to encroch on his hay anyway!)

So on Sunday afternoon, I drove down to the creek and parked by the gate.  I walked around the edge of the field with my loppers to the east side where the bamboo was growing and cut myself a nice pile of canes.  

Mo and I then went ahead and walked through the woods because I wanted to try to get some cuttings from Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica); False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa); Shrubby St. John's Wort (Hypericum prolificum); Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin); and Wild Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens).  The only one we didn't find was the hydrangea - it may have been washed away by flood waters or buried under several inches of sand and silt.  (The cuttings will make a good topic for a post of their own.)

My thought was that I would pick up the canes on my way back and just drag them to the truck.  But as it turns out that was a very optimistic (and stupid) thought...there was just no way I was going to be able to drag them that far!  The bundle was way, way too heavy for me!  I ended up stripping the leaves off of all of them leaving just the canes.  I was able to carry those back to the truck, although for the last hundred feet or so, I had to keep telling myself, "You can make it!  You can make it!" while at the same time my body was saying back, "I'm not sure you're going to make it...."  But I did make it.  I heaved the canes over the tailgate into the bed of the truck and headed home.

My 31 bamboo canes...31 because apparently I lost track of how many I had cut and didn't end up with a multiple of five!

Monday afternoon after I got off work, I took a hammer and using an old metal spike of some sort (something I discovered in the yard with my metal detector) I made some holes in the west part of the garden, then stuck the bamboo canes down in the holes to build six "wigwam" structures.  They're not the best looking supports in the world, but I bet by the time they get covered with beans, they're going to look just beautiful!

My bamboo wigwams.

I got out in the garden early Wednesday morning and planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans inside the wigwam structures.  To plant, I just dug two little holes on the inside of each pole, put two seeds in each hole, covered them up and watered them in.  I don't remember how long it took the beans to come up last year, but with the nice rain we've had today and the warmer temperatures in the forecast, I am hopeful that it won't be long until I see them starting to pop up!

Over the weekend, I had decided to go ahead and extend the patch of buckwheat behind the cellar.  First thing was to dig out the rest of the Cutleaf Evening Primrose (Oenothera laciniata) that has come up everywhere in the west garden.

Cutleaf Evening Primrose, in bloom.  Need to get this out of there ASAP because the seeds can remain viable for decades.

But I got the last of the section behind the cellar cleared, and planted the rest of the buckwheat from that first package.

Buckwheat patch.

It was interesting that while I was working out there, I put  more cardboard down along the south edge of that raised bed around the cellar.  I happened to notice a big bumblebee - I'm pretty sure it was a queen Southern Plains Bumblebee (Bombus fraternus) - buzzing back and forth along the edge of the bottom board.  

Southern Plains Bumblebee, observed on October 16, 2022.

I realized that she had probably started a nest there, and when I put the cardboard down, she could no longer recognize where her nest opening was!

I quickly pulled the cardboard back from the boards a couple of inches, stepped back and in just a few seconds she was back.  She flew right to "her spot," landed on the dirt and crawled up under the board.  Now that area is filled with logs and sticks because I didn't have enough dirt to fill that bed, so it seems like she's building up in those logs that are at the bottom of the raised bed.  

I'll admit, it's a bit scary to know there is probably a bumblebee nest there, but there's just no way I would ever disturb her now!  So that area is perfect for the buckwheat.  Her daughters won't have far to go to gather pollen and nectar once it blooms!  I will try to get a picture of her or her daughters later this spring if I can.

One of the things I really enjoy is just walking through the garden and looking at everything...how much has it grown (or not grown!), are there any caterpillars on this or that, etc.   I've started making it a habit to check for sprigs of Bermuda grass anytime I am out wandering around in the garden.  Some of the cardboard I put down apparently breaks down really fast, so in my "Ruth Stout" area and along the south side of the garden, I'm already seeing sprigs of devil grass sticking up through the hay and the wood chips.  

Innocent looking little sprig of Bermuda grass...do NOT be fooled by it!

So now any time I see even a tiny shoot of Bermuda grass, I stop and push the wood chips or straw or hay out from around it, then try to pull out as much of the rhizome as I can.  I've just resigned myself to the fact that it's going to be a long-term battle keeping that stuff under control.

The tiny sprig was attached to a long white rhizome that was sneaking its way along under the hay.

