Seems like we’re ALL ‘over-blessed’ with rain again this season. Last year was the absolute pits. This year isn’t looking much better, rain-wise. :( My Cherokee Purple tomatoes have gotten a little over 4" of rainfall since I planted them out and they are NOT happy about it. The peppers that #1 Granddaughter helped set out are looking great. The sugar snap peas that I planted turned out to be a packaging error - they're actually snow peas... not really what I wanted but there they are so it'll have to do. lol
I got the remaining eight tomato plants set out yesterday. Cucumber fence is up and seeds are in the dirt. I need to set another row of fence to be ready for the birdhouse gourds to grow on. Those need a few more days to make some roots before I transplant them, and I've got a feeling that a few more will be popping up over the next few days.
I pulled the cold frames off of the raised beds a few days ago. The beets in there are finally starting to take off. Chinese cabbages have been moved from starter cells to one of the raised beds. Stonehead cabbages in the greenhouse look really good and are starting to form heads. With a little luck I'll have fermented sauerkraut and kimchi from this crop.
Baby Eastern Phoebes left the nest yesterday afterday afternoon.
5/22 was the anniversary of Howard's arrival here. What a blessing he has turned out to be. We couldn't have asked for a better pup.
Not quite “all”: Here in the mid-South or “Southern Midwest” or whatever one wants to call it, most locations are from “abnormally dry” to “D3” drought. Much of the area within 20 miles or so of us is “abnormally dry” to “D1”, but right at our location we’ve been unlucky, and D2, I’d say. OTOH we were lucky with timely modest* rains, last week, so, the 1st 3” or so of soil is in pretty good shape right now**. Dig past that and it gets dryer in a hurry in areas I don’t water regularly & deeply. Our dense clay soil underneath the first 2-3 inches of lighter soil tends to let moisture in, and down, slowly.
*The problem for us this year has been that NWS will forecast several days of rain, with totals of 2-3” area-wide (higher where t-storms train), and then we get rain on maybe 3 of those days, totaling under 1/2”. Between those “rainy” spells we get, in the dry periods, more of those “bluebird days” than I can ever remember in a Spring, and lots of low humidity, breezy, fire risk warning(s) days. It’s great if you want to hang clothes outside to dry and have nice strong clothespins!
This has resulted in the short short term drought map, from NE Arkansas / SEMO to Virginia...
https://ndmcblends.unl.edu/cdi/version_3/ndmc_cdi_short/png/short_term_cdi_2026-05-25.png
...looking much improved over the mid term map:
https://ndmcblends.unl.edu/cdi/version_3/ndmc_cdi_mid/png/mid_term_cdi_2026-05-25.png
**Just over a week ago, when I mentioned our 4-day run of “bluebird days”, those 1st 3” of topsoil were quite dry, esp. for spring, in this area. Our well pump has been getting a workout, to do all the watering.
We are not too far from a major river that, mostly fed from far away, has been at average to slightly above levels, but this spring has not had the usual spring flooding. At least our aquifers are in pretty good shape, compared to many out West: The well isn’t going to run dry anytime soon... :-)
