Oklahoma has rough winters and I feel trapped inside the hourse. So every spring I get all enthusiastic about setting out flowers and plants in our back yard. Guess you could say in this respect that I'm a hopeless optimist!
The past four years have been the absolute worst for trying to grow anything outdoors. We've either had so much rain in the spring and intermittent late freezes that the plants drown or get frostbitten or it goes from winter temperatures straight into the high 90's and no rainfall at all.
This morning I got up early to avoid the horrible 100° plus temperatures we're having and went out back to clean out our vegetable beds. Everything is dead or dying because of the drought and having overnight temperatures that stay in the high 70's. We've poured thousands of gallons of water onto the beds but the plants just can't survive and produce with these extremely hot days and nights.
It's not like we have a huge garden, just three raised beds for vegetables, but it made me sad to give up on it so early in the growing season. I can certainly sympathize with Oklahoma farmers and ranchers who've watched their life's work and livelihood wither and die. This is the second year of drought for our state and it's serious.
So, all the poor struggling plants have been pulled up and stacked onto a brush pile at our neighbor's. Once we get a good amount of rain, my husband will help them when they decide to burn. Our governor has issued a state wide burn ban so it may be the middle of winter before they can dispose of the stacked brush.
Our garden season is officially over for 2012. The beds are cleaned out and tightly covered with black visqueen sheeting to kill any remaining roots and prevent any seeds from germinating.
Will I have another try at gardening in 2013? Right now I'm determined to resist the temptation to spend so much time, effort and money for such poor results. But, we'll see. I'm positive that as I see the garden centers reopening next spring, all those pretty plants they have on display will completely erase the memories of the last few summers and I'll be right back out there with my tools and water hose!
The past four years have been the absolute worst for trying to grow anything outdoors. We've either had so much rain in the spring and intermittent late freezes that the plants drown or get frostbitten or it goes from winter temperatures straight into the high 90's and no rainfall at all.
This morning I got up early to avoid the horrible 100° plus temperatures we're having and went out back to clean out our vegetable beds. Everything is dead or dying because of the drought and having overnight temperatures that stay in the high 70's. We've poured thousands of gallons of water onto the beds but the plants just can't survive and produce with these extremely hot days and nights.
It's not like we have a huge garden, just three raised beds for vegetables, but it made me sad to give up on it so early in the growing season. I can certainly sympathize with Oklahoma farmers and ranchers who've watched their life's work and livelihood wither and die. This is the second year of drought for our state and it's serious.
So, all the poor struggling plants have been pulled up and stacked onto a brush pile at our neighbor's. Once we get a good amount of rain, my husband will help them when they decide to burn. Our governor has issued a state wide burn ban so it may be the middle of winter before they can dispose of the stacked brush.
Our garden season is officially over for 2012. The beds are cleaned out and tightly covered with black visqueen sheeting to kill any remaining roots and prevent any seeds from germinating.
Will I have another try at gardening in 2013? Right now I'm determined to resist the temptation to spend so much time, effort and money for such poor results. But, we'll see. I'm positive that as I see the garden centers reopening next spring, all those pretty plants they have on display will completely erase the memories of the last few summers and I'll be right back out there with my tools and water hose!
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