Some areas are worse than others...those are spots where I didn't make any effort to dig up the Bermuda grass before I put the cardboard down.  It has punched holes in the cardboard in places, or sneaked along until it found a crack, and then the shoots eagerly "reach for the light."  I pulled a good number of them up today during lunch from just one spot by the potatoes.

Lots of sprigs.

In places where the cardboard has broken down quite a bit and the grass is aggressively pushing through, I've decided to just pull the hay or wood chips back, pull as many shoots as I can, then put down a new layer of cardboard.

A new layer of cardboard.

My hope is that if I keep the edges scalped down to the bare dirt, keep any new shoots pulled up, keep the ground covered with cardboard and hay/wood chips that eventually the stuff that's under the cardboard will just run out of energy and that will be the end of it.  We'll see how things look in a year or so from now!

Yesterday afternoon, I replanted the Golden Bantam corn...only two of the seeds that I had bought last year from the local feed store had come up.   I just dug new trenches in the same place, planted the corn, watered it in, covered each trench with a generous helping of rotted (rotting?) cow manure, then watered it in one last time.  Since the sun was shining strong today, I just left the rows uncovered so the seeds could get a germination "boost" from the black compost and water.  Once this little rainy spell is over, I plan to cover them lightly with straw or maybe some of the vetch that still needs to be cut.  Hopefully this will help keep the rows from drying out.

A little block of Golden Bantam corn.

I also replanted the Clemson Spineless okra.  Only about five or six of those seeds had come up, and the plants all looked yellow and weak. I just redug the trench and put in a generous number of seeds I had that were labeled "Pre-2020 Clemson Spineless okra."  I watered them in and covered them up with the dirt from the trench, but I don't think I'll cover that row with any compost.  I have no idea how old those seeds are, if they were some I had saved, or if they were some I bought.  I'm kicking myself now that I didn't save the seeds that were left on the stalks from last year. There would have been quite a few fresh seeds, but I didn't think I needed them so I just threw them in the compost with the old stalks.

And on Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday), the insect netting I ordered finally arrived!  I took the row cover off the broccoli and cabbage bed and replaced it with the insect netting.  It was nice to be able to actually see the plants!  They looked pretty good, I guess...cleanest looking plants I've ever had, because they weren't full of holes from cabbage moths.  But come to think of it, my kale plants that are in the asparagus bed aren't either, so maybe there just aren't any cabbage moths anymore....

Insect netting over the brassicas.

But the netting arrived just in time, I think.  I'm not sure how the plants would have fared under the row cover with the crazy hot temperatures in the forecast for the next few days.

The biggest problem is that my hoops aren't really tall enough.  I'll have to figure out something...perhaps some bamboo sticks to put them on?

My old Muck Boots that my dad gave me several years ago have pretty much had it - they've walked lots of miles.  

My good ol' Muck boots.

So today, I finally ordered some new boots.

I hope they are as good as my old boots have been.

I also decided to go ahead and buy another IBC tote to hold rain water.  Since we were in town for an appointment this afternoon anyway, we swung by the feed store and bought one.

A second IBC tote for water storage.

Unfortunately, it's still in the back of the truck because it was raining by the time we got home.  Pity that the rain didn't hold off until we got the tank unloaded and set under the drip of the roof!  

Once it's full, I'll have 720 gallons of water storage capacity.  I know that's not enough to last through a long summer drought, but it will help.

I just hope that by buying this I haven't scared the rain off for the rest of the spring and summer!!!!

 

Saving the Baldwin's Milkvine (updated 7/5)

In a post I made back in December, 2022, I talked about how I fell in love with Redring Milkweed when I first saw one in the wild.

Another one that I've loved since I first saw it is Baldwin's Milkvine (Matelea baldwyniana).

I first saw this beautiful little vine one winter as I was walking around the field.  It had a really unusual seed pod, similar to a milkweed, but with sharp little spikes all over it.  I had no idea what it was and made a note to look at it again in the spring.

When I saw it in bloom, I fell absolutely in love with the velvety soft green leaves and the delicate white flower with twisted petals.

Baldwin's Milkvine, observed on June 24, 2017

That fall, I collected some seeds and tried to start them in a pot.  The attempt was total failure.  Not a single seed sprouted.

