okay.....where did it go? Only in Oklahoma.....

I got out there today in the MONSTEROUS winds planting. Actually tripped and fell backwards...downhill.....and I've got to admit now, it's pretty darned funny....but these winds....SERIOUSLY?

AND WHERE THE HECK IS THE PROMISED RAIN? Sorry, Dawn.....I was SO hoping.....=)

Rain will start tomorrow....probably late, and be heaviest on Tuesday for most of us.

We sure need some moisture. If not for the plants then to avoid the fires. Morons across the greenbelt were grilling. I smelled the fire from the kitchen and ran to wet down the backside of our barn. That is south or our property. Shows how far an ember can blow in that wind. Thankfully the firedepartment is only a mile away.

Mike

Dawn my vote is go to the greenhouse!

The rain is here. It arrived this morning as a light mist and got stronger throughout the day. We've had sporadic rounds of rainfall, none real heavy yet, throughout the day, and that will continue for some time.

I hope the rest of you get rain soon.

After one long, dreary, gray rainy day, I miss the sunshine already.

.95 inches here. Not too bad. It was a nice gently rain too.

We've had slightly more, but not much, with 1.24" so far. Most of it fell gently, but there was one fairly brief period where it rained hard enough last night to knock out the satellite TV for about 15 or 20 minutes. There's lots more expected to be headed our way and I can see a lot on the radar in Texas headed towards OK. We did see some spectacular lightning to our southeast last night as a storm with some fairly strong winds was hitting the Whitesboro, TX, area.

Mike, Our rain is expected to help knock fire danger down a bit, but sometimes it doesn't help as much as expected. Firefighters at the NW corner of our county had to fight a really tough wildfire burning in a very wet, boggy area on a couple of days last week. I listened to them on my fire radio while working in my garden and was shocked at how much trouble they were having. Fire trucks got stuck, then the regular tractors that came to pull out the fire trucks got stuck, and then the 8WD tractor that came to pull out the other tractor or tractors and the fire trucks got stuck....and the fire just kept on burning. The firefighters did their best, but fighting a fire on foot, by hand, in a boggy area is very difficult. Movement is so difficult that it is hard to catch up with a fire in conditions like that. Finally the dozer owned by our county fire association was able to pull out all the tractors and fire trucks and get them out of the mud, and then with the help of the dozer, they finally got that fire contained and out. I'm not sure if those guys out there are hoping for more rain, or for less rain, but I'm sure they're hoping they don't have another couple of days like Friday and Saturday.

I feel the same way about rain hitting the garden at this time of year. I want for there so be some rain so everything will grow well, but then, not so much rain that I can't even get into the garden to do anything. We are forecast to get a total of 4-5" this week. I would have been happy with only 1 or 2". We have been greening up pretty rapidly the last 2 weeks with all the warm weather, so I expect the rainfall will accelerate that green-up even more. I feel oddly "out of season" with everything so green and nice and warm this early in March. It is like springtime is a train running down the track at an ever-increasing rate of speed and I'm running along behind it, just trying to catch up.

I'm still grateful for every drop of rain that falls because I know what it is like here when the rain fails to fall. I just wish it would spread itself out a little better and that we wouldn't get more than a month's worth of rain in one week.

Dawn

I hope that next week is somewhat dry--that we get our rain this week and it moves along. Next week is spring break and my time to get things planted. I only have onions in...other than the herbs and garlic. I have 5 empty raised beds to fill. This is SO exciting. And 3 old raised beds that need to be cleaned out. And a pallet that is ready for lettuce. My lettuce seedlings should be read to plant outdoors next week. BTW, has anyone tried the pallet bed idea that was floating around on facebook? I'm fixin' to try it out.

If you're home today, it would be a great day to catch up on sleep and laundry and housework. I wish I was home.

We're up to 2.25" of rain here since it began falling yesterday morning, and all the bar ditches were wall-to-wall runoff this afternoon, and some of the creeks had such rapidly running water that they had whitecaps. Our strongest wind today was only measured in the mid-40s at our mesonet station, but a semi was blown over on I-35 about 4 miles north of our house. There's been a lot of wind damage, some tornado damage, and some high water rescues south of us in TX, so I feel like our part of SC OK came through the first two days of rain with flying colors. More rain is coming, but I'd be okay if it misses our place (and I doubt it will). We have enough mud to last a while now.

Did y'all get rain? C'mon, now, brag about your rainfall totals.

We're up to a little over 2.5" now, and I'd be happy if no more fell. With rain in our forecast for every day and night through Saturday, it seems likely more rain will fall. Water is, of course, standing all over our property, including in the pathways of my gardens, where each and every raised bed seems to act like a dam to hold back water in the adjacent pathway.

Even with 2.5", we had quite a few motor vehicle accidents on the roadways and Scenic Hwy 77 is closed in both directions at the Lake Murray dam due to water spilling over the spillway. I've been surprised at how much trouble a mere 2.5" of rain has caused here, but I guess our ground remains highly saturated from last year and from rainfall a few weeks ago.

