Farm Journal  ·  October 1, 2021

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!

We had a good deal of wet weather these past few weeks. Some crazy hurricane or tropical storm (or both) was brewing in the south, wreaking havoc up here in the north! That meant every moment of sunshine was all hands on deck to unload hay between playing 'raincloud-roulette.' It is impressive how much hay a family of 7 can unload, especially when sibling rivalry runs wild. Even the littlest helpers get involved, but mostly they just run around and yell orders to the rest of us!

The rain also did a lot of my lavender in. Lavender does NOT like 'wet feet.' AKA, standing water on their roots. With about 10 inches of rain over two weeks, there was little time for the soil to recover. Combine that with weed fabric that was laid in the lavender patch this spring, and the plants practically melted like the Wicked Witch of the West. Thus begins my love-hate relationship with weed fabric.

Weed fabric is amazing at keeping the weeds down, but it also traps moisture and limits air flow to the soil below. Over time, as dust settles on the fabric, the dust/dirt/debris clogs the pores in the weed fabric, further limiting the air flow to the soil below. Think back to 5th grade science where we learned about convection and wind. No air flow = no drying capability = 'wet feet.'

So, I did a test plot to see if any could be saved. I pulled up the weed fabric in the wettest sections of the Lavender Patch and started a new patch on a hill with better drainage. Over time, maybe a few weeks, many plants have recovered nicely and are having a second or third bloom cycle, while others seem to have melted and may be beyond salvation. I took the opportunity to try to salvage what I could from some of those plants and started a propagation program to grow my nursery stock for the next patch, but more on that in another post!!