Gardening in the Rain

Bob Bauer

October 14, 2016 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

October 12, 2016

The last of the mid season planting of watermelon have ripened. They did better than all the other plantings, and were not planted on a mound. They were not surrounded by 4' flakes of moldy hay either and I think that's why they did so well. The hay soaked up my overhead watering, keeping it from reaching the soil..

4" of loose hay would let the water through but the moldy flakes are still compact. Too much mulch may not be a problem but too dense of a mulch is..

October 13, 2016

It rained all day today so I spent most of my garden time leaning back in my garden chair in the greenhouse doorway. Found tons of stuff that could be done, but nothing worth getting wet for. I mused at why I didn't cut down the 7' tall hollyhocks even though they're done blooming, and could only come up with the fact that they look cool when they sway in the wind. Lots of the flowers are finished too, but something about the messy places is special, because it hides the wee wild things that I am enamored of, and provides contrast to the neat sections..

The older I get the less my garden is for show, and the more I just let things evolve. Every weed is just a wildflower that hasn't bloomed yet..

October 14, 2016

My Malabar Spinach has indeed grown 8' vines. The leaves are small and it has started to taste like Swiss Chard, which has huge leaves, so we are eating more Chard now. It was fun to have spinach in the heat of summer, and now that I have a shade tunnel, I can try to grow mid summer New Zealand spinach too. If Creeping Jenny tasted like spinach I'd be rich..

It has overgrown lots of my pathways, and always grows toward the richest soil, where it makes a mass of roots that inhibit your efforts to remove it. If it would stay put it would be welcome because it adds structure to the garden, but then I guess it wouldn't be called "creeping"..

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