Planting Seeds in the Rain of El Nino
I found myself planting seeds in the rain of El Nino today during our first rain event. If you’ve been following California weather, you know we are supposed to get extreme weather during this winter’s El Nino. Only a drought-weary gardener ventures out with a bad cold to plant seeds in the rain. It wasn’t planned. It was an improvisation, which is why I am wearing pajamas in this shot.
My soaked pajamas and shoes
I ducked out to transfer my rainwater overflow pipe to another 60-gallon trash can, and I was struck by remorse that I had not planted every section of my winter garden. What better time to sink seeds into earth than during a rare rain when the ground is deliciously wet?
Freshly planted cilantro bed and cloth pot
My clothes dryer has been going for hours. Boy, what a mess it is to plant seeds in the rain. It’s ridiculous. Forget getting the right amount of seed in a row when the seed packet is melting from rain. It will be interesting to see what comes up. (It always is!)
Soaked seed packets in my dirty hands
It rained for a good four hours. My poor Monarch caterpillars were soaked. It’s way too late in the year for them to be here anyway, but I have at least a dozen on this narrow leaf milkweed.
Monarch caterpillar dripping wet under leaf
This is the first glimpse of the new layout of the Late Bloomer garden, which I will reveal with there’s more green than brown. This is also the first time I have used pine shavings on my walkways. I always used alfalfa before, but someone on YouTube recommended I try these, and they are a lot less expensive, so we shall see. I was praying that the rain would come before a nasty wind, which would have blown them everywhere. Since I had more shavings, I used them for mulch over the planted beet seed.
Newly planted beet bed covered in pine shavings for mulch
Every rain vessel is full, about 350-gallons, so I let the overflow tube flow on the ground. Tomorrow, I’m getting two more Ivy rain barrels, so that’s another 150 gallons I can preserve for when the garden gets dry. I’m not sure, now, where they will go, because I remembered the downspout off the back of the house is the original copper, so I won’t be hacking into it like I did the tin.
Rain capture arena
Three hours later, with as many soakings to the skin (I need rain gear!), there were more beet, radish and cilantro seeds in ground and sweet potatoes in containers. I have to cover plantings with wire or netting to keep out cats and raccoons.
Containers with sweet potatoes planted
By 3:00PM, the sun was out, and mist was rising off the art studio. This IS California, after all!
Art studio with mist, background, Green Stalk foreground
I didn’t even know what a corn plant was before I was asked to do an Urban Garden Series on eHow. This is the plant I used in the video, which was neglected until recently. Amazing how plants respond when you give them some love. Click to check out the whole series!
First ever bloom from my corn plant
Do you find yourself planting seeds in the rain? Please let me know, and thanks for reading! – Kaye
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I need financial support for Season 5 of “Late Bloomer.” Consider making a donation to keep Late Bloomer blooming! Thanks for your support! ~ Kaye
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Category: Environment, Rain, Urban Gardening
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