Garden work suspended until the rain stops is the perfect description for the past two weeks. But we somehow managed to plant the tomatoes.

Extreme Rain

May has continued the extreme rain trend we’ve been having since December. In the past two weeks, we got another 140mm of rain, bringing us very close to the yearly amount. The soil is so soaked now that even the smallest amount of rain causes flash flooding. Since our garden is on a hill, there’s no danger of flood here, but we do get damage from the water flowing down the garden. Luckily, the paths in my garden are big and steep enough to take away all the extra water.

Still, due to the very wet soil, there’s basically no time for gardening. We had a total of two dry days during the past two weeks. On the first day, I had to wait for the soil to dry a bit, and on the second day(last Thursday) I managed to get in the garden and plant the tomatoes.

Tomatoes In Different Locations

This year I’m growing tomatoes in two different locations. One is in the main garden, where I’ll have most of the tomatoes, and the other is in the orchard. The orchard location is a test garden to see which vegetables will grow the best there.

Tomatoes were transplanted to the orchard before the last rain and they are the perfect example of why I waited so long with the rest of the tomatoes. They are completely yellow and blue from the extreme rain and cold. Tomatoes love the warmth and sun, and temperatures around 10°C(50°F) with extreme rain and strong north wind are not for them.

Tomato Transplanting

Although the conditions weren’t great, last Thursday I decided it was time to transplant the tomatoes. To be honest, I can’t remember when was the last time the soil was so wet when I was transplanting. The holes were impossible to make, so instead we made rows and transplanted the tomatoes in them.

I opted to go with growing on wires this year. Instead of rope, I asked my hubby to connect last year’s poles with some wires which I’ll then use to tie the tomatoes. Since the year was very rainy, I didn’t have time to get enough poles, so instead I will grow all my tomato varieties together. Of course, this means that they will mix and I probably won’t be able to collect any seeds, but with the year we’re having I’ll be happy if we get any tomatoes at all.

Right now most of the tomatoes are still not tall enough to tie on a wire, but in a week or two they should be ready for first pruning and tying. I’ve added eggshells while transplanting them and now I’m waiting for the rain to stop to give them liquid fertilizers. Hopefully, this should compensate for the bad weather in May.

Plans For Next Week

With May coming to an end we’re hoping for nicer weather and more time for gardening. So far I’ve managed to do most of the urgent tasks to get all the vegetables in the garden, but the rest are waiting. I haven’t touched any of the pruning tasks, I was planning to dig out some of the plants and move them to different locations, and start a new flower shade garden. All of these are waiting for some warmer weather which hopefully we’ll get next week.