I have nothing but love and best wishes for all the folks in eastern Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana who are getting slammed by the rain now, and hope that everyone has as little damage as possible and that there are as few deaths as possible. I was watching TWC today as the Bossier, LA, parish sheriff announced mandatory evacuations in parts of his county and I was just incredulous that parts of his county already had received over 14" from this storm system and could receive 8-14" more. That made me realize how lucky we were here to get a paltry 2.5". I actually think 2.5" is nearly a perfect amount---enough to thoroughly wet down everything and we're going to green up like mad over the next couple of weeks because of it, but not so much that we're rescuing people out of flooded roadways or homes. I feel really bad for all those folks in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana who are dealing with flooding (or soon will be). Parts of SE OK got hit by flooding pretty hard too. All I could think while all this was going on is that suddenly, with all the high water and flooding, it feels like 2015 all over again.

Dawn

Not really bragging rights but we had between 12 and 15 ..

Drops ;)

I'm not sure how much we had, but not a lot--just enough. But a little more is coming, although it doesn't look like a lot for my area. That could change, I know. AND it looks like Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be good for planting. I can't wait. I need to get more dirt for the new raised beds. I have a giant pile of free compost from last fall. How would you use that along with the purchased dirt in your new beds? Put the dirt in first, then top it with compost or mix it all together?

Kim, I'm sorry the rain missed you. I hope you enjoyed that 12-15 drops! My garden looks soggy but the plants themselves are so happy. After so many hot, windy days, the cool-season plants were looking tired before the rain arrived, and they sure have perked up. Because of the mud, I haven't stepped foot in the garden, choosing to stand and admire it from the driveway. Stomping around in the big puddles/small lakes of water in my pathways is not my favorite thing to do. I'm hoping the puddles soak in quickly.

Hazel, Rainfall seems to only come in two amounts in Oklahoma: either too much or not enough. In your case, not enough rain this time works out since you'll be able to work in your garden and plant without having to struggle through the mud.

I'd mix in the compost with the purchased soil if I had an easy way to do it (like a rototiller or a cultivator like a Mantis). However, there's a couple of exceptions: if the soil mix already has a high component of organic matter, I might just fill the raised beds with the purchased soil, and put the compost on top. That way, every time it rains or every time you water, the compost feeds the soil beneath it. Also, if I was digging gently through the compost pile and finding lots of earthworms, I would't use a rototiller or cultivator. I'd just add the compost to the top of each raised bed as mulch. Or, I'd layer some of the compost at the bottom of the bed (picture building layers of lasagna in a dish), add some of the purchased soil, and alternate layers of soil and layers of compost a couple of times. That way both some compost and its earthworms would be in the soil, without the risk that any form of mechanical cultivation would harm the earthworms.

Many folks think you have to rototill that compost into the existing soil, but you don't. Just by layering it on top of your beds, you have it right where it needs to be. Every time rain hits that area, it will wash some of the compost more deeply into the soil. Every time you disturb the soil to dig, you'll be working some of the compost into the soil. Every time earthworms and other ground-swelling creatures tunnel through the soil, they'll be carrying some of the compost more deeply into the bed with them. No one goes into a woodland and rototills the compost/humus on the soil surface down into the ground, and yet, woodland soil is spectacular.

You are on the right track in your garden. So many people focus on what fertilizer to feed their plants and make little to no effort to improve the soil. (And, if their soil lacks nutrition, I understand that heavier use of fertilizer might be needed temporarily until they develop better soil. Been there, done that.) I do things differently in my garden. I focus on feeding the soil naturally via the addition of tons of organic matter, and then I let the soil feed the plants. With your compost, you are taking the same approach. Your compost will help improve your soil's structure and it also will help feed your plants. I've only had one soil test done here---in either our first or second year, and I think it was the second year, because the first year I was diagnosed with cancer and that disrupted some of my plans. After the initial soil test showed me what I needed to focus on, I've never needed another one because I can tell when the plants are happy and that tells me the soil has within it just what the plants need. Please note, I'm not saying your garden never will need fertilizer, just that improving the soil and seeing it get better every year is what will make your garden successful over the long haul. I still add Espoma organic fertilizer to my beds before I plant, usually at the same time I am scooping compost out of the paths and dumping it on top of the beds. What I don't do is use lots of fertilizer during the growing season. I just layer grass clippings on top of the raised beds every time we mow and the grass clippings decompose in place, feeding the soil.

My soil is incredibly full of earthworms this year. They're everywhere, and in large numbers, so I've been doing my best to disturb the soil as little as possible.

I have night crawlers that look like small snakes. LOL

So do I, but there's tons of young babies as well. A definite population explosion is under way.

My soil is a little better this year, but still no sign of worms. I will know more as I plant. I have just been putting manure and mulch on top of my wonderful clay soil for two years, I was surprise how better it already is.