Gardens after a heavy rain

I enjoy when my visitors/neighbors laugh at my shoes—the ones piled up on the porch caked in mud and stone.  I have a particular devotion to getting out in the gardens after a heavy rain.  Good news – although the weeds are easier to pull it might not be necessary to ‘clean weed’ everything.  The bad news is that cultivation of some sort is, in my view, critical especially after a heavy rain. So is mowing.

Insects of all sort love puddles of water, and not even puddles.  They come out to party after every rain, but the soaking and pounding rainfall of late forms (courtesy of Chester County clay) a particularly fertile surface for bugs. So I encourage everyone to join the muddy boots club and scratch/hoe/or even Mantis every surface you can around the plants you cherish.  Even the Japanese Beetle visitors can be slowed.

The more serious issue is rutting when cultivating with a machine large or small.  Soil compaction is not your friend, so you have to pick and choose where to run equipment depending upon how quickly it drains or dries. I start at gardens at higher levels and work down very much my experience. As mentioned, mowing is also a deterrent to bug proliferation – too many of the critters are airborne so that even nearby weed patches can be breeding grounds for visitors you do not want.  Again try to avoid rutting, but running a mower as soon as possible after a rain is not to cut the grass, but to thwart bugs.

Best mud boots?  I still love muck boots and their imitators.  Older crocks which lace up work as well – and so do wind surfing booties, but the rubber slip ons generally slip off.