I just replaced my washed out potatoes and another storm is coming!

I'm so sorry to hear about your broccoli! I planted that a couple of times and it did pretty well, but I had them up against a fence. Maybe that's why they didn't fall over. Or, it could have been because the ground was just too wet. Potatoes sprout pretty fast if they're kept warm and in bright light. You can plant potatoes from grocery stores to plant. I read somewhere that you should only plant seed potatoes from nurseries, but that's just so they can sell them. My sweet potatoes are from one I bought at the grocery store, and they're the only ones that didn't suffer from all the rain! Go figure! But, I have all red, all blue and all purple potatoes (including the meat) that I ordered from a nursery, as well as white potatoes (from the grocery store this time) planted. I want a colorful potato salad!!! LOL I'm glad I didn't plant them all initially so I had some to replant. I'm hoping this batch makes it through all the rain. Tomato plants love a lot of rain. I know this from experience. The more rain they get, the bigger they'll grow. The trick is to make sure there are enough pollinators around (bees) to pollinate the blossoms. I had to replant my tomato plants, too. They're doing well this time around, but much smaller than yours are because they were planted late. I haven't noticed a single blossom yet, though. It could be from too much rain. Tomatoes are really sensitive to heat, drought and too much rain and won't blossom well if the conditions are too much one way or the other. But, hang in there... hopefully, you'll get an abundance of blossoms soon! Good luck!

I do have a sweet potato vine that I'm growing as a flower, it has really gotten big from all the rain I guess, within a few days it has doubled in size, saw one at a farmer's market my daughter worked at a couple years ago they were beautiful, and they was getting way over $50.00 for them, decided I would grow my own, I think after what I seen my daughter do with the plants there, they are charging way too much for something you can do yourself if you have time and patience.

That is SO TRUE! I can't believe the prices the nurseries sell these things for! I bought a lace-leaf Japanese maple at an end-of-season sale the first year we lived here and it's doing great, but it was still expensive at $60.00, even though the price had been cut in half! I'd NEVER pay $120.00 for one tree! I don't care HOW pretty they are! Anyway, it's growing very well and I've taken cuttings from it that I'm attempting to root. I've had luck with other bushes and trees in rooting them so this year I've got quite a lot of things I'm trying to root, but those maples, geez, I could sell them in a couple of years at half the price the nurseries are selling them for and STILL make a huge profit! (By the way, if you take cuttings from any tree or bush you bought, and sell even one, you can use the price you paid for the initial plant as a tax deduction!) Now, about your tomato plants... if you're finally seeing some blossoms, it won't be long and with the size of your plants, I'll venture to say that you are going to have many more tomatoes soon than you'll be able to eat! LOL Good luck with them!

LMBO!!

Cats, so true! It would be so cool to live downstream and be able to pick and choose which veggies to have each day. Scoop, so funny!!!!!! I'm not CatsandDogs but I HAVE cats and dogs so maybe there's something to it! Maybe we're jinxing ourselves? No, wait, two years ago I had cats and dogs and we had a drought. Hmmm... Well, you know we could always use more CatsandDogs in the world! She's one sweet lady! Unfortunately, it's only raining water, water and more water. Yeah, this rain is ridiculous, huh? Then, there are places like Texas that are experiencing a really severe drought. It's just not fair!!!

I've read about the tire method of growing potatoes. I also read about an even easier way: using large plastic garbage cans, poking a bunch of drainage holes at and near the bottom, then layering the dirt as the potatoes grow. Once they're ready for harvest, just dump the garbage can over. I'm planning on trying that method as soon as we can afford more garbage cans. At the moment, we're still catching up on everything from my husband being unemployed for almost 4 months. I would have used the tire method this year but I haven't been able to locate enough (free) tires for all the potatoes I wanted. I tried growing one in a large flower pot but it soon outgrew the pot. I planted it outside but that was before all the rains. We have one old tire that was here when we bought the place but that wouldn't be enough for even one set of potato eyes. However, if I come across any, I'll definitely scoop them up and save them for next year!

