A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall...

Since I was just scoping out tickets for Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson (and John "Don't Call Me Cougar" Mellencamp), I figured the title was fitting. And the fact of the matter is, when it rains here, it rains. None of this pansy "I might rain, I might not rain" Seattle gray--the rain in the Mid-Atlantic is serious--like inches in an hour serious! Audible rain serious! Seattle rain is quiet, peaceful, like a cold wet blanket; here the rain just seems angry and content to wash away whatever foul lawn chemicals (and soil) stand in its way. Granted, the on-again/off-again nature of the storms has been keeping everything a very lush green, but sometimes it feels like everything is completely saturated and it just won't stop.

We have been dutifully tending to our fledgling plants, trying to nurture them in sheltered surroundings before sending them out to the Lower 40 where they'll be subjected to all manner of yard beasts. But keeping peat pots intact with the torrential rainfall has been impossible. A week ago, we got such heavy rain, I wasn't sure we'd need to water the garden again all summer. But sure enough, by the end of this week, the pepper pots were dry and the young herbs looked thirsty, so we pulled out the hose. Not 36 hrs. later, we're back in the drowning rat phase, with the yard again a pond and the drip line a not-so-subtle reminder that the gutters are clogged with all that oak detritus. And having gone from high 80s to low 50s in less than 24 hours, the peppers were drained of their standing water and brought back inside to spend a few more nights living large in the spare bedroom. Of course this means the arugula is hanging on and the lettuces are really quite happy (outside of the abuse they take at the hands of the gigantic raindrops...powered by gravity), so we've been feasting on a steady diet of home-grown greens. Not a bad thing at all.