Drought or Flood?

Our immediate area doesn't have storm drains, but a series of ditches and swales that divert stormwater to nearby drains.  I'm sure they worked well in 1951 when our house was built, but I can see how, over the years, the landscape changed and they became less effective.  When we bought this house in 2006, the yard had some drainage issues.  The biggest problem was in the back yard - back then, I noticed that when it rained, it came down in buckets.  That is a problem when your yard doesn't drain well.

So, these series of ditches I mentioned?  The ones in the front yard run along the street and eventually meet up with a storm drain.  The one in the back yard along our property line is supposed to meet up with another that runs to the street behind us, down our neighbors' property line.  The problem?  At some point this ditch was filled in and planted in our neighbor's back yard.  The standing water in our yard can't drain, but our other neighbor's whole back yard becomes a lake.

We've been in a drought for a number of years, and flooding hasn't been a problem recently.  January  was thought to be the driest month here since records have been kept, but yesterday was the rainiest February 23rd ever.  Our normal rainfall for February is about 3 inches - we had over 2 inches yesterday with a monthly total of almost 9 inches.  Did I mentioned the thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow?  All of this flooding has made me think of preventative measures I took, or how I changed the way I garden, to take all of this into account.  I built raised beds.

My first back yard vegetable garden wasn't in the sunniest part of the yard, so I relocated it the next year.  Then I found out how much that part of the yard flooded.  The first year I grew potatoes it flooded like this just before I was going to harvest them.  Then came the raised beds.  I was thinking recently about moving away from that in the future, but all of this rain makes me wonder if I should.  I think I will stick with raised bed, in a way.  I expect the beds in the front yard to become nice mounds of fertile soil over time as I add compost and avoid tilling for the most part.  There are a couple of low areas out there right now that need a little help.  When I pulled radishes this morning I noticed some peas that were underwater.

I can't do too much about the water in the first photo, but there are areas around our garage and near the house that I can do something about.  I have set up rain barrels in the hopes of diverting some of the water that has nowhere to go after it leaves the downspout, but I have plans for more.  One of those is digging a dry well - or many of them.  There are a lot of different plans for these on the internet, but basically they use the same idea.  Dig a deep, cylindrical hole.  Line it with landscape fabric.  Fill it with drainage rock.  Cover it with landscape fabric, soil and sod.  When there is more rain than your soil can hold, these wells will hold some or all of the excess until it can be reabsorbed.

For photos of the flood of 2010, click here; for the flood of 2013, click here.

Is Vegetable Gardening Worth It?

Is vegetable gardening worth it? I have many reasons for saying this, but don't worry - I'm just playing devil's advocate. I've put in a lot of hard work building raised beds, hauling compost, pulling weeds, fretting over germinating seeds, and many other things, just to grow vegetables that aren't as large or as plentiful as those in the grocery store. And if you want a tomato in January, good luck with that one.

Because of the rain - blame El Niño - and the cold, I've been in a holding pattern for longer than I would like to be. I have raised beds to build , compost to haul and potatoes and onions to plant, and short windows of time to do these things, and for what? Potatoes are $2 for a five pound bag and onions are $3 for a three pound bag.

I was reminded of that fact when Robin and I were watching "Kitchen Nightmares" and the owner of a potato-themed restaurant was ecstatic when she was given free potatoes - we looked at each other like, "She must not know how much potatoes cost!"

I doubt my abilities some times, especially when I make big plans - I wonder if I can pull it off. Last year I had plans to grow everything from seed, from flowers to vegetables, but things didn't go as planned. I'm afraid I will have the same luck again this year, but I know better. I've learned a lot since then and hopefully have planned better this time. I have plans for a cold frame in the yard for seed starting. All I need are my seeds from Park Seed - I'm still waiting on them.

Rain and Flooding

I’ve always worried a lot about flooding in our yard. If we have a hard enough rain, our garage will flood. Our lot slopes toward the back, away from the house, and there’s a depression, not really a ditch, that runs along the back of the property, where rain is supposed to collect. I think there was also a ditch along our neighbor’s lot that is supposed to take the water from there, but it’s been filled in. I was planning a rain garden in the lowest part of that depression, but after Friday’s rain – at least four inches – I’m rethinking the idea. From what I’ve read, rain gardens need to drain in 24 hours, which this does not – in the worst cases. I need something, like a bioswale, that will hold more water and keep the rest of yard dry.

It rained all day Friday, and when I got home from work, most of the yard was flooded. The vegetable garden area was almost underwater – my decision to use raised beds has proven to be the right one. Since I really couldn’t do anything about it, I decided to wade out into the lowest part of the yard and measure how deep it was. It turns out it was a foot deep!

By Saturday the water had soaked in a good bit. There was still water in the depression and the yard was pretty soggy, but the worst was over. Too bad my rain barrels were already full! The morning paper reported widespread flooding, so much that they closed all roads into downtown Charleston at 6pm.