Urgent Farm Work

My Sweet Friend!!

I had a few moments as supper cooked, and thought I might catch you up on the day :)  

We have had massive rains the past few days.  Nothing torrential, just almost constant pouring rain.  Sometimes we were getting almost 4 inches an hour!  There was a lot of flooding in the area.  I was wondering (though not worried at all) if we would flood.  Our little farm is in flat low lands (ahem...swamp).  However, for as flat and low as it is, it also has some excellent drainage.  The sudden, rather large, pond that appeared near the orchard disappeared by morning (then reappeared with the next rain, then disappeared again).

The big pond is incredibly full--the water is up to the bottom of the dock!  It confuses one's depth perception to look down on the water from the dock :)

However, the biggest problem with the rain is that it seeps into the greenhouse.  Our tomatoes are planted in the ground and there are some low spots.  We were admonished NOT to level the ground, which we now know is a mistake.  Because the ground is not level and properly sloped, the water will seep in and fill the low spots in which some of our tomatoes are planted.

We went out this morning to raise the sides of the greenhouse and discovered that many plants were soaking in water in the soil.  They were wilting terribly.

Additionally, the rains and recent feeding we did with worm tea and nitrogen has created a growth boom.  So many plants found that their stems were too heavy to support.  We had to act on both problems quickly before the water logged plants drowned and the laying over branches broke.

TWS and I spent a great deal of time tying up the worst of the laying over branches and propping up what we could.  We ran out of twine before we could finish, but I think we hit the worst ones.

As for the waterlogged plants, this is where we can see the amazing creativity of the Lord :).  You probably know this, but tomatoes will root all the way up their stems.  In fact, if you want truly robust tomatoes, and are starting from plants, bury almost the entire plant!  2/3's or even more, so that there are still leaves at the top, but most of the plant is buried.  All the little nubs and nodes on the stem will become roots.

The plants of ours that were drowning started trying to grow roots in the air, above the waterlogged soil.  So TWS and I found buckets of compost and worm casings and piled them up the stems of the soggy, wilting plants as far as we could.  These plants may never be robust, but we hope that this will at least keep them from dying.

Mind you, I had no intention of spending our day of rest in the greenhouse :)  I was dressed in a twirly skirt dress, a wonderful artistic light sweater, and my hair was not fully up.  It was quite the struggle to try to keep the very ...aromatic worm casting/compost mix out of my hair and off my clothing.  I ended up soaking wet anyway, and had to change my clothes when we got in. :)


I sort of love that about the farm--sudden desperate times where we all pull together :).  Tying plants is pretty much "my job", but of course TWS was not going to leave me alone with all that sudden work!  I was so thankful for his assistance!