Thanks, Jen. We just had 3 storms roll through here this morning but the sun has finally come out again!!! Yippee!!! I wonder how long it'll last? Hopefully, it'll stay this way long enough for the ground to dry out a bit. I'd HATE to lose this batch of potatoes, too. My back is still aching from planting them all! I lost my original tomatoes, plus everything else I planted. But, the weirdest thing happened. I did not plant pumpkins, nor did I plan on pumpkins this year but I have pumpkin vines growing from last year's pumpkin! My son threw one that I hadn't carved out in the compost bin and there are a bunch of vines growing now. I also have two pumpkin vines growing out front. Apparently, the pumpkin had rotted enough by the time my son moved it to the compost bin and some of the seeds managed to work their way to some stepping stones near our driveway and they're doing quite well! Go figure! Apparently, pumpkins don't mind too much rain. LOL Anyway, I have new tomatoes, peppers and a few other things started... again. We'll just have to see. But, my potatoes... that's different. This is the first year I've tried growing all the different colors. The sweet potatoes and white potatoes I have growing now were bought from the grocery store. The all red, all blue and all purple ones I ordered from a nursery. I want all the pretty colors! (Groovy! Far out!) If this crop doesn't make it, I'll have to start over next year. I'm all out of my colorful seed potatoes and they aren't sold in grocery stores.

Hmmm...pumpkins....there's an idea! Maybe that's what we will have to turn too. I just got a HUGE strom last night and I'm afraid to go check on the tomatoes. Peppers may be gone too..I dunno. I was looking out the back window and there is a tree back there that must be the biggest tree known to man and it was being blown almost in two...I'm thinking my tomatoes and posts may be gone altogether.

I hadn't thought about it that way before but you may be onto something here! LOL I wish there was a way we could even out all this weather! I'd love some of your hot and sunny in exchange for some of my cool and wet! Wouldn't that be nice? Or, maybe I just shouldn't plant any more potatoes. LOL

haha, you may try to plant others, and see what is the effect on the weather. Maybe planting tomato brings in the drought! Planting tomato and potato will alternate the drought and storm. By then you will be famous oh! Everyone will beg you to stop planting anything, and lock you up if you refuse to listen.

Your words couldn't be more appropriate, abhichat! I've planted many, many trees myself. It hurts my soul to know how much of the rain forest has been destroyed for nothing more than pure greed. I once lived in a house with an extremely tiny yard, yet I managed to plant one tree there. Everywhere I've lived, I've planted trees. One place I owned I planted two apple trees. I was very much saddened to see that the people who bought that house from me had cut those trees down. I just don't understand it. I've planted about 10 trees where we live now and have room, and plans, for more. I've also taken cuttings from my trees and am rooting them now to produce new trees. I've taken many more cuttings than what I can use and will be giving most of them away, hopefully so that others will plant them and all it will cost them is a little time and some muscles. I've been through a hurricane myself so I know what devastation it can cause. We didn't even get the full force of the hurricane but trees were down, there was property damage and we were without electricity for 4 days. I'm glad to see that you weren't hurt, even if you were pretty hot for 2 days! Why don't you start a discussion about planting trees? Who knows? You may just open up the eyes of a few people who will go out and plant trees and spread the word!

There are parts of our country that are having a severe drought right now, too, and other parts (like here) with way too much rain! I WISH I could send you some!!! Someone needs to invent a weather machine that will turn the rains on and off whenever we want. I feel badly for the farmers all over the world, wherever they're experiencing drought or flooding. My garden is only a supplement, but for farmers, it's their livelihood! Hopefully, things will shift for everyone... we have drier weather and you have wetter weather.

WOW! That's a LOT of rain to get in such a short period of time! We got over 3" here in about an hour not long ago, but that's as much as we've had in one chunk. Two years ago, when we first moved here, we were having a drought and I was watering my newly planted veggies, fruit trees and berry bushes almost every day. I know all about reaching some plants! I've had to put two extension hoses on one to reach some of the bushes I planted! I was stupid enough to plant them far away when I KNEW we were having a drought. This year, I've planted my veggies closer to the house so I can easily reach them with only one hose. And, yep, I know about zucchini and water! I have pumpkin vines (in the same family as zucchini) growing that I never even planted. They came from an old pumpkin that my son threw in the compost bin. Apparently, they must love water, too, since we've had so darned much of it this season and they're growing (very well, I might add) where I hadn't planted them! Good luck with your garden!

