Wet Spring Slows Down Local Gardeners, Speeds Up Grass Growth

Ask any local gardener how they're doing lately, and their reply is likely to be the same as Carol McAllister's,“Wet.”

With record rainfall, gardening and lawn activities are falling behind schedule this spring, while landscaping companies have had trouble keep up with the rapid grass growth.

“I think everything's behind,” said McAllister, owner of  and Florist. “If you work the soil when it's too wet, you destroy the soil texture, and just make yourself more problems down the road. I've had some customers tell me that what they planted rotted.”

She's not alone.

Fenton gardening businesses have had a pretty slow spring as gardeners wait for sunshine, or at least a few dry days in a row, to start planting their gardens.

“We've been rained on quite a bit,” said Tammy Carlson, of Carlson's Greenhouse.

At Carlson's, workers have been spending the slow days working on cleaning projects, waiting for the sun. On the sunny Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, business picked up. Carlson recommends gardeners give their soil a jolt of fertilizer to restore nutrients.

Browsing among the flowers at Carlson's, Fenton resident Linda Harbeck agreed that the rain has made it difficult to plant.

“With all the rain, it's hard to get out and work in your garden. But I'm not a vegetable person, so I haven't been too effected," she said.

Master Gardener Judy Lytle was available at Carlsons' on Saturday, May 28, to answer gardening questions.

“Everything I've planted, it's like they're on hold...They're waiting on sun,” she said.

Still, it's not a total loss for spring gardens. Both McAllister and Lytle remark that established perennials seem to be doing well this year.

“The pansies are still doing great,” said Lytle.

Gardeners may be delayed, but those in the lawn care industry are having a different problem: grass is growing too fast.

“Everything takes longer when it's wet,” said Cory Shotton, operations manager at Shoemaker Services. "The rain makes it impossible to use mowing equipment, but it also makes the grass grow. The taller the grass gets, the longer it takes to cut and bag up."

Shoemaker Services provides lawn care, fertilization services, landscaping and irrigation. In a normal wet spring, they lose about a day of work to rain per week. This year, losing about two and half days, pushing them into working Saturdays and Sundays.

“We're trying our best to get things done in a timely manner,” said Shotton. "Sometimes it's just a matter of waiting for things to dry out."

It may just be a matter of waiting for everyone. McAllister isn't too worried about the late start, however.

“I have put in a garden as late as mid-June, it did fine,” she said.