I got 2.75 inches. We need more, but that is a great start!

While mired in my own wet misery, I am absolutely tickled to so see much rainfall in Oklahoma. And to follow with partly cloudy days without the sun immediately drying it all up? I could be wrong, but I think it's a good thing for the dryer parts.

And how about that 13.22" at the mesonet site? Wow. Just wow.

:-) good for our state.

Dawn, I guess I am happy with the rainfall since I sure can't do anything else about it.

We went ahead and planted the squash, pepper, cantaloupe, and sunflower plants sunday. I was afraid the pepper plants were a little small and not quite hardened off the way I wanted them, but knew rain was coming. So far they are still standing up and not plastered to the ground.

I new it would delay the planting if I waited till this batch of rain moved out and dried up enough to plant again. Sometime we just have to go for it and hope for the best.

I still have a large portion of my second area unplanted and will probably put some sweet potatoes and whatever else I come up with.

My pinkeye purple hulls must be doomed as I had very few sprout. They were in the lower area that gets the runoff and probably stayed too cool and wet for germination. I know I can still replant but just get aggravated when I have to.

Did I thread drift a little? We were talking about rain and this is what comes to mind when I think about all the rain.

I'm thrilled for all of you, even though I know rain can bring a lot of problems, as Bon and Robert referred to.

Bon, Dense clay makes rainy periods challenging, but over the years as your soil improves, it will tolerate more rain up to a point. Eventually, though, even very well-amended clay holds too much water if the rain just keeps coming. My garden is at that point now. With rain falling 3 or 4 or sometimes more days per week, the garden is turning into a lake. Without raised beds, my plants would be dead, and if the rain keeps falling and falling and falling, the raised beds might not save them. In a year when we are wet like this, we normally have an outrageously high number of fungal, bacterial and viral disease issues, so we'll see how it goes. Other than a little bit of off-color on the lower leaves of the potatoes, the plants look good considering how wet, humid, foggy and misty their growing conditions are.

Krista, I hope Altus looks good. They deserve a break, having suffered such awful drought conditions. Have a great trip and be sure to report back on how western OK looks after all this rainfall.

Robert, That is not thread drift----it is exactly the issues that arise when the rain falls and falls and falls.

I planted 6 squash plants yesterday at the downhill side of the garden to see if they would survive or drown. They're a test planting. I guess we'll know in a few days if they can handle the perpetually wet soil or not. I have a lot more started in paper cups so I can put more in the ground at a higher elevation if these die.

I wanted to plant a lot of things on Sunday, but I waited because we had hail up to the size of baseballs in the forecast and it made me nervous. Of course, the gigantic hail missed us by over 100 miles, hitting the homes of several of our friends in the Stephenville-Dublin, TX area, where those friends suffered various kinds of damage, including destroyed roofs, shattered windows and destroyed blinds, trees down (and entangled in what had been brand-new fencing), water damage indoors resulting from the damage to their homes that allowed rain to come inside the house, water-soaked hardwood floors, chicken coops that were just demolished and windshields knocked out of vehicles. Their weather-related problems served as a good reminder to me that the world wouldn't end if hail destroyed my garden. It is a whole lot easier to replant after nasty weather than to have to do major damage-control and repair to homes and vehicles.

I almost planted the rest of my peppers when I planted the squash, but I didn't want them exposed to the overnight lows we're expecting in the 40s, so thought I'd keep them in the greenhouse for just a couple more days. I might plant them May 1st as a celebration of May Day.

My entire back garden is weedy and unplanted. I had broken up about 25% of the ground with my Mantis cultivator a couple of weeks ago in between rainy spells and it was ready to plant but now it has a lot of standing water.....and it slopes downhill. Why the heck doesn't all that water run on down the hillside? You'd think the one advantage of having a sloping garden is that all the water would run off, but some of it doesn't---it just puddles and ponds.

I'm hoping to get the hot season plants like winter squash, cukes, okra, watermelons and southern peas planted the first week in May, if it is even possible to walk in the back garden at that point. I think that after today's rainfall, we should have 4 or 5 sunny, rain-free days which I'm really happy about, and I hope the forecast doesn't change.

