Heavy Rain = Flooding

This weekend, we had a lot of rain here in Topeka. It was hard, severe rain, too.

I had to work Saturday, so the storm began before I was able to get home. It poured! By the time I got home, my basil plants were swimming in a half-inch of rainwater, but the rest of the garden seemed fine. Some of it seemed a little beaten down because of the heavy rain, but everything perked up after soaking up the nitrogen-rich thunderstorm water. The basil ended up being OK, at least I hope. I've been checking on it and the pot it's in drained well, so the soil is still moist but drained. The seedling roots seem to be holding firm, so I don't think I lost any of them. I was really worried about it, so I'm glad to see they are still alive.

Our tomato plant, the 'Early Girl' plant, is already showing promise. There are about 10 small, green tomatoes, and I'm sure there will be more. The other plants haven't started producing, but they are getting bigger.

The mesclun greens and some of the spinach is coming back. The spinach doesn't look the best, but we plan to steam and freeze it anyway, so that shouldn't matter. It looks like we are having a few more slugs as it heats up, too, so the leaves have a few holes in them. The mesclun greens, on the other hand, are growing back perfectly. We harvested a few for dinner last night and they still taste great. I did notice that they weren't as tender as the first growth, but they are still more tender and sweet than the greens you can buy at the grocery story. I think we are going to harvest and grow them one more time and see what happens. We've been lucky and it's been in the 60s and 70s the past couple weeks, but I think it's probably going to start heating up soon.

Cilantro

The cilantro is going crazy! I decided to cut some of our extra growth and bring it to work for others to enjoy. There's no way we can use it all! We still plant to let it flower and try to harvest the
coriander seeds later on. It's so fragrant and fresh. My hands smelled like cilantro for the rest of the day.

Ryan and I decided that we haven't planted enough tomato plants. So, in two weeks we are going to return to the farmers market and get a few more tomato plants and plant them where the spinach was. We are going to let the mesclun mix regrow for a third harvest, but after that, we will probably wait until the fall to try those again.

My friend, Nicole, gave me a cute, yellow birdie to put in my garden. I put it beside the tomato plants in hopes it may scare away critters that may want to eat them -- like squirrels. Maybe I will get a few more ornaments like them and see if they work. If not, it will at least look pretty. I have been leaving my dog, Zoey, out for a few hours here and there and that seems to be helping. I have't sen recent signs of them -- I have seen lots of trees growing since the rains. I've been weeding like crazy!

Speaking of weeds, I definitely recommend picking them as soon as you see them. When they get bigger, they get harder to pick. Their roots get deeper and they get a better hold on the soil, therefore, it's harder to extract them completely to make sure they won't grow back. I've figured this out the hard way. For the most part I've been picking them when they are really small, but, a few have gotten away from me. Part of me thought maybe they'd be easier to grab and pull if they were a little bigger, but that is just not the case. They are easier to grab, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to get the entire root without using a spade or something else to help dig them out. So, even though you have to dig your fingers into the dirt a little, it's easier when the weed is young than a few days old. they don't take long to take hold.