Too much rain?

Thanks to the deluxe, remote rain gauge that my husband gave me for Mother's Day this year, I am able to report to you that I've had 6.3 inches of rain in my garden during the last week. And another 1-2 inches are expected later on today.

I'm blessed to not have any areas of standing water, but really, how much rain is too much?

I asked Jim Etheridge, chairman and professor of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences at Joliet Junior College, that question this morning and thought you might find his answer interesting:

M.E.-"Is it possible to have too much rain in the garden even if I don't have any standing water? And, is there anything that I can do to protect my plants at this point?"


J.E.-"Great appropriate question.

I do have standing water in my yard -- about 6 inches of it. But I have alder, taxodium, swamp azalea and ilex (holly) that grow in standing water. They are actually loving it because the last five years they have had it dry. (The area) was planted in 'wet plants' just for this purpose.

If you have not planned for (this kind of) event, the question really changes. It is not too much water that kills plants, but rather the lack of oxygen (that rain saturated soil causes).

Tulips, lilum and other fall planted bulbs that are native to the mountains do not like (saturated soils) at all. Going into fall 'wet' will surly rot them out.

Grasses, in general, can go 7-10 days without air and then they are pretty much finished. In trees, watch for early drop of either green leaves immediately or yellow leaves in about a week. That is their stress response (telling us) they can no longer support the leaves and are dropping them. That only compounds the problem.

Warm windy days with low humidity are your best cure."

Guess we'll all be praying for those...