So I waited another year, collected more seeds, and tried again.  Total failure...or so I thought.  As I was using the string trimmer around the south flower bed that next spring, I saw something in the grass and thought, "That's a Baldwin's Milkv...." just as I swung the trimmer line over it!  I was sick.  Apparently one of the seeds had floated away from me as I was planting them out on the well house, and while not a single seed in any of my pots had sprouted, the one seed that fell into the grass and stayed there all winter had managed to germinate...only to be whacked down by my weed eater!

But it grew back, and when it got big enough that I could see it, I carefully dug it up and moved it into the east flowerbed by the house.

I thought that would be a good spot.  It had good rich dirt and nice morning sun, but was shaded from the harsh afternoon sun.

Apparently that's not what Baldwin's Milkvine likes.

It grew up the support I had put in place for two years, and even bloomed, but never set any pods, and never even lasted through to the fall.  By the third year, it grew a bit, but then "died" without even flowering.  To top that off, I accidentally dug it up while digging out the septic line and didn't realize I had done so until a couple of days later.  I searched through the dirt pile and found what I thought  were probably its roots, and transplanted it again, this time over by Zelda Scissorhands' house.  

It never sprouted up again.

So I thought I would start over by collecting some seeds from the vine down in the pasture.  Only I didn't realize that when my dad had the new pipe fence put in, the workers had torn out the old fence, which is what supported the little vine.  It now had nothing to climb on, and nothing to protect it from the cattle!

I found what was left of it last fall, and put some rocks in a ring around it to try to protect it from being stepped on.  I asked my dad if he would care if I put up a cage around it, and when he didn't act like he minded, I had myself a plan.

Unfortunately, the little vine grows right by the slough, and twice this spring that area has been covered by deep rushing floodwater.  But this weekend, I finally made it down there with some T-posts, my driver, and some old wire.

Something had eaten the top out of it.  It looks very sad and pitiful.

All that's left of the Baldwin's Milkvine...a shoot about 4" tall, and one tiny new sprig about 2" tall.

I hammered in the two T-posts and carefully set the wire cage over the little vine.  The wire was the end of a roll that I found in the woods down below the barn...it was enough to go around the vine, with just a little bit of rusted and bent up wire extending into the center.

New cage.

The inner piece of wire goes right over the little vine, so if it does start to grow again, it will quickly be able to wind itself into the wire.

I don't really expect it will make seeds this year...I just hope it survives.

Update: On Tuesday, May 16, Mo and I walked down to check on the milkvine.  It had latched onto the wire in the middle of the cage just as I hoped it would, and is now about two feet long. 

The Baldwin's Milkvine is growing!

Update:  On Tuesday, June 6, I walked down to the corner of the field to check on the milkvine.  I could tell as I got closer to the cage that something was wrong.  Sure enough, the little vine was dead.  It had even tried to bloom, but something happened to it...either something broke the vine at the bottom, or it had died from the dry weather.

The dried up vine with a couple of tiny flower buds on it.  Again, so sorry for the horrible quality of the photo.  I am GOING to get myself a better phone.  I'm fed up with this one - fixed focus lens - it's worthless for taking pictures!

However, I was happy to see that there were still a few green leaves at the very bottom, so I know the plant isn't dead.  If we don't get some significant rain soon, I'm going to start walking down at least once a week to give it some water.  I'm sure now it won't bloom this year, but if I can just keep it alive it might have a chance next year.

A few green leaves at the bottom...it's still trying to survive.

Update: Yesterday (Saturday, June 24) I filled my little green watering can and walked down to check on the milkvine.  I was very happy to see that it is still alive and is growing again.  It might not have needed the water, but since we've had so little rain, I hoped it wouldn't hurt anything to give it some.  I plan to keep watering it at least once a week while we're not getting any rain.  

The little vine has put on about 18" of new growth, and is climbing up the inside piece of wire again.

Update:  This evening (Wednesday, July 5) I carried about 3 gallons of water down to the milkvine and I was again happy to see that it's still alive and has grown a bit more.

The Baldwin's Milkvine has two shoots that have grown up the wire about 30".  I thought there might be a tiny flower cluster trying to form on one of them so it will be interesting to see if it tries to bloom again.

Starting over

When I set out my Jimmy Nardelo peppers on April 7th, the plants actually looked pretty good.

Jimmy Nardelo sweet peppers, transplanted into a row of red deadnettle (which will die back very soon).

They didn't grow too much, I think because while we had a few days with temperatures near or just above 80° F, much of April has been cooler than normal.  But they still looked healthy enough that I wasn't worried about them, and knew they'd take off growing once the weather warmed up.