Actually, I am kind of psychic. I can hear my mom or sister calling me and then I'll pick up the phone only to hear that they were just thinking about me. It's comforting to hear them, even when I don't have time to call them. The storm came to not much, a little rain and lots of thunder. Poor Gus was trembling at the foot of the bed when it woke me up and I told him to come under the covers with me but he was so scared that I had to reach over and drag him. Then he was ok! What a wuss! My mystery plant has lots of buds and a couple of yellow flowers! The leaves are HUGE! Good luck with your pumpkins! I'm going to research how to use pumpkins if that's what they are--no sense wasting them all on Halloween.

Hahaha! Don't you love those mystery plants? I just noticed a couple of days ago that I have pumpkins growing in my compost! At least, I think they're pumpkins. My son threw last year's jack-o-lanterns in the compost bin but I didn't think there were any seeds in them. Oh, wait! I forgot that there was one pumpkin that wasn't carved; it was just sitting outside with the others! So THAT'S where all these pumpkin vines are coming from! I have two growing between stepping stones out front and maybe 4 growing in the compost bin! The ones out front I'm just going to leave and hope for the best. I can make sure the vines grow away from where we walk. The ones in the compost, I'm going to have to move them... soon! I'm growing cantelopes but hadn't planned on pumpkins this year. Nature, apparently, has other plans. So, I'll try to transplant them into my garden and hope for the best. I've never grown pumpkins before so this should be exciting! I think it's kinda cool that we both have wayward pumpkin plants growing! What are the odds of that?!? I'm always worrying about these storms because so many of them have the potential for hail and I know, first-hand, what hail can do to a garden! One year I had planted 18 tomato plants, along with about a dozen other things and watched, helplessly, as hail destroyed half of my crop. I hope your plants survive the storm! Veggie plants are usually a lot tougher than we realize and can withstand a lot. I just hope you don't get any hail! Now, about my potatoes... that storm we were supposed to get never reached us. It was only about a half-hour away when it suddenly took a sharp turn southward and missed us completely. Hopefully, my potatoes will get a strong enough foothold before we have another storm. They had all started sprouting before I planted them so there's hope! About your thinking about my potatoes, then me writing about them, it only goes to prove that great minds think alike! Maybe you're psychic? I hope your garden survived the storm. Good luck with it!

Actually, I DO BUY all my hay. I am the farmer, my husband works out, so I couldn't do THAT all on my own as I can drive anything, but can't fix it myself. And the mechanic fees would put me out of business and out of time, to get the crop off. But I am still just as concerned as if I was making the hay, because I have to find enough top quality stuff to feed all my critters for the year. The gov't has been taking away from the farmers income for years now. They have made it so it is more lucrative to be the middle man, than the farmer. And people have no sympathy for the poor farmers either, because they now live in the cities and don't have much direct interaction with us. When something goes wrong in the food chain they blame the farmer. When the blame should really be on the gov't for setting us up to fail. The gov't was the one who caused BSE, not the farmers. Farmers just did what the gov't pushed on them and told them was safe and more beneficial for more gains. IDIOTS! They were feeding bone meal to vegetarian animals. Like, WHO THOUGHT THAT UP?!! If the gov't concentrated their efforts on producing more organic sustainable farms, and giving back the profit to the farmers that DO ALL THE BACK BREAKING WORK for it, the quality of products would be better for everybody.

I hear ya, Annie! I understand what you're saying because the same thing has been going on in this country for years, too. Those who wield the power are bureaucrats who most likely live in the big cities and know absolutely nothing about farming. You should just bring yourself and your animals down here to Virginia. There is actually a state government subsidy set up to PROMOTE organic farming! The farmers here get all kinds of tax breaks. One of the reasons I wanted to move here from Maryland is that Maryland is an industrial State and Virginia is an agricultural State. Uh, actually, it's called a 'commonwealth'; why, I have no idea! Anyway, we grow stuff here, including livestock, and get tax breaks. If it weren't so far away, I'd keep my other property in southcentral Virginia and turn it into a mini-farm. But, it's a 4-hour drive from here and I just can't keep going down there to check on things. When my mother was so sick with cancer, I went down there and picked up my son who was living there. He left his car down there and it wasn't long before I got a phone call from the local sheriff saying that his car had been broken into. I could only imagine trying to grow (my favorite) Ranier cherry trees, then driving down there to find them all devoid of cherries. What a world we live in, eh? Can't turn your back for a second! Hmmm, that does give me an idea, though! Well, unless you want to move down here and have all your animals on 3 acres of open, flat land, I'll sell that place and maybe buy an acre or three up here closer to home. I'd love to get some chickens (for eggs and an occasional dinner) but, with the weather being so unusual everywhere, I'd be worrying about the cost of chicken feed. Hey! Maybe I should grow hay and bring it up to you and you could give me one of those lambs in exchange! I LOVE the barter system... the government hasn't figured out a way to tax that... yet.

