Oh Miss Dawn, I hope this rain stops soon!!! We're sunny right now, thank the Lord! But they're calling for rain for the rest of the week. :(. We've been fairly lucky, just a few showers a day with sunlight peeking thru... and today seems like it's gonna stay sunny.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this will stop soon!

Beth

More rain here as well. I know it's just "average" amounts for the year to date but the timing of it has just not been good. It's looking like I'll lose most, if not all, of my 75 outside-planted tomatoes. I just bought 30 more in on a trip to town the other day to replace at least part of what is dying.

Ever the optimist (a.k.a. fool), I went ahead and planted peppers, cukes, summer squash, and beans over the weekend. Maybe it'll stop raining long enough for the to not rot in the ground. At any rate, I'm already making plans for the fall garden. It's bound to be better.

Diane

I'm SO tired of the rain. . . crocs have become my everyday shoe -- even to church : ) -- Yeah, I'm sure everyone loved looking at them hot pink crocs coming down the hallway, but water is just standing all over our yard/pasture. . . I don't know how people deal with rain everyday -- I'm definitely a fair weather person.

Still raining here in Edmond too and forecast for the rest of the week. I like rain, but the ground around my plants is over saturated. Things in the raised cinder block beds DH and the bratlings built me are still looking alright, so I think we did a good job with the soil being well draining, especially since the strip between the beds is rather soggy. Everything in the ground is starting to look a little sad. Ground too wet, even in my regular raised/amended beds, to plant anything I have ready for the ground, so I'm busy potting up and babying and waiting for the ground to not be a slurry before I have DH and the bratlings plant out for me. Really irritating too! Cause I am really wanting to see my Russian Princess Lobelia take off! Prennials are doing alright, but they are coming up very slowly. I don't think we've really gotten warm enough here yet for things to really start taking off. Last year my cannas were easily 4-5 inches taller than they are right now. I've already lost a few things to the water- some young marigolds, a couple variegated firespray tulip, a few dusty millers, a few other things. They just haven't been able to handle so much water.

I think the worst part about weather like this is that sometimes you don't even know the plant is in trouble until something brushes it and the top of it just squishes to one side and falls off. My firespray tulips, one of them did just that. Looked healthy, still with those gorgeous leaves, not a spot of yellowing or wilt on them. DH touched it when brushing the mulch back away from it to let more air get to the ground itself and it just flopped. We were examining it to see what was wrong and found it was water rotted.

They have been pulling the mulch a little away from the stems and bases of several plants that are in the 'lower' areas of the yard to hopefully allow the soil to dry a bit. I know we're going to have a really dry summer now and DH is pulling out more soakers and getting them ready to lay, and picking up extra mulch, but none of it is going onto the beds until we have a couple days together to allow the ground to dry a bit and not be so much of a bog. I'm getting a couple of clay slicks in a couple of spots that have not been amended yet. Once things aren't so soggy, they will replace the mulch they have been moving away to give the ground some breathing space around the plants and adding new mulch to get ready for the bear of a summer I'm anticipating now.

And I'm just really hoping that several new tubers roots and pips we planted just before monsoon season started haven't and won't drown or rot in the ground. At this point I'm worried about planting the Ixia, Mexican Shell Flowers, dwarf glads and freesia croms and bulbs I wanted planted before my surgery. It's so cool and wet that rotting is a big concern.

Kathy

Kathy,

Sorry to hear about the rotting plants. I know most of us are in the same boat.

I'm seeing the same things with plants that you are seeing, and it is very frustrating that there's nothing we can do to save the plants at this point. Well, we could dig up every single plant we have in the ground and grow them all temporarily in pots, but then we'd still have to put them back into the ground at some point. I suspect the rain will last throughout May and June at the very least, because in rainy years, we generally have excess moisture in April-May-June-July. Then, depending on where you are in OK, you might get the standard summer drought in July (like we did here in Marietta in 2007) or you may not.

The plants I have in raised beds are better off than the ones at grade level, but with more rain falling every day, I am even concerned about them. What can a person do, though? It does make me want to raise all my beds several more inches this winter which would be very costly in a garden the size of mine. I don't know what I am going to do.

I have many plants, including all my peppers, still in flats, still hoping to be planted at some point.....but the question is when? Even my containers are fairly waterlogged and they drain well. When it rains every day, though, some waterlogging is going to occur.

The mosquitoes have hatched out here in a big way and that just compounds the misery.

Is your surgery coming up soon? And, if so, I hope someone will let us know that you come through the surgery all right so we won't be worried. : )

Dawn

Morning Dawn :)

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing, grade level plants are suffering, raised beds are doing better, but still not happy. The only things doing remotely well are my veggies in those 18 inch high raised cinder block beds. Everything there still seems okay, but slower taking off. We're really going to want sunshades for the veggies this summer along with extra mulch to help out with watering issues. July and August are really going to be rough on the plants. So, we're stocking up now on mulch, but holding off putting it down until we can see a change in the weather. I certainly don't need something keeping more moisture on my plants! There are a couple of spots in the front beds that they have just about taken all of the mulch out of... there's probably 1/2-1 inch left and that's been pulled back from stems and plant bases. That should help some, especially with base rot. Once the weather shows some changes coming, we have all the mulch ready to go back down, along with the extra bags to prepare for the blistering heat. They had to take the mulch pretty much out of those beds because it was washing out of the edging with the heavier rains. And this stuff doesn't typically float like that.

I'm seeing mosquitoes here too, not terribly bad yet, but bad enough that I'm setting out my lemon grass and citronella candles and torches to be ready when we want to enjoy the gazebo and the new patio set they got me for Mother's Day.

My surgery is on the 26th. I'll be in the hospital for 3 days, so home on the 29th sometime. I will try to have Cliff come onto the OK forum to let ya'll know, but I do have a friend who will be posting in the Round Robin forum. Cliff will be calling Melissa to let her know and she'll either start a new thread just for that in the Round Robin Forum or it will be in the MNF (Make New Friends) group thread. I'm not sure yet just how's she's going to do it. Her GW ID is Hazelnutbuny, so hopefully that will help in finding the thread :) She will be hosting the June swap, so there should be a thread started for that soon. That way if Cliff forgets to come here and post for me, ya'll still have a way to know all went well. And I'll post once I'm home and feeling up to it. I understand that sitting will be a rather uncomfortable for a little while since they are taking bone from one of my hips to graft to the fusion area. So it might be a few days, depending on how uncomfortable it is.

Kathy

Kathy,

Hope your surgery goes well and you heal quickly.

There is a small stream running between the house and the greenhouse this morning. I had to build a raised walkway to get to the greenhouse.

I'm thinking some sunshine would be nice today. Hope it's not on back order. :-)

randy

Hi everyone, I'm new to the Garden Web, I live in Inola, East of Tulsa, Rogers County. This is my first year to attempt my hand at outdoor flowers, I planted about $50 worth of bulbs in my front yard about 3 days before all the rain started, of course the yard is all under water now, as are the horse pens, the round pen, 1/2 of the pastures, etc, etc.

Getting really depressing, one can only stand so much rain and flooding! When the floods first started I left work early because I knew I'd have trouble making it home, and sure enough, our roads were flooded and I barely made it home, had I waited another 30 minutes I wouldn't have been able to make it through. We've had rain every day since, but nothing hard enough to make the roads flood like that again...not yet anyway.

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Our ranch

Kathy, Thanks for the info on the surgery. I've been wondering how much longer you were going to have to suffer. Tell Cliff if he wants and if it is easier for him, he can just e-mail me and let me know how you did and I'll post the info here. I'll also try to remember that I can check the Round Robin and MNF pages for Hazelnutbunny's thread too.

I didn't have to remove very much mulch from my raised beds because the 12" of rain in one day removed it for me. I was aggravated at the time, but most of the mulch is in the pathways so I can eventually scoop it back up onto the beds. It did save me from having to rake all the mulch off the beds so they could dry out more quickly.

Randy,

We have a couple of new streams and ponds too but they are temporary and should be gone soon, I hope. The last time we had heavy rainfall like this, our friends the beavers showed up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't find their way back here.

