Timing is Everything

I've discovered that my timing, in multiple aspects of life, is NOT impeccable.  When it comes to the garden, however, I'm not quite sure yet whether sowing this weekend was a good timing or terrible timing. 

On Friday evening, after a delivery of topsoil on that afternoon, I worked the soil of both my existing 8x8 garden bed and my new 10x10 bed, blending in compost to the new bed.  The weather was in the mid-60s here in lovely central North Carolina, with a forecast of several warm days as well as rain over the next week. That night, I planted three rows of green beans, one row of dill, and one row of onions in the 8x8 bed. 

I knew rain was in the forecast for that evening, and again for Tuesday evening, so I thought my timing would work perfectly, requiring little monitoring and minimal watering over the next few days.   Later that night, all cleaned up and relaxing indoors, I heard the rain approaching... and it did, indeed, start raining.  In fact, it started pouring, with the full torrential fury of a spring thunderstorm.  I wondered how deeply the downpour would move the newly worked soil, and hoped my seeds weren't being pounded right out of their carefully plotted layout.  While I didn't expect the full-out thunderstorm, I wasn't completely surprised, either.  After all, what is a garden without a little worry, right from the start?

Yesterday (Saturday), I checked on the existing garden, concluded (hoped?) that the planted seeds probably weren't drastically affected, and proceeded to plant two rows of cucumbers and a row of carrots in the 10x10 bed.  The forecast for yesterday had called for a chance of showers in the morning, so I waited until late afternoon before I even went outside. Not a drop of rain fell all day.... until, literally, as I was dropping the first few cucumber seeds in the first row of the new garden bed. 

Oh well, the ground is already soaked, and today (Sunday) and tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be sunny and warm -- in the 80s, and perhaps reaching into the high 80s tomorrow afternoon before cooling down to the more seasonal low 70s for the rest of the week.  That should make for a nice warm, moist bed for germination, and give the now-soaked beds a chance to dry out just a little bit.  Except...  it's now noon, the sun disappeared not long after sunrise, ne'er to be seen since, and it's barely getting out of the mid-50s at this point.  Can the temperature even reach the average high for the day?  Sun... hello?  Where are you??? 

A planner at heart, I don't always find myself very flexible in changing my actions based on the weather.  (Clearly, I am still rebelling against my roots in the snowy Upper Midwest.)  Also literal by nature, I don't appreciate the surprise of discovering the weather forecast really isn't all that dependable.  (Again, experience doesn't seem to be having an impact here either.)  However, I can't do anything now but wait and hope the garden is off to a good start, despite the conditions. Who knows -- we haven't had extreme heat or cold or damaging hail, so the timing could have been perfect, despite my worry.  We'll find out in a couple of weeks!