Now, YOU, I worry about. You do things on a much larger scale than I do! I know you have a LOT of mouths to feed and can only imagine what it would cost if you had to buy all that hay instead of growing it. It has even been much cooler than normal way down here! The only things that are really loving this weather are the weeds, its seems. I'm terribly upset about the news stories lately about farmers losing their entire crops. I feel so badly for them! My garden is only a supplement. Their crops are their life's blood! Whenever I hear stories about crops lost to flooding or drought, I think about how a national irrigation system would benefit everyone. It would be a tremendous job, but, heck, they built railroads all across the country; they can build an irrigation system to pump flood water to areas with extreme drought! It makes me so angry to hear stories about really stupid things, costing millions of dollars, sometimes billions, which are done by the government, yet something as simple as a national irrigation system, which would prevent massive crop loss AND keep prices down for the entire country, is too much for our government to think about. It would potentially prevent billions in property damage as well as save lives but, no, that would take too much work... spend too many tax dollars that our government needs to spend on space research or unearthing dinosaur bones!

Ah, homemade salsa! I was planning on making a lot of it myself this year and canning bunches of it, but nature has other plans. Sigh! I had at least 50 tomato plants started from seeds, plus I bought onion sets and all kinds of different peppers. What I originally planted got rained out. They were just too small to handle so much rain and not enough sunlight. My onions rotted, just like the potatoes. I gave up on the onions. I have planted more pepper and tomato plants so, hopefully, I'll be able to at least make one batch of salsa this year. I'd rather make my own because even the "mild" kind from the grocery stores is too hot for me. (I'm a food weenie... I don't like foods that bite back. lol) It's raining here right now. We've had 3 storms roll through this morning. This is getting ridiculous! The one year I was going to grow MUCH more than I've ever done before and it got washed out. Well, it figures, the way my luck has been lately. At least I'm not a farmer depending solely on my crops for income! I feel so bad for them!

Thank you SO much for that tip on cooling off the salsa! I honestly had not thought of that! Geez, now I feel stupid! LOL Yes, we do have a bunch of farmer's markets around here. I'll definitely be hitting them for most of my fresh produce this year... so much better than what you find in grocery stores! Not quite as good as home grown but close! We also have fresh meat markets nearby. That's another great thing about living in farmland! I haven't bought any meat from them yet but plan to very soon. I don't know if it will be any cheaper, but it's guaranteed fresh.

Hahaha! I liked your "weather" comparison! It was weird. That storm that was headed our way when I posted this took a nosedive south just west of us and we didn't get a drop of rain BUT the next day we had 3 storms roll through quickly, then the sun came out for a little while, only making it unbearably humid (the temp was in the mid-80's, fahrenheit), then yet another storm rolled through! This weather is unbelieveable! Tomatoes are fussy things. They LOVE rain and will grow into huge bushes (or vines) but, if they get TOO much rain, they won't produce blossoms. I planted more tomato plants and they're doing very well but I haven't noticed any buds on them yet. The oddest thing happened, though. I have two pumpkin vines growing from between two stepping stones out front from a pumpkin that I didn't carve last year, only painted a face on. It stayed there until it started rotting and my son threw it into the compost bin. I have at least 4 vines growing from the compost bin, plus the two out front. I didn't even WANT pumpkins this year but they're doing great! They all have buds on them. Erma Bombeck was right. (She was a comedian, in case you don't know about her.) She wrote a book entitled "Life is What Happens When You're Busy Making Other Plans." SO TRUE!!! Good luck with your tomatoes! Let's have a race to see who gets the first tomato! I'll keep in touch about the spuds. So far, they look okay, even with all the rain we got yesterday. It's supposed to be nice for most of this week so maybe they'll have a chance to get well established before even MORE rain hits them. If not, wanna help me build an ark? I'm thinking we're going to need one before the year is out.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Yes, I am familiar with Ms. Bombeck...nice lady. She must be a fan of John Lennon's (as I am) having entitled her book after a line from one of his songs; "Beautiful Boy", from the 1980 Double Fantasy album. It was a song that he wrote about his then young son, Shean. The pumpkin story's very funny. It gave me an idea you could use come this October. If you didn't want to carve a pumpkin this year, you could always carve the compost bin, or just paint a face on the bin instead. I like the idea of the ark too, but wasn't sure about something. If I were to send you lumber, do you know whether or not, nails hold tight enough when pounded into soggy planks? Hehehehehe, I can just see it...we'll be sending all our vegetables into the ark, 2 by 2. Who knows, maybe we'll both get a wack of tomatoes out of it, once the rains secedes, and ark settles somewhere on a Blue Ridge mountain top! cdrxo

