It seems a bit soggy here, but we don’t have the heavy rains that they have suffered in other parts of Ohio. Usually, because of the high water table, if we get lots of rain there is ponding, but we are not experiencing that. The weatherman says that because the ground was dry the rain sheeted off into the waterways. Likely so.
All is green and I have tomatoes but they are still green – no sun, no ripening, and it is gray every day right now. The weeds are flourishing, but I haven’t been out there to work on that. I did get the butterfly weed (asclepsias) and another lavender plant transplanted in before the rains. I put the butterfly weed over by the pyracantha, because I thought the oranges of the flower and the berries would nicely echo each other. I should harvest my peppers. I’ll probably pick some tomorrow. I have plenty of Hungarian hot, but nary a bud on the sweet peppers. I think I planted them in too good of ground. They are tall, lush, green plants, but no flowers or peppers on them. I put them in a spot that I used to use for making leaf mold. It’s just too good for them!
But next year will be better for veggies, I got the rototiller back from the repair guy and as soon as the weather allows I will dig up the new, s-u-n-ny spot near the house for my vegetable plot. I love new freshly dug gardens. They hold such illusions;)
The type of heliotrope I got this year is not a very pretty plant- very rangy. Of course it didn’t help that I let them dry out a few times. (That wrecks havoc with the leaves). My new hydrangeas had wilted a few times, but they recovered well. I just had to remember to really soak them, even though they were mulched. Not to worry, now though with all this rain. The moisture lovers should burgeon forth.
My autumn clematis is just starting to break blossom and the honeysuckle (Belgica), has been pretty- although I still don’t have the trellis back up… I was supposed to have gotten that done at the beginning of the season, and now it is the end of summer already! The phlox are blooming but not as full as they might be. I probably need to try to divide some of them.
The trouble is that I can’t dedicate the kind of time and effort to the garden that I would like to. I’m going to get some improved topsoil later this month or early next, looking forward to what I can do with that (top up the raised beds and use some on the new veg. garden).
Rural report:
The sweet corn is all harvested in this area, the soybean fields look good, and the field corn looks decent. Too much rain will mean some disease problems, etc. Japanese beetles continue to be a problem in the garden, I don’t know if they affect the crops. I saw a praying mantis last week- the first I’d seen in a long time. My son found it and I told him to please place it carefully in my side garden. It wasn’t a very large one, but I hope they are making a comeback- I was thinking of getting another batch through mail order next season.
Drove past a place that had a tree filled with yellow transparent apples. That is an old type used for applesauce, it ripens the earliest here. There was a sweet new colt in a neighboring farm pasture, and a herd of Jerseys a few miles away. We don’t have so many dairy herds around here anymore, and they tend to be small ones. I think the Jersey is the most beautiful cow… saw a PBS special on showing Dairy cows , you wouldn’t believe all they do to show their cows. Hairspray is the least of it. My uncle used to raise and show Puli and Komondor dogs, but I don’t think they go through what these cattle people do. Or maybe I just didn’t know…..