On April 15, our temperature was around 83° F with a light breeze.  But as strong cold front came barreling through, the temperatures started to drop and the winds started to pick up. 

It was a sustained wind of more than 20 mph for most of the afternoon and evening, with frequent gusts approaching 40 mph. It was a very disagreeable afternoon to be outside and as I took Mo around the yard, the trees and other plants were being whipped around something fierce.  I noticed lots of tender young tree leaves scattered around in the yard and garden....

The wind died down overnight, but picked back up by 9 am the next morning...not quite as strong, but still sustained winds of around 20 mph gusting to around 35 mph through the afternoon.

By the 17th, the wind had calmed back down a bit.  There was still a good breeze but it wasn't what Winnie-the-Pooh would have called a "very blustery day."

But as I walked Mo around the yard that morning, I was horrified when I looked at my Jimmy Nardelo peppers...most of them looked practically dead!  

As I made my way around the garden, I was even more horrified to discover that it wasn't just the Jimmy Nardelo peppers....

The pumpkins....

Almost every San Marzano tomato plant in the Hügelkulture bed....

Some of the yellow squash plants....

You get the idea.  Almost every "warm season" plant that I had set out in the garden had taken some damage.  Many of them had been looking pretty good and now they looked brown and sick.

What had happened????!!!!

I actually asked RAF later that day, "Did we get a frost sometime in the last few days?"  He kind of looked at me like I was maybe a little bit off my rocker and told me that it hadn't gotten cold enough for frost.  I didn't think it had, but the plants sure looked bad.

I tried to remember...had I watered them and gotten water on the leaves while the sun was very bright, causing "sun scaled?"  Yes, I had watered some of them, but not all of them.

Had I watered them with water that was contaminated with something?  No, the water that I used was the same rain water from my barrels that I had been using.

Had I put compost around them and burned the roots?  Yes, I had put compost around some of them, but not all of them, and some of the plants that I had added compost to looked just fine.

I finally came to the conclusion that my little plants were suffering from "leaf scorch" caused by the wind.

Over the next few days, I started to get a better idea of which plants might make it, and which ones wouldn't.  The pumpkin had lost its big outer leaves, but the new leaves in the center were fine, and it didn't take long for it to green up again.

The San Marzano tomatoes are hit and miss.  Some will not survive, but a few have greened back up and might be ok.

But alas...the Jimmy Nardelo peppers have probably taken a death blow.  Out of the seven plants I originally set out, one was cut off by a cutworm, and five of the remaining six were hit hard by the wind.

It really seems miraculous to me looking at the row of peppers that even one plant survived.  I wonder if it was saved by the henbit growing up around it.  Did the henbit give it just enough protection to save it?

That seems to be the pattern across the entire garden.  Anywhere a plant was somewhat sheltered or protected, the damage was little to none.  

For example, the Rutgers tomatoes on the west end of the row were hit hard...the winds was out of the west/northwest and those plants didn't have any protection at all.  But the plants that were on the south side of the trellis opposite the crimson clover cover crop didn't show any signs of damage at all. 

The butternut and spaghetti squash plants were planted on the east slope of the Hügelkultre row, and they didn't suffer any damage either.  The San Marzano tomatoes on the north end of the row were hit harder than those on the south end.

Apparently anything that even slightly blocked or disrupted that wind was enough to lessen the damage.  I've learned something new.

So where to go from here?  It's really too late to start new plants for summer, and really too early to start them for fall, but I did go ahead and plant about five more Jimmy Nardelo pepper seeds on April 19th - the first one was coming up today.

I'm starting over.  

Update:  After my little sister read this post, she messaged me and said she checked her calendar, and she had recorded a low of 32° F on April 17th, with a light frost.  So this could very well have been frost damage.  If that's the case, it totally caught me by surprise, and teaches me that I need to pay closer attention to the weather forecast!!!!

Chinquapin

I think I've heard the term "chinquapin" during my life, but it was probably in reference to the Chinquapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii). 

I didn't realize there are actual "chinquapin" trees - that thare are, in fact, two native chinquapins: the Ozark chinquapin (Castanea ozarkensis) and the Allegheny chinquapin (Castanea pumila).  They are in the same genus as the Chinese chestnut trees that grow at work, and the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata).

