08 April 2006

Gullywasher

Like most of the rest of the southeast, we experienced some major storms yesterday and last night. At least five people were killed near Nashville in the town of Gallatin due to tornados. The line of thunderstorms arrived here in southwest Virginia about 10:00PM. The lightening and thunder was impressive but thankfully no tornados were reported that I'm aware of. It rained all night and I'm sure there will be some problems with flooding. We live near the crest of a hill so flooding isn't much of an issue for our yard or garden. However, the raised bed is on a slight incline and I was fearful that the intense rain would erode channels in the soil and wash out some of the lettuce seed. I also had two Wall-o-Water solar plant insulators out warming the soil for tomato plants to go in when the seedlings get big enough. A week ago, a much less intense storm blew over a third so I figured these were probably down as well.

When I got up this morning I went out to the garden to check it all out. Surprisingly, they were still standing and no erosion had washed out like I had feared. The rain gauge was full to 1.8 inches so it was quite a downpour overnight. The lettuce and spinach sprouts even look like they've grown since yesterday so I'm very pleased. I had hoped to get some carrots out this weekend but it may be too wet to plant and the weather is calling for even more rain. Carrots may have to wait until the sun comes out a bit.

No comments: