Opportunity Gardens: April Showers Bring...
an update from Opportunity Garden participant and AmeriCorps VISTA Erin King
A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves. – Marcel Proust
Well, there was most certainly a change in the weather {last} Thursday. The forecast called for severe thunderstorms, and severe thunderstorms came. Parts of Boone county and other areas along I-70 through Missouri even saw tornadoes and hail.
Before the storms came, all I thought about was that my garden was going to get watered, and the soil would receive nutrients from the lightning. When there was a break after the first storm, I checked on my garden to see if there was anything sprouting.
I was overjoyed to see tiny little cotyledons (seed leafs) peeking out where my leaf lettuce was planted. After a week and 2 days, and 2 nights of thunderstorms, my garden was springing to life!
Then I proceeded to check the rest of the garden. I saw a strange anomaly where my radishes were planted, which made me extremely nervous. I saw these tiny red things with greens inside of them, and they were on top of the soil only where the radishes were. (They turned out to only be new cherry blossoms that had blown off of my landlord’s cherry tree, but I didn’t find this out until when I came to work on Friday when I brought one in to the office.)
I finished examining my garden bed at where my peas were planted, and saw what very much looked like some of my peas sitting on top of the soil. My dad was trying to convince me that was a normal part of peas taking seed. (I brought one in to work with the cherry blossom, and my coworkers informed me that peas sometimes will surface when there is a lot of rain, and you just poke them back into the ground.)
After the next storm, my whole neighborhood’s yards looked like it had snowed. It had rained down pea-sized hail, or slightly larger. I checked on my lettuce this morning, and they looked a little yellow, and were somewhat laying closer to the soil. My hope is that they rally from getting pelted with hail, and get stronger.
So, my next step in my garden will be re-seeding some peas, since I did not poke the surfaced peas back into the ground, and they have since washed away with the rain or dried out. And I will be much more watchful now that I do have little seedlings to care for, observe and protect.
A worthy piece of advice I received from Trish when I was expressing my concern about the cherry blossoms: Gardening is not meant to add worry or make you anxious. I will try to remember this moving forward.
*Since this entry original draft date, we’ve received more rains, and with that, all of my seeds save for my carrots are sprouting and looking healthy.