• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • Gardening Basics
    • Home Garden Tips
    • Month-by-Month Gardening Tips
    • Seed Starting
    • Compost and Fertilizer
    • Butterfly Gardens
    • Tools & Equipment
  • Raised Bed Gardens
  • Plants
    • Plant Profiles
    • Herbs
    • Fruit
    • Vegetables
    • Flowers
    • House Plants
    • Trees and Shrubs
  • Pests, Weed & Problems
    • Plant Diseases
    • Weeds & Invasive Plants
  • Birds and Wildlife
  • About
    • Books & Classes
      • Books for Christian Herbalists
      • Herbalism Classes
      • Books by Jeanne Grunert
    • Privacy Policy

Can You Really Get Too Much Rain? Part II

July 15, 2013 by Jeanne

Vegetable garden yesterday.

In a word: YES.  You can get too much rain.

I went outside yesterday to harvest the organic onions. I grew yellow skin onions this year.  I’d picked a test one last week and it was delicious – perfect round shape, great taste, not a single sign of bug damage. The four spring root crops are ready for harvest now: beets, onions, garlic and potatoes.  I’d gotten the garlic off to a good start on the drying racks in the garage. Now it was time for the onions.

I took my harvest basket out to the garden and prepared to pull the onions from the bed. I could see the tops of them; baseball sized, perfect. I pulled the flopped, tall stems, green turning brown, another signal that the onions are ready.

And guess what?  The squishy stem pulled right off in my hand. Curious and slightly panicked, I reached into the soil with my bare fingers to touch the top of the onion. And it squished into a blob of stinky onion goo.

Yuck! I couldn’t wipe my fingers on the grass fast enough.

Quickly, I started pulling as many onions as I could salvage. I pulled about six before stopping. Tonight, when the sun moves away from the vegetable garden, I’ll return with a trowel and see what can be salvaged.

The beets and garlic seemed to survive almost 10 days straight of rain showers, but the onions may not have survived.  As for the potatoes, it’s time to harvest some of the first crop. I’m almost scared to look because nothing – and I mean nothing – stinks worse than rotted potatoes.

Filed Under: How to Garden

Previous Post: « Growing Organic Peaches
Next Post: The Difference Between Home Grown and Store Bought Peaches »

Footer

A close up of American burnweed flowers about to bloom.

American Burnweed, the Weed That Signals Fall Is Here

I was walking my dog along the wood’s edge right near where we cleared land to build our greenhouse when I did a double take. There, like Jack’s magical beanstalk, had grown overnight this gem: American burnweed. Also known as fireweed or American burn weed, it grows rapidly – and I mean, rapidly. Like I…

Read More

Summer squash

What Can You Make with Summer Squash?

It’s that time of year when everyon asks, “What can I make with summer squash?”. The time when neighbors sneak bags of summer squash onto porches. When farmer’s markets are brimming with yellow and green squash, zucchini, and all manner of Cucurbitaceae, the plant family that gives, and gives, until it can’t give anymore. If…

Read More

A closeup of marshmallow plant flower.

Growing Marshmallow Plant

Growing marshmallow plant has been on my gardening to-do list for quite some time. I’ve read about it in herbal books and grown its cousins in the Malvaceae family from seed. The dark purple mallow plant I have thrives in my little garden by the shed, so I thought, “Why not grow marshmallow there?” I…

Read More

watering can with plants

August in the Garden: Late Summer Delight

August in the Garden: Tasks, Tips, and a Look Ahead to Fall Here in South Central Virginia, August has always felt like “back to school” season. By mid-month, the local schools are back in session, and with two universities in our small town, the stores fill up with dorm supplies and school gear. What a…

Read More

  • About
  • Plant a Row for the Hungry
  • Awards
  • Privacy Policy

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Substack
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2026 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme