Discouragement is an ugly feeling. I try to avoid it. I’m pretty damn good at finding the silver lining in just about anything. But sometimes I get tired and cranky, and the proverbial clouds roll in. It happens almost every year in the long exhausting days of summer. Usually in August. Twelve hour days of manual labor in hot humid weather will do that to you. This season it has been worse and far more sudden in its onset.
The record-breaking amount of rain this summer so far has finally taken its toll. I walked in the field yesterday and my heart sank. The farm is on a hill with lovely loamy soil so rainy spells have never been a problem before. Apparently 15 inches of rain in 30 days is just too much though. Near-daily violent summer storms have saturated the soil and many of the flower crops are rotting out. Too much rain is a very bad thing for root health. Gone are the long rows of queen anne’s lace, feverfew, scabiosa, statice, snapdragons, dusty miller, mondarda, and so much more.
But the biggest heartache are the dahlias. It’s a good thing we planted nearly 1300 tubers this spring. About half have rotted away. Gone. The other half are hanging on, stunted but there. I am fearful that many more storms in rapid succession will devastate the crop completely. They initially loved the rain. But like me, they can only handle so much.
At a time in the season when the field should be at its most productive, it looks more like late autumn after the first frost than high summer. Proof that you can never be certain of anything in farming {or life for that matter}. So I find myself frantically sowing more seeds even at this late date, hopeful for a drier spell to get new babies growing. Crops I normally am a bit snobby about because they are so “common” are apparently going to be autumn mainstays this year. Sunflowers, amaranth, zinnias and cosmos all grow and produce quickly. Given a fair chance, they’ll carpet the farm in color once more.
But it’s all about getting a fair chance. Sometimes hard work really isn’t enough. Well, there perhaps is the silver lining after all — learning to let go {truly}, knowing that sometimes shit just happens, and it’s not your fault. Roll with the punches, baby, and just keep moving. And grab an umbrella while you’re at it!