Planting during the rainy season is not generally recommended. At first - not having lived through a true rainy season after last year's drought - I was baffled as to why. Wouldn't the rain be helpful in nurturing seedlings?
The answer is yes, but the answer is also no. Case in point: our lettuce.
We recently harvested our radishes, and that very day we spread some humus from our worms and transplanted teeny tiny lettuce that had been growing in one of the garden club members' houses. Then, it rained.
It rained and rained.
It rained and rained and rained.
Get the picture?
Most of the rain thus far hasn't been too strong, but the few times it's pelted down make a difference to those teeny tiny lettuce plants, with nothing to protect them from the raindrops falling who knows how many meters high in the sky. Basically, a bunch of the lettuce was pummeled when we went to tend the garden today. Lesson learned: heed the advice of the people who've lived here for years, they really know what they are talking about. We should have harvested and transplanted earlier so that the lettuce would be sizable enough to withstand and benefit from the harsher rains.
On the other hand, the rain does bring out many more signs of life. In the garden, the worms are thriving, as are the weeds, the toadstools, and the toads. In the city, the crickets, cockroaches, and rats are coming out of the woodwork. It's a grand celebration of life in its various forms. And in my windowboxes, patches of clover are spontaneously springing up. One afternoon when I'm feeling lazy, I will search for one with four leaves. Not that I need the luck--but our lettuce plants could sure use it.
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