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digit_gw

Storms after Planting

digit
11 years ago

These horrendous storms in Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa . . . & now, points north have me wondering about gardeners in places vulnerable to these sorts of things. Here, we may have storms but they, at least, aren't tornadoes!

"Mountains make their own weather." The mountains aren't especially high around here, valley floors are 2,000ft+ - mountain summits 5,000ft+. That isn't true in Colorado. I am fully aware that the Plains and Central Rocky Mountains have much more changeable and dramatic weather and gardens are vulnerable to severe storms.

Anyway, I got to wondering about Jay down in the NE corner of Kansas knowing that he had a real serious set-back last year after getting his garden in. Jaliranchr on the eastside of Colorado Springs/Denver corridor has often had those kick-the-feet-out-from-under-you storms, also.

So, from someone who lives where the dragging sameness of weather that still hasn't reached 70F on a single 2012 afternoon - I thought that this thread may be a place where we could learn how others are doing in storm-vulnerable gardens this spring.

Steve

Comments (10)

  • elkwc
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Steve,
    I will do a little update on my progress. First I want to state I'm in extreme SW KS. On the OK line and 10 miles from the CO line. As some say if I roll over during the night I'm sleeping on the OK side. Overall things look the best they have in 3-4 years or longer at this time of year. Overall things continue to run 3-4 weeks earlier than average. An old farmer I worked for in my younger days would say you need to read the tea leaves. What he meant was read what nature was telling you. My Dear Mother who taught me to garden did also. From the geese migrating north, the fruit trees blooming early, the asparagus 3 weeks early and volunteer squash and cukes coming up in the main garden which I have never seen till very late April everything points to a warmer spring season and possibly a more normal frost. Soil temps have been running from 63 to the 70's for several weeks now. Our average last frost date is April 16th but the last 3 years I've had freezes in May. With the signs I was seeing starting in early Feb I moved up many of my gardening activities. I started my first tomato seeds at least 3 weeks earlier than normal. I started pepper seeds around 2 weeks early. Peppers are one crop I won't take as many chances with as the cool air and soil temps can really set them back and stunt them for the season. I have 15 tomatoes out in WOW's and will be putting more out as soon as I have the time. It could be upper 30's for lows here tonight and tomorrow night. After that upper 40's and 50's for at least a few days. Two of the larger tomato plants are pushing through the top of the WOW's. I will pull a trash bag with a small slit in the top over them them the next few nights. The others will be fine. Those two are both blooming. I have potatoes going bonkers. Onions and garlic are looking good. I have lots of row cover I can pull over many of the plants not only for frost protection but it gives some protection from light hail. If you receive heavy hail like I did last year or that that fell south of me in the TX Panhandle Thursday afternoon there is not a lot you can do unless you have a sturdy cover over them. I've been fortunate really this year and hope I don't jinx myself. Thursday for example the severe storms were 40 miles to my west and 60 miles to my south. Yesterday they were 80 miles to the east. And like last year a half mile can make or break your garden. While plants are smaller there are many things a person can do to minimize damage. Once they outgrow the plastic containers I put around them then you are limited somewhat is what you can do in a short time to protect them. I will put plastic coffee containers around the potato plants I will be setting out. These are the plants I started from seeds. And after I run out of WOW's I will use plastic buckets for protection till the tomato plants outgrow them. But on the garlic and onions I'm basically at Mother Natures will. In summary we are a lot better off moisture wise than we have been in 3-4 years. The weather overall has been better. Have experienced a lot of wind. It often concerns me when things look so good. But have learned not to worry about things I have no control over. The one good thing about those who lost their gardens to the recent severe weather is it is still early and they can start over with most things. Onions would need to be quick and too late for garlic and maybe a few cool season crops. The hail that hit me May 24th last year was late enough it set me back severely. Especially on my tomatoes. Hope everyone on here escapes the severe weather and has a bumper crop in 012. Jay

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm currently reading a book about your neck of the woods, Jay, called "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan, about the dust bowl years in that part of the country.

    I had no idea just how bad it was. When the storms started up, folks wouldn't shake hands because the static electricity would knock them down.

    If all y'all haven't read it, I'd recommend it - well written with a lot of info I hadn't known.

    Here is a link that might be useful: link to Amazon

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, Jay! Better than "the worst hard time!"

    NE Kansas, SW Kansas . . . I must have thought one of those tornadoes had already hit you!

    One grandmother was born in a Missouri town that now, only amounts to a crossroad sign. All of my grandparents/parents just kept heading west. Finally, I grew up only about 50 miles (as the crow flies) from Port Orford, Oregon - the westernmost community in the conterminous US. Then, we turned back to the east . . . see, you're all easterners to me. Ha!