I have to time the planting of my pickling cukes very carefully or I end up canning 24/7 and that gets exhausting. I usually plant them a little bit late so that they will produce pickling-sized cucumbers after I've already finished canning the first big harvest of tomatoes. This year we actually have fruit on the trees and, unless hail, high wind or some disease gets it, ought to have a great fruit harvest. My plums and peaches usually begin maturing around mid-June, so I already am likely to be making jelly and canning fruit at the same time I'm canning salsa and other tomato products, so I'm trying to time things right so I'm not having to make pickles at the exact same time. You know how tricky it is to get things to produce when you want them to, but I'm going to try anyhow. We're so wet I don't know if cucumbers will survive, but if I wait too long, the rain may abruptly stop falling and then I'll have to irrigate, so waiting is kind of a two-edged sword.

I know rain is a blessing, always, because too often we do not get enough of it, but it is a two-edged sword when the rainfall goes from being "just right" to being "too much". We're already at the too much stage. My corn poppies and Oriental poppies are blooming, but the larkspur plants in the same bed are yellowing big time and not blooming. I believe they are about to rot off right at the ground level, which has happened in at least three previous springs (2004, 2007, 2009) when we had constant rainfall.

We also have tons of Eastern tent caterpillars. I've killed all the ones I've found on my fruit trees, but they are crawling all over other plants, the ground, buildings, and even garden plants like cabbage (though I don't find them feeding on the leaves...maybe I catch them before they start). They seem more plentiful in rainy springs than in dry ones.

Ants? Fire ant mounds are popping up all over the place, and every kind of ant we have here are climbing buildings, trees, etc. trying to get above the wet ground. I've ordered two kinds of organic ant killer because I think that we are in for a big battle with them for however long the rain keeps falling.

To a non-gardener, rain is just rain, I bet, but to a gardener it is a mixed blessing that leads to all kinds of other issues.

Dawn

As the expatriot from Oklahoma, I can say that I have had an awfully hard time even mowing the yard for the constant rains. On the positive side, I haven't even seriously considered buying a hose at the new house yet. I anticipate the stop of the rain and then needing serious hose work frequently (sigh)...as usual.

This rain event brought exactly what I needed.......zero. Our forecast for tonight is 43, but when May comes everything is going to the garden.

We got less than a half inch yesterday and last night. And that's fine as we're in good shape here. It was just enough to water in the okra seed I planted Sunday.

dbarron, Here it is almost the end of April and I haven't had to drag a hose out for any purpose whatsoever. That is a first here. When I watered seedlings in flats, which wasn't that often since it has been raining so often, I just used a watering can. I'd love to have a summer in which I never even have to drag the drip irrigation lines out of the garage and set them up in the garden, but that's not likely to happen.

Mowing has been a challenge, but we just try to work around the rainy days as much as we can. Tim has left big ugly muddy ruts in the pastures with the riding mower, but I don't think he cares. It is pretty bad when your whole schedule for the week is built around what day you think you finally might be able to mow.

Our rainfall just for April has been roughly 180% of our typical April rainfall, and the three prior months were pretty rainy too, so we have just about had our fill of squishy, wet ground, puddles, mud, snakes climbing up into shrubs and trees, grass that is getting too tall to mow, etc. Our puppy got bitten by something on or around her mouth (possibly inside her mouth) last week and had to be rushed to the vet. Her whole snout was swelling and we were worried she wouldn't be able to breathe. I'm pretty sure it was a venomous snake as the cat had seen one in the same area a few weeks ago. It could have been an insect, but she acted the same one other dogs have behaved after being bitten by rattlesnakes. One vet visit, a steroid shot, and several dosages of Benadryl later, she is back to normal but now very nervous and hesitant to go outdoors at all.

Carol, Well we got more than we needed (we didn't need any) but I'm trying to stay calm and not imagine my garden floating downhill.

Dorothy, I'm glad you got just the right amount. Too often rainfall comes in only two amounts---too much or too little.

Only light rain has fallen here so far today---more like a mist than rain drops. I hope that's all we get.

Dawn

We received about 2 inches here in SW OKC. That makes about 5 1/2 inches for May. It seems to be the right amount for the yard but the gardens is a little wet. Dawn, I agree rain can be a two edged sword for any one in agriculture. As far as scheduling around the need to mow I do the same.