Oh, Chevee! I'm so sad to hear about your older friend! I've noticed that these things seem to come in groups, though. One year, 2005, I lost my sister, the best dog I ever had and my favorite aunt, all within 3 months. I certainly hope things calm down for you soon! And, you take good care of yourself, okay? And don't worry about the potatoes. Hopefully, THIS crop will make it! We never got that storm that was headed our way. It took an abrupt southerly turn and missed us completely, right before fizzling out altogther. This was a storm that wreaked havoc in the midwest, so I was glad to see it disappear. Hopefully, my potatoes will get a good hold before we get another massive storm. I sure wish I could send you some of this rain we've been getting! It seems like it started raining in March and hasn't let up except for a few brief moments. But, I'll most likely be complaining of the drought we'll no doubt get in a year or two. It hasn't been too hot here which is kinda odd but I guess the rains have kept the temperatures down in the 80's. However, it's awfully humid most of the time, even when it's not raining, so it feels hotter. Everything else is okay, I guess. I'm awfully depressed about not hearing anything from Social Security about my disability case but I guess I just have to be patient. I wrote to our senator so, hopefully, he can speed things up some. My husband has been behaving himself, for the most part. He still drinks, but has cut back (FINALLY!!!) and isn't drinking nearly as much. He's also been more active around here. About time!!! Hopefully, and with a little luck, you'll get those potatoes yet! It will just take a little longer from having to plant new potatoes. I'll put a tarp over them to protect them from too much rain if I have to! LOL This time, I have a huge potato patch so there should be plenty to go around!

I understand completely about the depression. I've been suffering from that myself. I NEED SUNSHINE! Rain day after day and (it seems) week after week gets old really fast! The weeds are loving all this rain but I think they're the only things loving it. Maybe we should each have two homes; one where it rains all the time and one that stays dry most of the time. I feel most bad for the farmers whose lives depend on the weather. My little potato crop loss is nothing compared to what they go through! We had a horrible drought here two years ago so, hopefully, with all the rain this year, next year will even out a bit. Let's hope so!

I guess that's why I've decided to wait & not plant anything this year. I'm thinking the ground should be pretty good next season!! The farmer's are struggling even without the added weather issues. It's sad. We're trying to buy local as often as we can to help those in our own area.

Thank you, winterose. I hope not, too! Actually, the storm that was headed our way made a very sharp turn just about a half-hour from us and went south, so we didn't get any rain yesterday. So, hopefully, there's a chance for my potatoes to make it this time!

Radishes. Try radishes. They only take about 4 weeks to mature. Of course, it's not the same as biting into that first, ripe, homegrown tomato! There's nothing like that taste! Yummmmy!!! I'm so sorry you lost your tomato plants. They love the sun, but not too much rain. Keep trying because something will grow and there's nothing better (in my opinion) than plucking your own veggies and fruits from outside and eating them. My husband grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore. There seems to be nothing there BUT tomato and corn farms. He could get "homegrown" whenever he wanted, as long as they were in season. When I was younger, we'd drive to the Eastern Shore every now and then, usually to go to the ocean or a beach, but we'd ALWAYS come back fully stocked with tomatoes and corn. They were so yummy! Oh, man! Now I want a homegrown tomato more than ever! Sadly, I lost my first tomato plants, too, this year. I've planted more and they're doing fine but they're still quite small since they were planted so late in the season. But, there's still time to get homegrown tomatoes. I wish you MUCH luck in whatever you choose to plant. Look for tomato plants like "Early Girl" or even seeds because they mature so much faster than all the other varieties. It's raining, again, right now, so I'll have to wait to do any gardening today. I wanted to get more radishes, beets and carrots in. Darn this rain!!!