Ha ha Catherine, just keep on with the watering! Fingers crossed that you get a good crop!

Linda

Too funny! Just be glad you don't have to use expensive city water!

Get some duct tape and tape the plant's mouths shut. Don't tell them that they aren't long for the world.

LOL LoneJack......I DO feel bad talking so nicely to them, then eating them.

When you see clouds on the horizon, start watering your garden, and proclaim loudly that you are not leaving unless it starts pouring. That always seems to work for me. And/or, wash & wax your car. ;-)

I'm afraid to wish for rain now. My area normally sees approaching storms either divide or diminish before reaching us... we call it our "magic bubble". Whatever the cause is, the storms over the weekend overpowered it. I watched successive waves break up, but each one getting closer, until they broke though. We've had almost 6" since Saturday, with another round of severe storms expected today (and maybe a tornado or two). :-(

Here in CA my plants - all in pots - don't complain unless there is NO water... of any kind, then they will reach out and grab me until I get the hose. They really think they are special when I actually give them a gallon of fertilizer water.

@zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin - sorry for the troubles too much rain cause.

@LoneJack Zn 6a, KC - I too have to water with city metered water. I hate the water bill all summer this year so far.

@catherinet (5IN) I have been wishing too that we would get some rain here. It seems to miss us too. I have been watering with our city water here. I have been trying to catch some rain in a few buckets. we keep getting promised big storms and the noise rumbles outside but no rain or just a little bit. The rain blows over to Lake Michigan. The bugs are so awful too. We are having excessive heat right now too. I have plenty of bugs eating the blossoms that are trying to develop on my tomatoes. Every morning I look at my wilted cucumbers that I just watered the day before and I too promise them the real stuff is coming then I water again. It is certainly crazy how the rain comes and goes around some of us and the others are hit too hard. Good luck to all!

Zeedman, sorry you're having all that rain. I wish we could share.

LoneJack and Patti.......yes, I'm fortunate to not have to pay for my water. But I guess we eventually do, with the electric bill and also we've needed a new pump 3-4 times in the past 35 years, and it's alot of money and hassle. but still.....I'm glad to have well water for the garden.

We continue to keep missing the rain that goes around us, so I'm going out to water. It takes quite a while, but I'm grateful to have it, 'cause I'd hate to lose the stuff I've worked so hard for. It's about 90 out today, so I'm not looking forward to picking beans, etc., but oh well.

What's rain?

Well, we were fairly assured by the weather people that we'd get rain a couple times in the past few days. But as it got close, it parted and totally missed us. :( This happens a lot to us, which makes me wonder if there's something with our location/topography here in central indiana that causes this to happen. ?? Very curious.

@catherinet (5IN), be careful what you wish for, because our weather must be very similar. Storms approaching my location normally either part, or weaken as they approach from the West. Until suddenly they didn't, and the conditions reversed to pull strong storms in, one after the other. We had over 18" in the last 6 weeks, which is more than 1/2 of our 34" average annual precipitation.

Oh man Zeedman! Did your garden survive? I hope so! Maybe if I just wish that we DON'T get rain, we'll get a little.

My gardens at home are fairly well drained. My rural garden though, is poorly-drained & is fed by drainage from a farm field just uphill. During heavy rains, much of the garden is underwater. I lost about 10-20% of all beans, tomatoes, and peppers in the first round, and the survivors are stunted. This latest round may finish off some of the beans, peppers, and cowpeas.

But as much as the losses sadden me, some vegetables - such as okra, gherkins, soybeans, and water spinach - are producing heavily there. And everything in the home gardens is doing spectacularly well. We definitely won't be starving any time soon. ;-)

I'm curious zeedman (and if it's none of my business, just tell me). Why do you have a garden in the country too? Drainage can be a strange thing. One year, half of my garden (I live in the country), had standing water in it. I thought everything would die, but fortunately, it all recovered! My husband dug a drain at the lowest part of the garden, to help it drain out. What helped the most was it quit raining! Once again, the rain missed us yesterday, so I'll have to go water it myself today (takes about an hour). Something that made me laugh back in 2015, when the garden flooded, was that a found a frog in the water. Here's a pic of that frog, enjoying the tiny "pond" in the garden. haha

There was one summer where the rural garden was so wet, the main weeds were willow, cottonwood, and cattail. There was literally one cottonwood or willow sapling every 2-3'... those were really "fun" to remove (sarc). All of the earthworms died that year, the soil stunk when turned over. I finally surrendered the lowest portion of the garden (about 4000 square feet) because it seldom dried out. The remaining garden is about 5900 square feet; I brought in 10 yards of topsoil last year to raise up the lowest portion, and to fill the raised bed for the garlic. The garden did very well in 2020, and probably would be successful this year if it weren't for unseasonable "monsoon" rainfall.

