Finger Lakes

[Thomas]

We are off the subject (but still talking Finger Lakes).

Referring to what we have been getting as "heavy rain" is the understatement of the year. I have not seen rain as dense and relentless since I spent time in the Northwest.

Here at Keuka Lake, if we do not get plants growing by early June, we run the risk of losing growing days because either frost in September or just plain disappearing sun, shortening daylight and cool September nights slows ripening.

It is rare that I ever get to eat or process all the tomatoes from my vines, and I am always left with a mix of red and green sweet peppers the night before the first frost.

This year, the rain (and coolness) has prevented anything in the garden from getting started and it is already June 15.

Yesterday I bought pepper and basil plants at a nursery, to replace mine that have all rotted in our soaked cement-like clay earth. But I cannot plant them in the ground until it dries some, and it looks as though rain is coming again today.

Gardening 2000 appears a lost cause on Keuka Lake. I should have figured that out early on, after developing figs from my two small trees began to just fall off the trees in May--never happened before, and I suspect they had foreknowledge of the season to come.