I always enjoy hearing how other gardeners' perspectives on rain differ from much of the rest of the population. I am also glad to hear the rain and see the added moisture in the soil and the higher water table. The lawn is looking pretty lush along with the gardens, and so I imagine DH will be mowing as soon as things dry out enough.

I think that the earlier dry weather along with the lack of snowpack allowed the streams and rivers to warm more up quickly than usual, so now that we are getting rain, the blackflies seem to be just about gone. I wouldn't mind a shortened blackfly season every year!

Yeah, the rain has been nice and the garden has indeed grown inches per day!

I'm just hoping the heavy stuff stops before my irises open. Or before it makes them NOT open. I've been eagerly anticipating all those buds and nothing worse than having what looks like wet tissues on a stalk, lol.

Dee

It was music to my ears as well after a virtually snow-less winter. According to my rain gauge we got 3/4" overnight. The plants and weeds seem to grow inches larger every day. My storage bins are overflowing; I set three large, deep ones under a leaky gutter and use the water to keep my winter sown containers & potted perennials moist. The false indigo seemed to shoot up especially fast this year. My 2011 garden notes say it didn't bloom until 5/26 last year and this year it started blooming two weeks ago.

I mostly grow succulents indoors, so for me the recent onslaught of rain has shaded the sun that my little guys need. I recently purchased growlights to make up for the lack of light they're receiving. I'm fairly new to gardening so I'm excited in seeing my plants grow as I grow! I'm also glad to be on this wonderful forum! Cheers!

peter

Welcome to the forum, Peter. I hope the grow lights are making up for the lack of sunlight for your succulants.

Peter, you did the right thing to get growlights, your succulents will appreciate it. Welcome to the forum! :-)

I love the rain. Even when we have days of it (esp in the Spring). There can be too much of a good thing, but that hasn't been since the winter of 2010-11 and it was in the form of snow, lol.

I think gardeners are more attuned with the weather and nature than the average person. Whenever we have a drought, it will be weeks before the meteorologists will begrudgingly admit that things are getting a little dry. LONG past the point where I've gotten stressed about it.

Peter, what kind of grow lights did you buy? If they are flourescent, they have to be about 3 inches or so away from the plants to provide adequate light.

I love the rain too. I love when it pours and it's windy. I don't mind days of it, but I do like to get a sunny day just as much. I love snow too. I think I love changing weather. I would find it hard to live in let's say Los Angeles and have the same weather for long stretches of time. Even nice weather.

Funny you should mention it terrene, about gardeners being more attuned to weather/nature. I was just thinking about that last weekend. Sunday morning I was watching the news and the anchors were talking about how great it had been to 'finally' get outside when it was so nice on Saturday, the 19th of May and that one of them had seen their neighbors who they hadn't seen since before the winter. I was so surprised because I had been getting outside about 3x a day every day with few exceptions, since the middle of March! lol I have to think that gardeners spend much more time outdoors than many non gardeners.