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Help your garden recover from wet weather
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Keep your garden green with a few tips. (photo by YS Wong)
The weather in Maryland is unusually cool and wet this season. According to most news reports, we have had 17 inches of rain since April, which is double the normal amount. Some vegetables can do well in this weather, others will not. Local gardeners and farmers have had difficulty with their crops because they were forced to plant later than usual and too much rain can rot seeds. This weather can slow the growth of crops and make the leaves turn yellow. Also, it is unusually cool for this time of year. Lately we’ve had days with highs in the 60s when they should be closer to the upper 80s. Now is the time to take a look at your garden and see what you can do to keep your garden healthy and to replace lost plants.
Generally, there are some things you can do to recover your garden in wet weather. Move container gardens to a porch or close to a building where they won’t get as much rain. Some people prefer to cover their garden beds with a sheet of plastic, much like you’d do if there was a concern about frost. Mulching the soil with plastic will help warm the it, keep weeds away, and keep less rain out. If you get a break in the rain, deadhead flowers and remove other dead leaves because if they rot they will be more likely to encourage disease in wet weather. In May I posted an article on wet weather gardening tips, so see that for some basic help with recovering your garden.
By this time of year it is likely that you have lost some plants in the vegetable or flower garden. Perhaps slugs ate your greenery or the seeds you planted have rotted. Some garden centers still carry plants, but the selection is not as wide as it was earlier in the season. It is not too late to restart some flower seeds, but do it in a sheltered area. Like springtime, you should start them indoors in pots to keep them warm and moist but not waterlogged. The difference now is that once they sprout you can move them outside for the day so that they can get adequate sunlight. Fast growing flowers like zinnias, marigolds, statice, cleome and most other annuals all germinate quickly and come to flower within a reasonable length of time.
If you have bare spots in the vegetable bed consider anything leafy. Lettuce does well in cool, wet weather and it is usually too hot to grow it by now. If you don’t want to risk a turn in the weather consider Swiss chard. Herbs also do well. They will easily fill in bare spots, are attractive, and you can always dry the surplus for winter. If you already have some herb plants propagate some new ones. Take cuttings and root them in water or slip the cutting into some moist soil. If using the soil method, root tone will help speed the process and covering the plant lightly with a plastic bag will help keep it warm. You can also ask your friends and neighbors for cuttings of plants that seem to be doing well in their yards. Hopefully the wet weather will soon move on and leave us with more seasonal weather for gardening.
Resources
Mosquitoes thriving, MD crops suffering amid wet weather (Baltimore Sun article)
Propagating herbs from cuttings
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