Hard Rain

I was distressed to go outside this afternoon to see that yesterday's hard rain wiped out perhaps half of my carrot patch. Some of them might recover, but others are just so battered that there's no hope. I might be partly at fault, for having thinned some of them a bit too soon (roughly at 3 inches, rather than the recommended 4 inches), which probably left them vulnerable to the rain at a smaller size.

We're just finishing up a nice strawberry crop that fed us strawberries for desert every other day for about two weeks. Last year's crop was an embarrassment, when I failed to take the obvious steps to keep the plants in fertile ground; strawberries are notorious for draining nutrients from the soil. This year I fertilized with some wood ash and compost and they did quite well. I did lose about 1/4 of the crop to aggressive blue jays and to slugs.

My black raspberry bushes are doing well. I'm anticipating about twice as many berries this year. Not that growing raspberries in this climate is very hard. These were volunteers that I have carefully cultivated.

On the other hand, the two bushes that I purchased, plus my two blueberry bushes, are not doing so well. I am planning to relocate them into more carefully prepared ground this fall.