Week 11 Is It Spring?

Not much happening on the garden front, sort of in a holding pattern. The weather continues to be cold and wet. The wet is a good thing, the cold not so much. The Des Moines Weather Service has been posting some interesting statistics about this year's weather in Iowa on their Facebook page. Here is one of the posts.

Okay statistic fans, some more climate numbers coming your way this Sunday morning:

The precipitation totals so far this year from January 1 to April 20 are pretty amazing:

Des Moines = 10.74" ranks 5th highest total during this time. 135 years of climate records. The highest total is 12.37" from 1945. It's also interesting to note that the top two highest individual precipitation totals during the above time frame are from the past two years. April 14, 2012 with a total of 3.43" and April 17, 2013 with a total of 3.14".

Waterloo = 11.24" ranks #1 for total precipitation during the Jan 1 to April 20 period. 118 years of climate records. The next highest total is 10.80" from 1998.

Mason City = 11.51" ranks #1 for total precipitation during the Jan 1 to April 20 period. Records date back to 1890. The next highest total is 9.93" from 1998.

Ottumwa = 13.80" ranks #1 for its total precipitation. Records date back to 1896. The next highest total is 12.88" from 1973.

Here is some data from my rain gauge:

Jan 1 to Apr 20, 2013 total precipitation = 10.82" beats 2012 of 9.13", 2011 of 5.87", 2010 of 5.85", 2009 of 5.06", and 2008 of 5.13" (first year I collected data)

Just so you can compare the historical average total precipitation for northern Iowa during the Jan - Apr period is 7.12"

Looking at historical weather data from various cities there are many years when Jan - Apr period is wetter than average that the growing season experienced is hot and dry and just as many years when the Jan - Apr period is drier than average that the growing season is wetter than average. So who knows what will happen we will have to wait to see what type of growing season we have. One other tidbit is in more than 80% of the years when we have average precipitation during Jan - Apr we also have average precipitation during the growing season. I suppose this could lead one to conclude that this growing season will likely not be average it will either be hotter and drier or colder and wetter than average.

Some pictures from the garden. First the kale you can see some of the plants are developing their second and third leaves.

Next the lettuce and spinach spending some time in the sun.

Now the indoor tomato plant. In the second photo if you look carefully you can see a small green tomato developing.

Also growing next to the tomato is a trial variety of cucumber.

Lastly my transplants are growing and about ready to be shifted up to larger pots. Plan on doing this during the coming week.

Well that's the update for this week. Going to dig out my better camera and lens and see if I can obtain some better photos.

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