I know, I know...I spend way too much time on "The YouTube."  But I can say that I've learned a lot.  One of the channels I really enjoy is the "Backyard Ecology" channel.  Because I've gotten very interested in putting native plants in my yard and in the woods where I've been removing the invasive privet, I'm always especially interested in the plant profile videos they post.

And one of the recent videos was about the Allegheny chinquapin.  In the video, Anthony talks about how valuable the trees are to wildlife, and of course that made me think, "I want one!"

I wanted to see if Food Forest Nursery carries this tree, but didn't see where they do.  However, it was listed in the "catalog" of Pine Ridge Nursery, just down the road from me in London.  And interestingly enough, they also had a chinquapin called "Ozark chinquapin."  Being in the Ozark mountains, that name caught my interest so I had to ask The Google to tell me more about it.

Now sometimes when I go down a rabbit hole on something, you could call me "Alice" because I get started and I can struggle to find may way back out!   This was one of those instances where the more I learned, the deeper down the rabbit hole I went.

One of the first articles I read was from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, titled "Arkansas efforts to restore vanishing Ozark chinquapin trees take root and grow."

From that article, I learned that the Ozark chinquapin used to be a common tree in our part of the state, but was pretty much wiped out by the same blight that killed the American Chestnut trees in the eastern United States.

And I also learned that there's a group of volunteers who have been working to save the tree.  So I hopped on over to their website to find out what they are working on.  From the foundation's website:

The Ozark Chinquapin Foundation (OCF) is a volunteer driven, 501C3 non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the Ozark chinquapin to the woodlands and forests of the south-central United States as a mature, seed producing tree species. We are working to establish a viable seed base through research and manual cross-pollination of surviving trees to develop a 100% pure Ozark chinquapin that can reproduce and thrive in our forests.

Turns out they've been at this for a while now. and they've actually achieved some pretty astonishing results with their efforts.

At their 2020 conference, Leslie Bost, one of the foundation board members, gave a great presentation that explained what the trees are up against,  described the steps the foundation is taking to save the species, and showed some interesting and very encouraging data about their work.

I also learned that membership in the foundation is $30/year, and with the membership comes a chance to receive some of the Ozark chinquapin nuts (seeds) from trees showing some degree of resistance.

Sign me up!

Because I was so late learning about the foundation, and so late getting signed up, I really didn't expect to get any nuts this year, because they're sent out to members in order of sign-up, and if they run out, you move to the top of the list for the next year.

So I was shocked and delighted to open my mailbox the other day and find a small envelope bearing an "Ozark Chinquapin Foundation" return label!

Inside the envelope was a small ziploc bag containing some kind of moist substrate and several little nuts each with a thin little taproot!

I wasn't going to be able to plant them right away so I put them in the refrigerator as the instructions said.

I couldn't sleep that night.  I had chinquapin on the brain, and I planted them over and over and over in different places all night long.  And when I got up the next morning, I still didn't really know where I was going to put them.  

I knew where I wanted to put them - I wanted them near the area where the storm took out so many trees in 2019 - the area where I've been clearing privet. But the problem is the cattle.  Any tree that's planted down there had to be well protected or it would be eaten or trampled into the ground.

But eventually I came up with what I hoped was a good plan, and on Wednesday afternoon after I got off work, I loaded up my little garden cart and headed to the woods.

First thing I had to do was build some type of protective cage to go around the trees.  It needed to be tall to protect the trees from deer browsing, but also needed to have small openings to keep the rabbits and squirrels from getting inside.  Not really having anything that satisfied both criteria, I settled on getting the height by using some of the welded wire I had found down in the woods, and getting the protection from rabbits by lining the inside of the cage with chicken wire.

Next, I took my little garden trowel and tried to dig a small hole deep enough for the little tap root.  I was afraid of hitting rock, and sure enough, I did.  I ended up moving the hole a bit further away from where I wanted it, but I think (hope) I finally found a spot that would work.

I opened the bag of my precious little chinquapins and carefully pulled one out.

I fed the little tap root down into the hole and crumbled the dirt back on top of it.  "Live long and prosper," I whispered to the little nut.

I put a layer of old hay around the nut, being careful not to cover the nut itself.  I then put a ring of rocks around it, just to help mark where it was planted.  And with that done all that was left to do was drive the t-post and put up the cage. 