    Jay says, "In summary we are a lot better off moisture wise than we have been in 3-4 years. The weather overall has been better." Lets all hope that it stays that way for you; with no continuing drought. And, I have a hard time imagining the disappointment of having all those heirloom tomatoes beaten to pulp last year (worse than trying to imagine which corner of the map your garden would show up on ;o).

    Steve

  • elkwc
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    David & Steve,
    Just a little more info on the 4 year drought we have experienced up through last year. It broke all records for the least amount of rainfall in a year and over 2 and 3 year periods. The partial savior for a while was better conservation and farming methods and even then they can't make moisture when there is none falling from the skies. We experienced the static electricity several times. They reminded everyone to make sure they shut off their vehicles when filling up. At least one explosion and fire was attributed to the spark from a person touching a running vehicle while filling up.

    Steve yes the loss of the garden as a whole is a little demoralizing when it coincides with a severe drought. But I was raised on ranches and have been around farming for a large part of my life. We are raised to bounce back, to be resilient, to never lose hope and to always believe the next season and the next year will bring improvement. The hail was early enough I was able to replant much of my garden. I had the best cuke crop since the terrible hail in 04. Which was way worse than the one last year. The one in 04 came in late June which limited somewhat what I could replant and the harvest I got from a lot of it. It hailed for an hour and a half with stones larger than a golf ball. Totaled every roof in this side of town. But it also came over 6 inches of rain in less than 3 hours. A major cell formed and just set here. I had sweet corn with ears on it a week from prime eating that was 5 foot tall that was only 6-10 inch stubs. I picked a few ears early the day of the hail. The 4-5 ft tomato plants with tomatoes on them and I had already picked a few were wiped out. But that year I replanted cukes, squash, radishes, carrots and late sweet corn along with a few other items and they all did very well. So when it looks the bleakest I always look to the future. As my Dad always said if it is too late for one crop it will be just right for another. Living in and gardening or farming in this area isn't for the weak hearted. There are pros and cons to living anywhere. We don't receive the rain they do east of us but we don't have the number of tornadoes they do either. We have a few but not near as many. And I always know every day and year we go with little rainfall is just one day and one year closer to when it will fall. Jay

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It also sounds like a beautiful place to live as well. I used to drive out to the Pawnee National Grasslands and hang out, watching the birds and antelope.

    The book talked about how, in the height of the dust storms, that the static electricity would make the tips on the barbed wire and the windmill vanes glow.
    One story about a guy whose entire garden was fried by a static electric discharge.

    I had one of those hail storms hit my garden on September the 10th, when it was at its peak. 4" of hail in about 20 minutes, tore the bark off the south side of all my fruit trees and turned the garden to pulp.

    The bark has just about grown back now.

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I hope I'm not straying too far off the path, here, talking about the dust bowl - I find it fascinating, my own grand parents lived through it around Sterling, and I remember them talking about it - They grew wheat, then discovered oil, cashed in, moved to Greeley.

    Anyway, we're not that far off from the anniversary of Black Sunday, April 14th.

    Try google images with 'black sunday' in the search function. This morning, I stumbled across the chapter in the book available online that describes the storm.

    yikes !!

    Here is a link that might be useful: link to the chapter on Black Sunday

  • Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great minds think alike!!! I just posted a link to the PBS version of the Black Sunday story over on Kenny's thread! Glad I wasn't alive to see/LIVE that!

    Skybird

  • highalttransplant
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow! Unbelievable! Thanks for sharing that, David!

    Guess I need to stop complaining about the weather here. It's heaven compared to what those people went through!

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rainstorms, hailstorms (had 1 of those today), duststorms -- sometimes, it can be real difficult out there for living things.

    Here is something from NOAA during last fall's drought in the Southwest. They have identified "blowing dust" in 2 large areas but notice how the storm clouds first move off to the east and then this WALL of dust takes off due south!

    Hundreds of miles wide - this is a very big area. I guess I don't need to tell you that but imagine what that wall would look like if you were just a little, bitty speck of a human down there in front of it!!

    It is kind of too bad that night fell while the satelite was filming that storm. I mean, "too bad" other than what must have been the sheer unpleasantness of it!

    If you'd like, you can click on the picture and go to the webpage. There, allowing your mouse to hover over the image, you will see "view full size." That image runs a little slower as well as gives you more of an idea what Lubbock & Midland were going thru.

    Steve

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    If I could edit my GW posts . .

    . I might have gone back and put this in:


    digitS'