This spring so far we have had 16 inches of rain or so. We kind of have a cycle- 2 days sun and 5 days rain. The last couple of days we have been getting the hard downpours as well. The farmers in our area only have half of their crops in. So all in all I have nothing major to complain about. I'm starting to feel sorry for the farmers. The forecast for the next 2 days is rain. Whats new? It is getting depressing.
Shelley

Here at our place (SE Calgary) we ended up with 5" total, at least that's what I dumped out of the gauge. Not bad really, for the most part it seemed to soak in.

I guess the drought they're predicting for the Alberta/Saskatchewan prairie is a little ways off yet!

Edmonton got hit with a downpour/flooding on Thursday night. Our neighbour's basement got flooded as well as a number of others. We did get a trickle of water but only needed a couple of towels to soak it all up.... and DH went to town siliconing the spot where it was coming in. ***fingers crossed now*** so far so good though. West Ed Mall, Capilano Mall and lots of other places all got flooded too. Crazy!

Ang

I guess the drought they're predicting for the Alberta/Saskatchewan prairie is a little ways off yet!
Yeah, for sure, WAY OFF! I swear, those Enviroment Canada boys are smoking something!

Another 6/10 overnight, which is kinda good. I finally finished planting out, and didn't have to water them in. The forecast is for sunnier. My big worry is weather the weekend of July 8th, when we're having a big supper and open house at the farm to celebrate our 25th. If it rains, we're going to be really, really cosy in the shop. Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine that weekend!
I must say I have a hard time gettting upset with rain ever since the drought of 2002. That was pretty much awful. Of course, I haven't had 16 inches this spring either.
Connie

I must say I have a hard time gettting upset with rain ever since the drought of 2002.

Yes for sure, we should never forget those days.

Can quit here anytime too, the wind can too.. But have a couple of hostas that are just lovin it, they're huge this year.. The grass also loves it, but got it cut yesterday before it rained...
You know we all expected it.. Rememeber the old timers always said if you get fog you'll get rain 3 months later.. What did we have in March ?

Can't remember March! LOL Didn't we have lots of snow in March? I remember having ice-fog during the winter though. When was that exactly? January? I don't remember exactly when that was.

I've heard many of times from elders that six months after a heavy hoar frost, there will be good rains and we sure did have lots of hoar frosts last winter.

Heard the same thing about heavy fog (counting backwards in head.....) Yup, they'd be right!
Sadly, we rarely get hoar frost in Calgary :(

We are over 20" now. People in our town are hammering holes in their basement floors to put pumps in. My gardens under water. My backyard is a lake. But my basement is still dry. One of the few in town. Don't know for how much longer before we have an indoor pool as well. Maybe by the morning. It's still pouring outside. Luckily for us we have weeping tile and if I have an indoor pool it means that my sewer has backed up and insurance will cover everything.
Shelley

We got another 3 1/2 inches last night. Plus it rained most of today. We are still lucky, 5 miles from us they got over 8 inches last night. The ditches are running like spring thaw. There are massive water pile ups in the fields. Alot of my grass is sitting under water as well. I don't know when we will be able to get into it to cut it. I just went outside and it really stinks out there. You can smell the stuff rotting. Wow and I thought that last year was really wet.
On the bright side, I have no indoor pool. I probably won't have much of a vegtable garden. So that means less work there. But I don't know how much more wet stuff we can take.
The forecast doesn't sound good.
Shelley

That's terrible, Shelley. We've been getting rain (west of Yorkton), but it's totalled about 6" since the end of May. Where are you located?

Did any Calgary members get hit by the nasty rain and hail storm last night? We were having dinner in the SW part of town and only got a sprinkling of rain and a couple of small hail stones. Leaving town around 7:30 we just missed the wicked downpour but with all the hail on the ground (2-3 inches deep) it looked like winter. Here is a picture I took with my phone:

{{gwi:692677}}
SE Calgary - intersection of Glenmore & Barlow

At home 60 miles SE of Calgary not a drop of rain fell.

Susan

Wow Susan that is a lot of hail!! Looks like the sky was just black too.

I might get run outta town here but we have actually had a nice amount of rain this spring in Winnipeg. It might be a little on the dry side but with regular light rains and a bit of supplementary sprinkling the garden's doing well. Sorry for those who are getting the wrong amount one way or another - it's a hazard of prairie life but it doesn't make it any easier.

Oh Shelley, that is way too much of a good thing! That kind of moisture is so destructive. I'm beginning to think our weather is getting more erratic every year. "Wait 5 minutes & it'll change" isn't near as funny as it used to be.
Connie

Holy crap Susan! Thank goodness that storm didn't hit your garden!

I feel sorry for those gardeners in that area, their gardens must look like it went thru a salad chopper. How disheartening!

For all you gardeners who are getting flooded, my prays are with you! Please dry up soon, but not too dry!