Sunshine arrived here this afternoon, so I hope it has made its way north to you too.

Linda,

Welcome to the forum. Y'all seem to almost always have plenty of rain in the Tulsa area so some standing water at times is pretty typical. This year does seem like it is worse than usual for many parts of the state though, and I know we're all tired of it.

Dawn

Despite getting a trace of rain almost every day, I didn't get anything of significance in the last week or so until today. I actually watered my blueberries yesterday. All the plants here still look good.

We have not had the rainfall totals here that other areas around have, esp. east of Tulsa.

Thanks Randy and Dawn. I'll make sure he has your email, Dawn. I'm not sure if he'll send it from his, which is the_cliffwalker or from mine. LOL, I'm going to leave him a note on the computer. Or, it may come from my daughter when she gets home from school that afternoon. In that case it would come from my email. So I'll add the email to you, Dawn, to the list for people for them to contact. Melissa will know immediately since Cliff will be calling her, so she will likely get a post up about it before Cliff or Tiff would be able to send emails.

Welcome to you, Linda! This is a great group and we have lots of fun here, though lately I think we're all about out of sorts over the weather. I'm not as familiar with Oklahoma and what grows, etc here, I moved here from Texas six years ago, then moved to Edmond just about two years ago, so I'm learning about a different micro-climate here. But back to the group, there are several here who are what I consider 'experts' and I turn to often if I have questions. Or if I want to bounce a new idea. You'll find you will get lots of help :) There are a few that I have talked with enough, like Dawn, Randy, George and several others, that I consider dear, as yet unmet friends :) A few that live in the Edmond area I've had the pleasure to meet, like Lisa and Moni :) I hope that you find that same feeling about the people here :)

Scott.... bleh... you're making me even more depressed!!!! :P

Off to get ready for daughter's choir concert and it looks like the clouds have cleared for a little while. I think they're suppose to roll back in later this evening or tonight.
All of you have a wonderful evening :)

Kathy

Glad some of you are seeing the sun. We were 60 yesterday and mid 90's today and back to low 80's tomorrow. Still no rain. And even the radar has joined in taunting us. On two different sites right now it shows we are getting rain but the sun is out. It is partially cloudy. Things are taking off and I know we will need the rain when it comes. Jay

Jay,

I bet the 90s felt great albeit a little warm for your tomato plants.

Our radar does that too sometimes--shows rain when nothing is falling, and shows nothing when rain is falling. It drives me nuts.

We were cool, foggy and misty most of the day, and then the warm front moving up from Texas rolled over us bringing us sunshine and temps in the mid 80s very late in the day. Tomorrow we'll be near 90 but then rain is supposed to return, perhaps violently, late Wed. afternoon.

I expect the front yard to be dry enough to mow tomorrow, but the back yard and pastures still have a substantial amount of standing water.

For us, the "good days" should be Sunday through Tues. or Wed. when (at this point in time) no rain is in the forecast at all.

Still hoping you get rain.

Dawn

I just bellyached about the rain in another thread so I'll just wish Kathy good luck with the surgery and zip my mouth before more rain whines slip out. ;-)

A speedy recovery to you, Kathy!

Diane

Thank you Scott, I didn't want to be the first one to say mine is just right :)

I hope everything evens out for everyone else.

Lisa

Scott and Lisa,

It is OK to be "just right". You both had overflowing rain gauges last year, so you deserve a break!

What scares me about all this rain is that here in southern OK, when it stops raining, it really stops! (As y'all know from all my whining about it when it happens.)

So, even though I'd be happier if all this rain stopped, I know that when it stops, it is likely to almost totally and completely stop for weeks or months and I don't want that either.

I guess a lot of parts of OK got slammed last night. That storm came very close to us as it headed from west Texas towards OKC, but all we had at our house was a lot of lightning, thunder and wind. The storm might have cut across the NW corner of Love County, but it missed our house in the southcentral part of the county and it missed our Mesonet station.

