Plants need water to grow, but too much water can be a problem. We regulate the amount of water our plants receive via an irrigation system.

While we can control our watering of crops, we can’t control how much it rains, and so far this season it has rained a lot. This past weekend more than three inches of rain fell in Chicago, according to the National Weather Service Forecast Office.

And if this weekend’s rainfall wasn’t enough, it rained this morning. While it wasn’t a downpour, it did leave its mark on the garden, with raindrops on leaves of plants and pools of water collecting on the leaves of Brussels sprouts.

Last time Jeanne Nolan visited it had rained a lot that week, so we set our automatic timer on the irrigation system to a 72-hour rain delay. Today,  the irrigation system was set to a 24-hour rain delay to compensate for the recent rain. Tomorrow we’ll evaluate whether or not that rain delay needs to be extended another day.