It's Raining Again.

I'm doing my best not to complain about it.

Last year was hot and dry and miserable. This winter was terribly dry.

This spring has been wonderful, though. My yard is lush and green and happy. My plants are greener and taller than ever. My mom keeps saying that part of that is because this is that magical fifth year. Yes, this is the fifth spring living here. That is crazy to me. But, I digress.

I wanted to take pictures of the yard, but I didn't get to it yesterday. And I didn't know it was going to rain this morning. I have new colors of irises blooming, and more mystery flower blooms.

My lemon balm is bigger now than it got all last summer. The volunteer pumpkins are well on their way to taking over the world.


I need it to stop raining, though. Just for a week or two, while I work the ground in my raised beds and figure out where I'm going to plant things. I hate that I'm worried about it, and I wish I could just plant in both of them, but I'm terrified that in the next few weeks the rain will leave and summer temperatures will move in. We're still on watering restrictions, and I think the only way to sustain any kind of garden is to keep it compact this year. Whichever bed I don't plant in will become my compost bed.

Have I talked about trench composting? There isn't much to it, except that instead of a compost pile or bin, you just bury your compost. The worms come in and break everything down, and there is the added bonus that you don't have to worry about keeping your pile wet, or turning it, or your green/brown ratio (although that's probably not a terrible idea, really). The only real downside is that it's not effective at all during the winter, so you still need some kind of pile/bin/tumbler for when the ground is frozen.

So, that's my plan. One planting bed, one compost bed. And if I'm right about the drought, then I'll do the same thing next year, except I'll switch beds. If I'm wrong, I might consider expanding back to using both of them.

Oh, and I decided that whichever bed I use for composting, I'm going to plant a bean teepee. Partially because beans dump nitrogen into the soil, but mostly because I want a bean teepee.


Gardening is a good distraction. I can get out in the sunshine and watch things grow. I can use all my muscles to work the soil and put down mulch and help things stay alive. I might not be growing a person, but I can at least grow some tomatoes. :) Delicious, heirloom tomatoes.