Rain, rain, go away

[old north state]

Greetings from central North Carolina,

We just transplanted 100+ vegetable plants in our church raised bed garden yesterday in beautiful weather of clouds and 75°f. Yesterday evening it started raining, the temperature dropped 20°f, and the forecast shows continuous rain and cooler weather for the next 3 days with thunderstorms today as well. I’m very concerned about the garden and wonder if I should build some polytunnels to protect the raised beds from the rain and also help them stay a little warmer. The plants came from a nursery of polytunnels the day before. The garden is situated in an open area between two parking lots and is on a southern facing slope of about 5 degrees. We are in zone 7B.

Thank you so much for your expertise and any advice you can give us. Your videos are wonderful and your son does a great job of producing them too.

All the best,
Scott

[charles]

Thanks ons for your comment on the video and Edward will be happy with that.
I think you will be ok. At your latitude the sun is v strong now and it could easily cook the plants when it reappears, if you put a tunnel over.
It depends a bit which veg they are. Why not try perhaps one tunnel to see if it makes a worthwhile difference, so you know for another year.
I should love some of that rain, we are getting parched here!

[old north state]

Thanks so much for your reply. We have planted a bit of each vegetable in each bed; tomatoes, squash, eggplant, peppers, etc. I will try your idea of covering one of the beds now during the rain. Perhaps if I leave the ends open once the rain stops that might be enough to ventilate it until I get can get a more appropriate row cover on it.

Thanks again for all you do.

[charles]

Yes keep them ventilated, vital. I had a feeling they are summer plants, best of luck.

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