October Weather Report

The rainfall for the last several months has been a little below normal. Well, the month of October made up for the slack. We got a whopping 33.3 inches. This beats the previous high rainfall mark set in August of 2010 (27.2 inches) by 6.1 inches.Total rainfall for the year stands at 116 inches. That's a lot.

The rainy, foggy, cloudy weather also brought cooler temperatures. The average high dropped from 79 in September to 75, while the average low stayed the same -- 63. The thermometer never reached 80 degrees during the month, the first time this has happened this year.

The important question is: how did all of this rain affect gardening? As for ornamentals, they weathered the rain pretty well, but I had to delay weeding for the most part, in order to avoid walking in the garden and compacting the soil.

Mowing the lawn was problematic because the grass grew so fast, and it was wet (and the soil soggy) almost continuously. I'd say, on the average we got rain about 14 hours a day, and it was cloudy all the rest of the time, with occasional periods of brightening, but no actual blue sky or sunshine. It was during these times of brightening that I would dash out with the lawnmower to cut the grass. The grass was so thick, I set the blades higher, and had to stop every minute or so to turn the mower over and clean out the clogged grass clippings.

The water garden (i.e., pond) was also a problem. We designed it so that a lot of water runoff from the driveway and the roofs flows through the pond. The rains kept the pond water crystal clear for the entire month. However, I'm still fine tuning our rather complex system of water runoff, and after a heavy rain near the end of September, one of my neighbors who lives "downstream" complained about the excessive water runoff from our property. So, I had my gardener and his helper dig a rather large catchment basin downhill from the pond. It seems to be working pretty well, and can handle all of the runnoff up to about two inches of rain a day. However, it then takes this water five to six days to completely evaporate away, or seep out.
Because we were getting more than an inch of rain a day, on the average, there were several times when it overflowed. However, the runoff is much reduced now and we received no further complaints from our neighbor.

The vegetable garden was also a problem, despite the fact that I have raised beds. I had planted carrots and beets, and because they were so small when the rains came, they got beaten to a pulp, but many of the plants survived and are beginning to show some progress now that sunshine has returned. Many of the lettuce and cabbage heads rotted. Beets and onions also took a beating, but are doing well now. Leeks had been growing for about two months when the rains came. They faired well, and we just harvested a nice leek crop. I'd say the one vegetable that came through with flying colors were the carrots, which had been planted about six weeks before the heavy rains came. They just loved all that water. However, my wife says the ones harvested lost much of their flavor.

Happy gardening!