Last year we didn’t have enough water, and many gardens quit producing earlier than usual as the usual alternative sources of water such as rain barrels also dried up without enough rain. Plants received a lot of sun, but way too little rain, and this turned the ground hard. Prolonged days with temperatures in the 90s didn’t help either. The plants were definitely NOT happy. Gardeners were obviously not happy either, watching their efforts dry up and quit producing.

This year has started out 180* the other way, with way too much water for anyone who had an early garden set out, and some found their gardens under water. This means some gardens have had to be replanted, and in some cases moved away from creeks. Surprisingly, I think the plants are tolerating the wet better than us humans. Lettuce and green onions are ready in some gardens. Peas are close to being ready, and many are waiting anxiously to plant their sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers in the next couple of weeks, providing temperatures at night stay above freezing.

We’ve had a couple of frosts recently, but not a prolonged hard frost, so cool weather crops tolerated them well. And surprisingly, lettuce planted last year in a raised bed, has started growing again, if it ever had stopped growing (I have a picture of it happy under a blanket of snow earlier in the year).

One thing about gardeners seeing and nurturing the first crops of the growing season emerge is that it tends to make them want to move on to the next batch of seeds to go into the ground. They can just taste those fresh green beans and corn they’ll be harvesting. They go to bed with visions of pickles, squash, and good food dancing through their heads, while Mother Nature beams and smiles upon their garden beds.

Besides nurturing our gardens, we are also nurturing the next generation of gardeners, with a fair number of youth signed on as gardeners this year, and they will be mentored through the growing season by three experienced and successful youth gardeners from last year. Our youth gardeners are expected to attend the same workshops as the adults, including the food preservation workshops. Last year’s food preservation workshop where we made peach freezer salsa was so successful with the youth, that it was included as a part of the summer enrichment program at the Big Ugly Community Center.

So here’s to a hopefully excellent garden season in 2025, with lots of produce to eat, to share, to preserve to a year filled with delicious eating until the gardens go in for the next year.