“Storms make trees take deeper roots.” ~ Dolly Parton
Hi.. Remember me? It has been awhile since I have blogged. We lost touch in May and June of this year but now it is July, (an odd season for Florida gardening I am learning) but I am back. For more on what happened in the “lost months” see the gardening log below:
May 2018
- 17th: The rains began. At first I was excited – the garden needed water and I thought the rain was better than dragging the hose out to the garden to water it. Plus isn’t rain supposed to help the garden grow?
- 19th: It is still raining. Three days and nights of rain, hard rain. Doesn’t this rain know that we are in Florida? There are supposed to be light sporadic afternoon showers, not continuous hurricane like rains in May! I hope it stops soon. It is all just so wet, I haven’t been able to check on the garden in days.
- 20th: Finally, the rain has stopped but the entire yard is flooded. I have to put on rain boots and carry Lulu (our King Charles Cavalier) outside just to take her for a walk. The garden is FLOODED! Hopefully the water will recede quickly. How bad could it be?
- 25th: The waters have “mostly” receded but it is all gone. Dead. Finite. Months of planning and working in the garden destroyed. I don’t even want to go out there any more….
June 2018
- 2nd: I will focus my efforts on the herb garden in the front. The orange mint is a bit “wilty” but otherwise everything seems to be thriving after the rain. I better go out and start weeding it.
- 4th: I can’t just avoid the backyard forever (mostly because small child keeps running out there). Let me go and look at the garden. Wow, the strawberry plants and peppers are ok and so is that new row of okra I had planted right before the flood. I can’t believe those baby plants survived. And the little blueberry bush plant seems to be ok.
- 11th: I need to get the pumpkin seeds in the ground if I want pumpkins by October. Lets get these pumpkins planted in the watermelon bed. I will deal with the main garden later.
- 20th: It is time. Time to plan. Time to rebuild. Time to clean out the dead plants, add lots and lots of dirt and start up the summer garden. Plus the nature’s care organic soil I like is on sale at Lowes.
Several hours later…… small child and I planted three different types of squash, two rows of sunflowers and a raspberry bush.
The garden is once again starting to come alive reminding me of a few things:
- Overwatering is real.
- My backyard floods.
- You can always start over.
- Some plants are like people, surprising and resilient.
July 5, 2018
I am reminded of stress theory. When a crisis occurs (in this case the flood) we have 3 options for the outcomes: Option 1 – give up and things will get worse. Option 2: Adapt and stay at the same place you were when the crisis occurred and Option 3: Rise to the occasion and end up better than you were before the crisis occurred. Some plants I thought would survive because they were big and beautiful before the storm like the tomatoes died. Some plants are the same now as they were before the storm like the blueberry bush. Other plants, like the okra seeds I had just planted before the storm hit weathered it well and are now flourishing. If I were asked today “what kind of plant would you be if you had to be a plant” I would say confidently that I would be an okra plant.
Happy planting and eating!
~ The Gardening Dietitian