Iolans cope with wet weather

Gardeners are holding onto hope that the forecast — five days of hot sun — will salvage their gardens at ElmCreek Community Gardens.
The recent wet weather has had gardeners — and their produce — in the dumps.
At Elm Creek, vegetables are rotting.
Some plots have been made all but bare as plants are pulled and tossed onto the compost heap.
One family walked through and just shook their heads as they saw the sodden remains.
Michael Cunningham, who gardens with his former pastor Steve Traw, removed snow-white onions from the mud as more rain came Monday night. Most of the bulbs had soggy tops, although some could be saved with rapid processing.
Others have it even worse.
“I’m losing everything,” lamented Joyce Woodward.
Next to her, Richard and CeCe Huston have mixed emotions. Their plot at the community garden is drenched, to ill effect.
“Never in my life have I planted potatoes and not gotten a potato,” CeCe said. She had to pull them because of rot.
And corn ears are smaller than normal, though sweet and ready to pick, the couple noted.
Yet Richard is ready to boast: he has tomatoes as big as saucers and green peppers galore. The difference: those plants are growing behind the couple’s home on North Sycamore Street.
“Behind the house, everything is really dry and I’m having to water,” he said. “Down (at Elm Creek), it’s wet.”
The long-time gardeners believe the rich river bottom soil at the community garden holds moisture longer — great when weather is hot; not so great when rain follows rain.
Besides the weather, bugs have been bad, attacking squash and beans mercilessly across Iola.
Bean leaves look like lace work while squash vines blossom only to have the life sucked from them and blossoms fall as thirsty gray squash bugs do their damage.
Sevin hasn’t helped, noted a few gardeners who have tried the popular insecticide.
The University of Minnesota’s Extension website suggests laying out newspapers under the plants.
The bugs will congregate there at night, it notes, and can be removed in the morning.
Sprinkling on diatomaceous earth can also help. The substance acts like sandpaper upon the insects, scratching them and causing them to dehydrate.