things were looking up until June 1, when in started raining every day in the northeast. its only hit 90 maybe twice this year. most of the “sunny” days were only sunny in the afternoons, so missed the morning sun. tomatoes are garbage, and the peppers are not very happy either. onions did so-so. the cucumbers were the happiest in the cool, wet summer. squash is coming hot and heavy right now too.
the need for some of the upgrades i know i’ve needed - raised beds w/ hoop house covers, and more wood chips and weed blocker to stop soil from splashing up onto leaves - were plainly obvious this year. it would have been nice to regulate back some of the moisture and retain more heat in the soil.
some silver linings from the wet summer - the browntail caterpillars mostly died away. they’ve been bad in recent years, but looks like they don’t like the rain so much. my young fruit trees also put on a lot of growth, even too much growth as the root systems are still not established enough to hold the trees up. i’ve had to re-stake most of the trees. i’ve also done a lot of expansion with new perennials and trees this year - things that weren’t going to produce this year but benefitted from the excess rain.
i haven’t watered anything since May. the ground is constantly wet. the rain barrels have been constantly full. i just pump everything down to keep the skeeters under control.
the browntail caterpillars did not like the rain, but i’ve seen a good 10 varieties of caterpillars i’ve never seen before. the chickens and bluebirds have been quite happy with all the extra protein in the yard this year.
things were looking up until June 1, when in started raining every day in the northeast. its only hit 90 maybe twice this year. most of the “sunny” days were only sunny in the afternoons, so missed the morning sun. tomatoes are garbage, and the peppers are not very happy either. onions did so-so. the cucumbers were the happiest in the cool, wet summer. squash is coming hot and heavy right now too.
the need for some of the upgrades i know i’ve needed - raised beds w/ hoop house covers, and more wood chips and weed blocker to stop soil from splashing up onto leaves - were plainly obvious this year. it would have been nice to regulate back some of the moisture and retain more heat in the soil.
some silver linings from the wet summer - the browntail caterpillars mostly died away. they’ve been bad in recent years, but looks like they don’t like the rain so much. my young fruit trees also put on a lot of growth, even too much growth as the root systems are still not established enough to hold the trees up. i’ve had to re-stake most of the trees. i’ve also done a lot of expansion with new perennials and trees this year - things that weren’t going to produce this year but benefitted from the excess rain.
i haven’t watered anything since May. the ground is constantly wet. the rain barrels have been constantly full. i just pump everything down to keep the skeeters under control.
the browntail caterpillars did not like the rain, but i’ve seen a good 10 varieties of caterpillars i’ve never seen before. the chickens and bluebirds have been quite happy with all the extra protein in the yard this year.
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