Overcoming Too Much Rain in the Garden

Biggest Con of Too Much Rain

The biggest problem with accumulating too much rain in the garden is disease pressure. Some of the diseases that could overtake the garden include powdery mildew, fire blight, and anthracnose. However, if you monitor the garden and have a prevention plan set in place to eliminate these disease issues you could save your plants from becoming completely ruined in the garden.

Vegetable Garden Update

On this week's episode, Travis mentions ways to deal with too much rain in the vegetable garden. Here in South Georgia, we have recently dealt with the coldest and wettest winters thus far which has caused us to overcome some challenges when dealing with our crops that are planted in the ground. One area of the garden has been established for around four years which means it has accumulated a good amount of organic matter and been able to reduce the weed seedbed in the ground. In other words, this area of the garden is extremely manageable when it comes to growing vegetables in the plot.

Greens Mix

Travis currently has a Premium Greens Mix that has done well considering the amount of rain we have experienced in the garden. He planted the mix with the Hoss Garden Seeder on a 30-inch bed and squeezed in as many rows has he could to get a maximum yield of greens mix. Typically, we can harvest this crop at least three times along the garden bed.

Onions

A positive of a lot of rain is that the onion plants are completely loving it. In the garden, there are six double rows of Red and Texas Legend onions planted. The Red Onions seem to be growing quicker than the Texas Legends so far, but Travis has been keeping them fertilized and is really excited about harvesting these crops soon.

Carrots

Next to the onions plants, Travis has different multicolored carrots such as purple, red, orange, and yellow plants growing that should be ready to harvest around late spring or early summer. We also have five double rows of carrots that are getting overrun with weeds due to the amount of moisture in the soil. Travis can't really do too much about the weeds since he planted them as intensively as he could, but the carrots are still doing well overall.

Crimson Clover

Travis has a cover crop of crimson clover still being worked on by some chickens. He has a chicken tractor and poultry netting placed in the area that allows the chickens to freely roam within the netting allowing them to graze and provide good manure in the area.

Toscano Kale

The kale that is currently planted, Travis has harvested around five or six times and will continue to harvest throughout the growing season. To harvest a few, he just pulls off the bottom leaves and allows the top leaves to remain on the stalk to keep growing taller.

Empty Garden Plots

For the remaining plots in the garden that have not been planted yet, Travis has tons of transplants growing in the greenhouse that will be placed in the ground as soon as they are ready. Some of the early spring transplants that are growing are kale, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and lettuce. He also has an area planned for planting potatoes as soon as he gets them in the mail from Irish Eyes. Travis also shows off a brand new garden plot that he has added to his homestead. This area has been tilled once and he plans to till it once a week until spring to help eliminate weed pressures in the new garden.