Again, it sounds easy, right?  Nope...with so many rocks under the surface, I was only able to drive the post in about six inches.  

The post was stable enough to hold the cage, but nowhere near stable enough to stand up to the cattle.  What to do?

I went ahead and fastened the cage to the post while I pondered on how to better protect it from the cattle.  I had intentionally planted the nut close to one of the big oak trees that blew over in the storm, because I know the cattle won't step over that big log or the limb coming off of it.  That left just two sides unprotected.

Funny thing about that dang privet...I've been finding several uses for it.  And so that's how I decided I would protect the cage.  I would pile privet limbs all around the exposed sides.

Now I'm pretty sure the cattle will stay away from that area because so far they've not shown any inclination to wade into any of the privet limbs I've piled up in various places.  Plus, there shouldn't really be anything in that mess that they "want" so they don't have a strong incentive to try to push their way through.

That's the theory I'm going with anyway.

So with one nut planted and protected, I rushed to try to get the second one planted before the sun set.  I ended up planting it on the other side of the tree, but closer to the woods.  This second tree wasn't protected on two sides like the first, but luckily I was able to drive the post in deep enough that I think it is pretty solid.  A ring of privet limbs and branches from the old oak tree all the way around it should help protect it too.

The instructions say that the trees like rocky dry slopes, so I think this area should be perfect.  I should be able to get water out of the cattle trough by the barn for most of the summer, so I won't have to haul water all the way from the house.  

I planted a third nut in my yard, by a catalpa stump left when that same 2019 storm blew down all those trees in my yard.  Right now, this one only has a small cage around it, about 1' tall.  It does have chicken wire inside though to protect it from the rabbits.  I plan to buy some more of the welded wire with the 1" x 2" openings and replace that short cage.

There are two or three nuts left in the bag and they're going to be planted tomorrow in the upper part of the Barber field.  Again, they'll just have small cages lined with chicken wire for now, but that should protect them from deer browsing until I can get some larger cages put in place.  

I'm so excited by the thought that I just might actually have some Ozark chinquapin trees growing soon.  I've already been out to check on all three of these nuts to see if any have started coming up!   Of course they haven't yet, but when they do, you can bet there will be pictures!  They're like my new little babies, and I'm their proud ol'  mama!

Rain

The rain started sometime early Friday morning, although I'm not sure what time, because even though I was awake, I was too lazy to check the time on my phone.  It was a soft pleasant rain, and the sound of it dripping off the house onto the window air conditioner lulled me back to sleep.

When it was time to take Mo out to do his morning business, the rain had slowed to just a sprinkle, but about the time we went out, it started up again....he rushed to get back inside because while he loves to wade into the creek or lay down in a puddle, for some reason he doesn't like getting rained on!

It rained the rest of the morning, slow but steady.  The ground was already getting pretty saturated by the time the heavier rain arrived at around 3 in the afternoon.

And when that rain arrived, it was a "gully washer!"

Within minutes, the alarm on the NOAA weather radio went off...our county was under a flash flood warning.

It didn't take long for the back yard and garden to go from just soggy wet to little lakes of water.

The garden, inundated with heavy rain.

 The cows all hurried up to the hackberry tree trying to get away from the driving rain.  

Cows sheltering under a tree in the heavy rain.

And it rained, and rained, and rained! 

Walking rows in the garden.

(I couldn't help but think that the walking rows in the garden were acting like swales, stopping the water from rushing down through the yard.  That wasn't my intent when I built the raised rows, but I like that they have turned out that way.)

But by 4:30 pm, the rain had pretty much stopped and when the edge of the clouds moved off to the east, the sun came out and there was the most beautiful double rainbow!

The rainbow.

We could tell from the house that the fields down by Dry Creek and the slough were underwater.  My dad said we got 4" of rain, and because the ground was already very saturated, a lot of it just wasn't able to soak in.  So this flooding was way worse that the last time.

RAF wanted to drive down to the creek to have a look, so once the rain had stopped, we drove down to have a look.

Flooded hay fields.

I highly recommend you mute your video if you watch this...the audio is HORRIBLE!

So while our area had lots of rain and flooding, no one was hurt (so far as I know) or lost their home.  Sadly, the same can't be said for others. 

This same storm system brought flash flooding in Missiouri, where a car with six people was swept away when they tried to cross a flooded bridge. Two of the six didn't survive. 