Dawn

Dawn,
Yes yesterday was a good day overall. Was just like all our weather has been. Started off cool and cloudy and none of thought it would every reach the 90's. Then a rapid warm up. Then the winds would blow 25-35 mph for an hour then die to nothing for a few hours then kick back into gear. I lost one plant to getting wind burn and sure the heat along with it didn't helps. I had pushed it a little and had ran out of the taller buckets. But also had a few with the tips burned that had been out for several weeks. Not sunburn but windburn. Turned the ends black. Someone said frost and I said no way. They were fine yesterday morning and our low was 54. And the ones I had covered with screen or a tall bucket were ok except for where the tops were started to peek above the top of the bucket. But with all you and others are facing with your gardens feel very fortunate. So far things are looking good.
I got a mycorrhizal fungi product gave to me by a lady at a local nursery who is trying to promote better and safer gardening to try and report back on. So applied some last night along with some blackstrap molasses. So hopefully my plants will stay happy. Planted some of the bean seeds I got from George last night and hopefully will get in some more tomato plants tonight. The garden is starting to look like more than a field of mulch and straw.
Supposed to be 80's here today. Hope everyone on here misses the bad weather today and can get bush in their gardens soon. Jay

Jay, I had that kind of windburn problems with my plants while they were still hardening off. I'd have them out for their part-day of hardening off and would leave to go to a fire, and would come back hours later to wind-burnt tips with blackened foliage. Most of mine came back just fine from the windburning, but I lost a few of the smaller, weaker ones at that time. Had I been home, of course, I would have brought them inside when the wind kicked up, but I wasn't, so I couldn't.

The wind here today is pretty rowdy--gusting often to the lower to mid-20s and may go into the 30s this afternoon. Tt is very warm (and so humid!), so I've been trying to plant some more tomato plants. I feel like if I can't get them in the ground soon, then there's no point. It will heat up quickly here as June approaches. It is still very wet, but who knows when it will finally dry out.

I can't plant beans yet--they would just rot in the ground, but maybe by next week. Our back yard's low spots only have about 2" of standing water in them now, so I am hopeful today's heat, wind and sun will help dry that up.

The part of my garden that is planted looks pretty good, but that's mainly the raised beds. The grade-level plants are still struggling, but not dying, so I am hoping for the best there. I think that by this time next week, I should be able to plant 100% of the fenced-in garden. Maybe then I can focus on the flower and shrub beds a bit more.

On a more positive note, the trees, shrubs, vines, perennials and lawn look luscious and green so they've all benefitted from the heavy rainfall.

And, on a more negative note, downstream flooding below Lake Texoma has caused the Corps of Engineers to keep the lake's floodgates closed, which means areas on our side of the lake (the upstream side) are suffering. Sometimes I think it is hard for people on the upstream side of the lake to remember that the lake was built specifically to help control downstream flooding.

Dawn

It is hot, hot, hot here in OKC. Ugh. I'll take some of those clouds back. :)

Lisa

Lisa,

Remember your basic "Garden Math" formula that we all learned in Gardening 101 in the School of Hard Knocks:

Heat + Humidity = Misery

Did I get that formula right?

Any way, I wouldn't worry too much. This is Okahoma and the weather will undoubtedly change in the next few hours. In fact, I'm about to post the tornado/hail thread for tonight in a couple of minutes.

In Oklahoma, you can't "just" be a a gardening enthusiast. You have to be a weather watcher too, and we sure have a lot of weather to watch this year.

My suggested remedy for the heat is that....upon arrival home from work, you pour a nice cold drink in a tall glass with lots of ice and sit in the lawn chair and admire your gorgeous flowers. Then, when the heat begins to annoy you (could take 3 minutes for this to occur, could take longer), go inside and sit in the air conditioning.

Dawn

Dawn: I'm too cheap to turn the a/c on before June in the house :) I'm very fortunate that the house mostly stays cool until then thanks to that non-fruiting mulberry tree and open windows.

However, the rule DOES NOT apply in the car! I've been flipping that switch back and forth between heat and a/c for a month. My fancy new car tells me I'm losing a mile and a half a gallon by running the a/c...but I DON'T CARE. lol.

The cold drink sounds heavenly....

Misery sounds exactly right.

Lisa