Sharon

I'm about 25 minutes from Humboldt. It now looks like the forecast has changed. SUN SUN SUN is coming. We will need heat as well. Thank goodness we haven't had any hail. (yet?)
Shelley

Hip-hip-horay! So glad to hear the good news Shelley, its just about to pour here any minute now ;)

Sharon

The other day I said that 5 miles from us they got over 8 inches. I heard today that they got it in about 3 hrs. I guess the ditches filled up so fast that the roads disappeared under a big lake of water for a while.
I am so thankful that we didn't get that downpour in town.
Shelley

Ohhhhhhhh no. Night before last it got down to 4.8 degrees. Last night it got down to 4. I am afraid to even look at the garden....hoping here that there are micro climates where all the tenders are planted.

Sierra :O

Well.... All I can say without being censored off the site is....
Craaaaaaaaaaap!!!!

Mother Nature brought me a present today:
{{gwi:692678}}

While driving home from Calgary about 10 miles from our place we encountered the worst (and most) rain I have ever seen. We were heading east and there was a nasty wind from the north that was driving sheets of rain mixed with hail across the road making conditions virtually like a white-out in a snow blizzard! It was like sitting in your car at the carwash with marbles being hurled at you!

We got home just at the end of storm and within 10 minutes the sun was shining. Surprisingly, the garden isn't wiped out as I had envisioned but it is definitely wounded. I think surrounding hedges and the canopy of the giant crabapple trees made the difference but many things got a significant pruning. The worst victim was my elephant ears:

{{gwi:692679}}

I guess that's gardening on the prairies...

Susan

Susan,

That is terrible! Hopefully everything rebounds and comes back even better. I guess I should be grateful that we don't get much hail here.

Syreeta

Oh, Susan, I'm feeling for you. That's pretty rough. Cross fingers for Edmonton tonight. We're supposed to have thundershowers. With the type of heat we are having though . . . scary.

Everyone have a great weekend no matter the weather.

Shauna

Thanks guys for the sympathy. Spent several hours in the garden yesterday on clean up duty. I felt like Edward Scissorhands with all the pruning I did. It's pretty ugly right now but I think a lot of stuff will bounce back.

Almost as maddening as the hail are the millions of mosquitoes that have hatched this past week!

Susan

Ahhhhhhhh Susan, I feel for you too, I hate hail.... it will, it will all bounce back in given time.

Here's a big (((((((((HUG))))))))))!

Sharon

We kept an eye on that storm as it went by, sorry it didn't pass you by. :(
However! Those are impressive looking EE's nonetheless, did you grow them from a tuber? Any EE planting secrets to pass on?

Thanks for the hug Sharon - I needed that. After a couple of days of chopping, hacking and sunshine, things aren't looking too bad. However, I have turned into a compulsive sky watcher every afternoon if there is a cloud in the sky...

garden_chicken - This was my first time growing elephant ears so I don't have many tips but here's a link to a discussion from a few months back. I got 3 giant bulbs from Costco in late Feb/early March and potted them each in a 8 inch pot. I thought they would look better in a group and put them together in one big pot when I put them outside.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Elephant Ears discussion

It's deja vu for me. A repeat from this spring. Three days of heavy rain has left everything a soggy mess again. We didn't have any rain to speak of today.

{{gwi:692680}}

Some of my potatoes are on the otherside of these trees.

{{gwi:692682}}

Another low spot in the yard.

{{gwi:692684}}

The edge of my garden. Thank goodness I pulled out my tomatoes.

{{gwi:692686}}

My rose garden looked like this this morning, but the water there has drained. This rose is planted in the wrong spot obviously. Poor thing.

{{gwi:692689}}

A picture taken from the back of my yard. We have spring sloughs again.

{{gwi:692691}}

And a picture taken from my front yard. The ditches are flowing again.
I'm having trouble with my sewer again. I should just let it back up. Half of the town already has. They've gotten new basments out of it. I just go through the extra work not to let it happen. Two of my kids sleep in the basement, so I don't know where I would put them for several months.

Brenda, I can't promise that I will be able to dig those bulbs tomorrow. I'll try to get into the lily bed in the morning. I'll email you to let you know what has happened.
Shelley

Ok, Shelley, I will be able to dig, I think, tomorrow. I will email you also to let you know.

Brenda

Oh dear Shelley, that's terrible, hope all your plants will be ok.

I sure hope there's a long dry fall for you so that a lot of that moisture can dissipate. Otherwise, spring may not be very much fun for you either :( How much rain did you get this past week? We got 2" and it was badly needed.

I'm not sure how much rain we actually got. My dad said that he had 6", but he's half an hour away from me. After having all of the rain this spring our water table is pretty high so the water really has no place to go. On the bright side the water has gone down a fair bit overnight. Last fall we had tons of rain as well. Nothing went to sleep for the winter dry. I'm sure this helped my plants survive over winter. (And the warm winter.)

Brenda, I did manage to dig up the bulbs. They were quite easy to get into and to dig. I put a few bails of peat in the bed this spring and the soil is quite nice now.
Shelley