CLEVELAND — Heavy rain this week after an already-wet spring has led to trouble, not only for farmers, but also for gardeners.
At the Ben Franklin Community Garden in Old Brooklyn, the rain caused the garden to open about a week late. Now, some gardeners have had to replant crops several times.
"I’ve been the coordinator for six years, but I’ve been a gardener here for 25 years," Greg Noeth said. "This is about the worst it's ever been."
Noeth said last year, the garden's opening date was delayed by a couple of weeks as well. This year, he and his fellow gardeners have seen the wet conditions interfere with what they're able to grow.
"When we get an inch or two in a night, that’s a lot of water for a lot of these gardens to soak up in," Noeth said, noting that in some cases, seeds were rotting because they were sitting in water.
One gardener said that his other plants were doing well, but not his tomatoes.
"My tomatoes are gone," he said. "I’m gonna have to replant them."
Last year, the Ben Franklin Community Garden grew more than 5,000 pounds of produce to give to hunger centers and food banks, but this year, gardeners said they might not reach that goal.
Trying to adapt
North of Old Brooklyn, it's a similar story at Cleveland Roots Community Garden, although raised beds that are able to drain water have helped somewhat. But executive director Maria Livers said that in addition to wet conditions, it's been cold.
"Things like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, they love this kind of weather," Livers said. "They love the cooler weather. They’re thriving. But our tomatoes were not happy with this weather."
Gardeners at Cleveland Roots started tomato plants inside a greenhouse, but with all the rain, they haven't been able to move the plants to a 17-acre farm in Richfield Township.
"It’s just been a muddy mess," Livers said. "We haven’t been able to plow, or we haven’t been able to depend on days where we could bring volunteers in to help us."
Instead, gardeners are experimenting with keeping tomato plants inside the greenhouse for the whole season and hoping they thrive.
"It [the rain] doesn’t mean that we can’t improvise and make the best of what Mother Nature’s given us," Livers said.
Back at the Ben Franklin Community Garden, Greg Noeth is putting his faith in the future.
"I’m hoping maybe next week is better," Noeth said. "But then, on the other hand, next week is getting to be July first, and now we’re getting beyond the season."
Drying out your garden
Butch Griswold, a nursery technician at Petitti's in Brunswick, recommended some steps to take in order to help dry out plants on a sunny day.
If you're dealing with an area that has mulch, like a flowerbed, Griswold recommended pulling the mulch away from the flowers for a day or two to let water evaporate from the soil before moving the mulch back into place.
For new plantings, Griswold suggested mixing in a porous rock with the soil that would absorb moisture when the soil is too wet and slowly release it when the soil dries back out. Another option, Griswold said, is to raise the plantings so they don't get as wet.
When it comes to saving already-planted fruits and vegetables, the job becomes tougher. Adding soil or sand can create more problems. Griswold said gardeners can try to do what farmers do by putting a fan near the plants, blowing down the walkway between rows and not directly on the plants, to get air circulating.
He also suggested pruning any non-producing branches of tomato, cucumber or pepper plants.