We have the rural garden for several reasons. The property owner is a good friend, who has graciously offered us free use of their 10-acre property, barn, and water. We've been gardening there for 15 years; they enjoy the company, and the fresh veggies we share. I don't really have room for the vining crops at home (like squash, watermelon, and gherkins) or for large blocks of sweet corn; and space in the rural garden is limited only by my motivation.

And because I am a seed steward, the rural garden gives me space to grow & maintain many more varieties than I could otherwise. I could not maintain my large collection of soybeans without it. That garden also provides a second site for vegetables which would cross-pollinate heavily if grown together, such as limas, runner beans, cucumbers, and bitter melon. It provides enough space to trial new things, and for some amateur breeding projects that I am working on.

I continue to enlarge my suburban gardens (currently about 1500 square feet) and will be adding another 225 square feet next year. But my gardening goals, especially in regard to seed saving, will always require use of a second site.

Wow, Zeedman, sounds like a lot of gardening. I hope you're fairly young. ;) I'm almost 72 and find that I need to cut back. It's hard though, having gardened for about 50 years and it's hard giving some things up. In my early 20s, I was allowed to get a garden spot near a university married student courts residences. It was probably about 6 acres that were turned into much smaller little gardens. I lived on the other side of town and didn't have a car, so I would take my hoe and rake on the bus. A friend had a car and a horse, and gave me a huge bag of horse manure for the garden. but I had to take the bus back home. Needless to say, it wasn't appreciated. hahaha We do a lot for our gardens, don't we?

One thing I found very useful was trellising. Do you do any of that? I use it for pole beans, butternut squash and cucumbers. Good luck with the weather and continued luck and enjoyment with your gardens!

"One thing I found very useful was trellising. Do you do any of that? I use it for pole beans, butternut squash and cucumbers."

I garden vertically whenever possible, and select varieties suited to trellising. There are almost 400' of trellises most years; this is one of the home gardens. Two pole beans, one lima, one runner bean, one bitter melon, one climbing cowpea, one snow pea, and two tomatoes here, all trellised.

Sounds great, zeedman! Do you sell a lot of your produce? What you keep, do you preserve? I used to can most things, but gave that up when life got too busy. Now I freeze the beans, tomatoes and squash. But I get nervous if it's a severe winter and we could lose power.

I'm only a few years younger than you @catherinet (5IN). ;-) DW & I can, freeze, pickle, and dehydrate enough to last most of the year. We try to learn something new each year, which this year is growing some grains & making our own flour & grits. We also share a lot with our adult children & their families, friends, neighbors, previous co-workers, and in bountiful years, the local food pantry. I also share seed with other gardeners. For me, the garden is a labor of love, and its bounty is something meant to be shared.

I can hear the love of gardening in your posts, @catherinet (5IN), and hope you will be able to continue. It is hard to cut back when it is something that you love, and is a deeply embedded part of your lifestyle. I really got a laugh out of your story about transporting horse manure on a bus... now THAT is garden dedication. ;-)

DW & I share a passion for vegetable gardening & divide the labor between us, or we couldn't garden on this scale. We are beginning to feel our years too; the only reason we have not yet cut back further is that we have found equipment & techniques to make it easier, and have a DD who gives us a lot of help when we start to get overwhelmed. It may not be too many more years before we give up the rural plot, which will break our hearts because the property owner there has been a wonderful long-time friend. That will also necessitate some difficult cuts to the size of my seed collection. :-(

I have been enjoying both of your posts. It's so nice to read of others who have a passion for growing things.

Zeedman, I understand the concept of "seed steward" but do you actually belong to an organization that saves heirloom seeds for future generations?

Yes, I am an active member of the Seed Savers Exchange, for 21 years now. I used to trade heavily on this site, when the format made trading easy. My trade list then showed up in web searches, so I received a lot of inquiries which introduced new gardeners to both Gardenweb & SSE. There were years when my Gardenweb trades equaled or surpassed my SSE trades... and I still grow many of the heirlooms received in trade. When Houzz took over, the trade lists became invisible. I'm glad Houzz rescued the site from oblivion, but I really miss the old Gardenweb. :-(