How my Garden Grows?

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain beating against the window pane. I have been craving a few undisturbed Saturdays at the homestead. Therefore I was relieved to hear the sweet sounds of this mornings soccer game being canceled.

My relief only lasted momentarily as I had visions of the destruction that last weeks down pour cause. We had two mini wild rivers running through the garden. The rain uprooted several onions and tomatoes plants. The rivers raged on, washing our precious plants down stream to the foot of the garden. We also lost several mounds of cucumbers and watermelon. I was extremely saddened by this as we paid more this year for our heritage seeds verses supporting companies such as the infamous Monsanto. Now much of our hard work and precious seeds down the toilet.

After last weeks devastation my husband tilled a trench on the right side of the garden in hopes that it would divert the water. This morning when the probability of that not working finally hit me, I could no longer fight with the dark realms of the unknown. I threw on my tennis shoes and a sweat shirt and ran ferociously through the pounding rain. I fought for my footing as the rolling thunder shook the ground beneath me. The lightening threw daggers into my path but I ran on because I am super hero awesome like that. ;)

Finally I reached the garden to do a quick scan of the damage. So far so good. There are a few areas from last week that need to be fixed but I didn't notice any new damage. I was relieved... sort of.

The garden has weighed heavy on my mind this year. Last year we planned the garden months in advanced. We over bought on seeds and way over planted. This year we didn't draw out the garden plans until the very last minute. We bought quite a bit less and spaced our rows out farther apart. I have been worried that perhaps we under planted this year and without thinking things through a little better, we have made mistakes along the way. So add those worries to the worries of the weather destroying what is already in the ground... lets just say I have been on the verge of a gardening melt down.

We feed 6 people with our harvest, not to mention the foods that we tithe to the community. We depend on our garden for our financial and physical well being... If it is a flop, we hurt from it.

I try to chop everything up into a learning experience. We have already started implementing our lessons this year that we had learned from previous years. We have started our pest control program; hanging reflexives in the orchard, scattering deer repellents and garlic, and I have already started dusting our small seedlings with DE. All winter long we have been saving and crushing egg shells to scatter around the broccoli and strawberries in order to deter slugs. We have also learned that a pest could wipe out your garden in a day, so we have also started keeping vigil over our precious seedlings. We watch and listen for the plants to tell us what they need. I feel optimistic in the pest protection department. I feel we are ready for them. It is the weather I fear. The weather I can not control.

We have already learned so much from our garden this year and we are only just a few weeks into the season. Although I am always excited about learning the new ways in the the natural world, I am worried as too how far mother nature will go to teach us.

It is suppose to pour rain all weekend. On that note, I think I will run through the rain and lightening once more, just to have a few more hours of piece of mind.

(Before, when we actually needed rain)

Enjoy the weekend, everyone. ;)