How to save crops from rain

I would not raise a weather panic. Real gardeners live according to the phenological phase (a certain cycle of development of each plant. – Approx. “Antenna”). Well, yes, this year the phenophase is a little late – for example, at my dacha the May lily of the valley, which is supposed to bloom in May, bloomed in June. Plants require a certain total amount of heat and light to mature. And therefore, in a cool and cloudy season, they can give a harvest later and not as plentiful as usual. This applies to thermophilic crops – tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants. But cold-resistant ones – carrots, beets, peas, onions, garlic, radishes – bear fruit as usual, they are minimally susceptible to meteocaprizes. This year I have already managed to collect and marinate several buckets of radish.

Recently, everyone began to lament about the weather. But it is high time to get used to temperature changes, we live in the middle lane, in the zone of risky agriculture, and night frosts until mid-June are in the order of things. In my memory, the most cloudy summer was in 1978, then there were almost no sunny days, and the plants could not accumulate strength either for the harvest or for preparation for winter.

Every year I plant tomatoes on May 5 (this is how I celebrate the old Print Day), for me May 5 is tomato day. This year I landed them 10-15 days later than usual. In general, my strategy is to never plant everything at once. For example, I planted the first potatoes in April, and planned the final planting at the end of June – thus, there will always be young potatoes on the table at home. I also replenish the tomato beds gradually, because the first plantings may suffer from recurrent frosts. I planted seedlings in a greenhouse in May and covered each bush with a five-liter bottle with a cut bottom. If the plants need to breathe, I’ll open the lid.

I have not planted cucumbers yet, I will do it in July. My grandmother also said: cucumbers are not planted in May. Modern gardeners with the arsenal of greenhouses and covering materials that are now available can outwit any frost. Have you heard the proverb “A bad owner has crop failures all year”? And good weather will not hurt.

The summer resident must be ready for anything. If the rainy days this summer drag on, garden plantings can strike diseases – powdery mildew, scab, gray rot. But a good gardener does not heal his garden, but is engaged in prevention. Because when the plant got sick, some kind of nasty settled in it, it is already difficult to save it. Therefore, it is good to spray your plots with infusion from fungi and diseases in advance. If you have no time to do this or you do not like to use “chemistry” in the garden, start varieties that are resistant to diseases. Now I feel that my favorite gooseberry of the “date” variety can get sick with powdery mildew, and I will definitely spray it with a special solution on weekends. For a summer resident, intuition and love for everything new are very important – it is better to be an innovator than a conservative.

Yes, this year there has been a slight shift in phenophase – heat-loving plants need to be planted later. Yes, frost killed a number of flowers and seedlings in May, which failed to recover. But who knows, maybe an unusually hot and rainy July awaits us, everything will trample on the beds, and in August-September we will harvest a record harvest. After all, any weather has its advantages. Rain means you don’t need to water the beds, the sun means the plants are saturated with energy and chlorophyll, wind and hail – you can flood the stove at home, brew aromatic tea and take a break. The dacha is not only hard work, but also a pleasant vacation. I am an opponent of Stakhanov’s records in the garden. Have a good job – and have a rest!