Signup to receive email updates
Authors
Recent Posts
Categories
Blog Archives
- April 2018 (3)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (3)
- January 2018 (4)
- December 2017 (5)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (4)
- September 2017 (4)
- August 2017 (5)
- July 2017 (4)
- June 2017 (5)
- May 2017 (4)
- April 2017 (4)
- March 2017 (5)
- February 2017 (4)
- January 2017 (3)
- December 2016 (4)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (4)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (5)
- July 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (4)
- May 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (3)
- March 2016 (4)
- February 2016 (3)
- January 2016 (4)
- December 2015 (4)
- November 2015 (5)
- October 2015 (4)
- September 2015 (4)
- August 2015 (4)
- July 2015 (3)
- June 2015 (4)
- May 2015 (3)
- April 2015 (3)
- March 2015 (4)
- February 2015 (4)
- January 2015 (4)
- December 2014 (4)
- November 2014 (2)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (4)
- June 2014 (4)
- May 2014 (2)
- April 2014 (4)
- March 2014 (3)
- February 2014 (3)
- January 2014 (6)
- December 2013 (3)
- November 2013 (4)
- October 2013 (3)
- September 2013 (3)
- August 2013 (5)
- July 2013 (4)
- June 2013 (4)
- May 2013 (4)
- April 2013 (4)
- March 2013 (4)
- February 2013 (4)
- January 2013 (4)
- December 2012 (4)
- November 2012 (4)
- October 2012 (3)
- September 2012 (4)
- August 2012 (4)
- July 2012 (2)
- June 2012 (3)
- May 2012 (4)
- April 2012 (2)
271 Total Posts
follow our RSS feed

Friday, April 19, 2013
Storm Recovery
Our recent rain event clearly caused some problems in the yard with ponding, temporary water flow through or around our plantings, soil erosion around our down spouts and more. Established lawns deal with surface flow pretty well as long as the flow remains well behaved. Lots of water over a long time or water with a force can eventually break through the lawn and begin to erode the soil. The thousands of gallons of water coming off the roof and focused by the downspouts is an easy example. Another spot in the yard that may need repair will be the edged areas between a bed and lawn where the water naturally gathers and then with more rainfall begins to seek out places to move to. This sets up the potential for erosion.
For nearly every gardener, there will be lots of debris to collect from the yard. Mulch has either floated or forcefully moved into the lawn to any area where the water found a place to go. Once the yard dries out enough to get out there, rake the mulch and soil back into the bed works if you can. Stay on the lawn and do not try to get into any of your beds, they are going to be way too wet and muddy and all you are going to do is ruin soil structure. If you rake up material that is not going back into a bed and is suitable to be composted, then do that. As the water continues to move out of your yard, then we will see where those low spots are that can be addressed later. In the lawn these are the spots were disease can be frequent. Low spots in perennial or vegetable beds can mean root rots and poor growth.
If you have to, go ahead and get early crops into the garden like potato seed pieces or peas, spinach, lettuces or radishes, consider placing seed just on the soil surface and covering with some dry potting soil or sand and not disturb the soil. For those potatoes seed pieces, disturb the soil as little as possible and cover them using dry soil as well. Our weather is still too cool for our other transplants so leave them in the cold frame until the garden soil dries and we have warmer temperatures. One thing the rain did do is to lower the soil temperatures again, so any gain we had was erased with the water. Wet soils warm more slowly.
All we can do is wait for the yard to dry out before tackling any major project that involves working the soil.