I was thinking about how we have to make our plans around what day it will be dry enough to mow and it reminded me of a rainy spell that hit one year after a long drought. It was in the middle of summer. We were so excited to see it rain that we sat outside on the covered patio and watched it rain. We still had some water in the ponds and creeks, but they had gotten pretty low. After several hours of steady rain and some thunderstorms had ended, all the frogs were out hopping all over the yard---going from one big puddle to another almost as if they were playing. We had a cool breeze. We had almost instant greenup of the grass, and we had a double rainbow. I was glad we didn't miss any of that. The frogs clearly were as excited about the sudden burst of moisture as we were. A few days later when it dried out enough to mow, we and all of our neighbors were out mowing. Everyone met in the then-gravel road (sort of our sidewalk since we don't have sidewalks here) while mowing the bar ditches and traded stories about the rain. What I found hysterical was that while we were sitting outside watching the frogs splash about after the rain ended, so were our two closest neighbors. We all laughed and decided we all needed to get out more. Still, I love living in a place where everyone can just sit and chill and appreciate seeing the frogs (or the rabbits, deer, eagles, butterflies or whatever) out having fun. Our city friends and family members are pretty sure we completely lost our minds after moving here, but I'd rather watch the wildlife than go to a movie theater or a shopping mall any day of the week.

I hope our rain has ended here for a while because, well you know, the grass needs to be mowed before it gets too tall.

I got 10 tomato in the ground Sunday but have 44 more to go from the greenhouse if I can defeat the whiteflies. Haven't been back out to the farm to check for sure but it looks like we got 2" or so in Lincoln County. Fighting nutgrass in the potatoes but the greens are doing well. Almost finished with enclosing the upper garden with 8 feet high of twine fencing to keep the deer out so I can plant the squashes and melons and some of the tomatoes.

Nice to see the phoebes and bluebirds come back, along with the hummers.

We have had a bunch of rain over here. My garden exploded with all the rain and sun in between. The next few days here are going to be in the 80's so the hot weather stuff should really take off . My corn is 4-6" and cabbage plants I am thrilled are 20 - 24" across. Cucumbers are coming up nicely and will help shade the brassica area. The ladybugs are everywhere (so glad I waited it out) flea beetle damage is done. I do have standing water in main path so I need to fix that. Tomorrow I will run around with my mosquito bits and treat all the standing water. We have had 3 rains in the last 10 days and each one was at least 1 1/2 inches.

We got an inch here in town but none of the lakes got anything much.

Cochise, Yay! Tomatoes in the ground! That always says 'Spring' to me more than anything else.

Is twine fencing just horizontal lines of twine strung from pole to pole? I'm trying to picture it.

It is good to hear your birds are back. I think listening to the birds singing, chirping and (in the case of blue jays, squabbling) is one of the best parts about working outdoors.

Kim, All that rain is so exciting because we know what it is like when the rain doesn't come. We should be just slightly cooler than you if our forecast is correct. It shows a lot of forecast highs from 77-79 with just one 80, but it wouldn't shock me if we got hotter than forecast. The best thing, though, is our humidity is not going to be real high so we are supposed to have a few really pleasant, sunny, warm, comfortable days with no rain. I've already been out there this morning and it is awfully wet so for today I'm mostly just hoping the standing puddles either soak in or dry up.

My garden is the best it has looked in late April in several years, and I also have standing water in several paths, but it will have to dry up on its own as the water always drains downhill from the property next door (both above-ground and under-ground) so I just have to wade through the water in the pathways and wait for it to dry up or soak in.

This is going to be a good day for weeding the raised beds if they need it (I weed weekly so there shouldn't be an awful lot of new weeding to do today). I'd like to mow and get out the string-trimmer and clean up the fence lines, but I might have to wait another day or two for the grass to dry out. I will finish thinning the fruit on the fruit trees today. I've been doing it a little at a time over the last couple of weeks, but didn't thin it all in one day. Prior experience has taught me that when hail is in the forecast, I should thin in stages instead of all at once because there's nothing worse than thinning your fruit so that is has exactly the right spacing and then having hail come along and thin out 85% of the fruit you have left. Since all those days with big hail in the forecast didn't drop any hail here, I need to go ahead and finish thinning the fruit myself.'

I'll be treating the big areas of standing water with Bt dunks and bits as well today, and probably treating the fire ant mounds with the small amount of organic fire ant bait that I have left. The fire ant bait I ordered shipped yesterday so it will be here in a couple of days. Depending on how many grasshoppers I observe today, I might do the first grasshopper treatment with Semaspore today. I've been waiting for the rain to stop so I could finally do this. It seems late if you look at the calendar, but I haven't seen nearly as many lately as I was seeing a month ago, so maybe the rain and the chilly weather and the wild birds have been thinning out the hoppers for me. I usually treat for them more in April than in May, but there was no point in putting out Semaspore when it was raining every day as it likely would have washed away before they ate much of it.

I'm looking forward to getting a lot done outdoors this week after the ground and grass dry up a little bit more. Right now it is still a lake out there.

Dawn