Twenty-six people lost their lives in Mississippi and Alabama in a massive tornado that devastated several small towns, virtually wiping them off the map.

Are storms getting worse in Dixie Alley?  One might think so.  As I sit here typing this, there is yet another severe weather outbreak happening in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with two active tornado warnings.  Prayers that we don't see a repeat of what just happened two days ago.

March 23, 2023 Gardening Journal

My second order from Food Forest Nursery shipped on Monday with an expected delivery date of Wednesday, March 22.

But when the tracking didn't say "Out for Delivery" on Wednesday morning, I knew something had gone wrong...AGAIN!  Sure enough...

I called the Lamar post office this morning to see if they could tell where the package is, but they can't see anything more than I can using USPS tracking.  However, the nice lady I talked to said she knew some people who work in logistics, and she was going to see if they could find out why both of these packages were misrouted, and where this package is.

I'm a bit worried about this one though. If it doesn't show up in a timely manner, or if the contents are damaged, I don't think there was any additional insurance purchased on it, and its contents cost more than the $50 minimum insurance coverage.

Maybe it will show up.  I'm trying not to let my pessimistic side win out.  I think I've only refreshed the tracking like 100 times today....

But on a happy note, when I took Mo around the pond today, we saw a dragonfly and some frog spawn!  The Weather Channel lets you enter your zip code to look at your long range forecast, and while I know you can't put much stock in those kinds of things, it's possible that the freeze on March 20 will be our last one of the spring.

April 2023 weather outlook for our area.

Of course that means I'm very, very tempted to start setting out some of my transplants.  I'll think about it some more though...because none of the things I set out early look very good.

Frost damage on the green peas.

Even though it was a weekday, I did manage to get just a little bit done this afternoon after I got off work.  Yesterday I hauled in four cartloads of spoiled hay, and today I brought in four more.  

A mountain of hay on the Charles Dowding "No Dig"/Ruth Stout bed.

On Tuesday, I had set out one of my native honeysuckle cuttings since it should be able to survive a frost, and the roots were starting to come out the bottom of the pot!  It took it a while to root, but once it did, it took off growing like crazy!

But it only made it through one night before something at the top out of the new shoot.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a rabbit, because it was caged with bricks around it.  Perhaps a slug?

The little honeysuckle vine with its top eaten out.

I really hope it will put out more growth pretty soon, because if whatever is eating it keeps eating it, it won't last very long.  It's just not that big!

As I was walking Mo around the yard this morning, I noticed some big holes in the garden.  "What has been digging those big round holes?" I wondered.  Then it dawned on me what the holes were.  They were the cavities left when the Daikon radishes rotted away!

Daikon radish holes

The radishes did what they were supposed to do...they grew down into that compacted dirt and opened up holes for water to soak in.  Yay for the Daikon radishes!  

I guess all of the cover crops are doing their thing, although I can look at them now and realize I made some mistakes in the way I planted them.  The crimson clover that is protected behind some wire is big and lush looking, but where it's not protected, the rabbits have eaten it back to just little short stems.

Crimson clover mixed with Red Deadnettle in the tomato row.

And interestingly enough, all of the vetch that was interplanted with the Daikon radishes and crimson clover has also been eaten down to the ground.  But there's one small patch that was interplanted with some winter rye, and for whatever reason the rabbits haven't bothered that, even though it's not caged or covered in any way.

Hairy Vetch/Winter Rye cover crop.

I'll need to do some reading about that, and find out if the winter rye is something the rabbits just don't eat or if that's just coincidence.  I really want my cover crops to grow and be successful this year because I think they're absolutely one of the easiest ways to improve the soil!

Since we may have seen the end of the cold weather, I've started thinking about how to lay out my rows in the west part of the garden.  I made two raised rows last year, but I'm thinking I might actually turn those into one Hügelkulture row because they're really too close together.   Plus, I still have several more rotting logs that need a home, and that seems as good a use for them as any.  But we'll see.

For the rest of that area, I'm thinking that maybe rather than try to put in long narrow rows, I might try some wider beds, making my walking rows between them about 18" wide.  I just need to think carefully about how I could plant things like my okra and corn in wide beds because once I get them built, it will be hard to redo them!

But I won't be working on building any new beds for the next few days.  We have heavy rain in the forecast, with a possibility of some severe weather.  

Radar at 8:35 pm on March 23.

That might be a project for the weekend though.  We'll see how things go.