If ever a growing season has had its ups and downs, the Summer of ’09 has got to take the prize. Cold, wet, rainy whether dominated May and June and we haven’t had a 90 degree day in July YET! This is definitely not the growing season that will go down in history as a great one by any means.  This past weekend we experienced a storm packing 80 mph winds, baseball sized hail and heavy gushes of rain falling sideways. Our roof will need to be replaced as well as one whole side of the house’s vinyl siding and 3 windows.

As bad as the damage was to the house, my poor tomato and pepper plants really took a beating. Now all I can do is look at these poor plants struggling to make it through what’s left of our season. The wonderful crop of apples on our two trees have been left on the grass below as food for the deer. Ears of corn in the local fields have been stripped from their host stalks and lay sideways indicating the path of the storm.

As bad as all this sounds, the resilience of our plants is still quite evident and I know that the hosta, which look more like Queen Anne’s Lace at the moment, will come back stronger than ever next spring.   Nature has an ingenious way of healing itself by adapting to the conditions and returning even stronger than its original sprouts. It’s what keeps me coming back morning after morning just to see what has happened while I slept. Hopefully, these little surprises of nature will continue to thrive despite our adverse whether conditions.

Here’s hoping that wherever your garden is growing – you have as much to learn as I have this season.

Happy Gardening !!

It has been a long time since I’ve been able to get into my garden.  Cold and wet weather has kept the growing season to a minimum. This is anything but a typical summer growing season here in Southwestern Wisconsin. The tomatoes are doing well despite the cooler nights and an inordinately large amount of moisture we have had. My peppers are still in the containers from the nursery and waiting to be put into the ground. Bags of mulch are piled up outside the garden fence waiting to be put around the tomatoes and onions. My poor strawberry plants are in shock and haven’t produced any fruit for 3 weeks.

Despite all the adverse conditions, my perennial garden is doing well. The lilies continue to blossom and the yucca blooms have stayed on for over 2 weeks until last night’s pouring rain stripped the stalk. The one thing that we have been able to count on is that the grass still needs mowing every week like clockwork. My guess is that about the time I get back to the school year, my tomatoes will be heavy on the vine and I’ll be up ’til the wee hours of the morning canning for the winter.

It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a summer growing season such as this, but I look at it as a challenge.

I’m guessing it’s a sign telling me it’s WAY past time to do some long overdue housecleaning.

Stay tuned !!

Well, here it is the first part of July and things have been VERY busy but not in the garden. Since it took me so long to get into the garden I threw out the idea of using raised beds and have set that idea on the shelf for the 2010 gardening season.  Our weather has been very rainy and cold and not conducive to growing tomatoes, peppers, beans, onions or many root crops. Now that July is here, I am hoping to have more warm and humid days – the kind that really make plants grow here in Southwestern Wisconsin.

I purchased Better Boy tomatoes and Green Globe peppers and then managed to find seeds for beans at a local store. The onion sets I found looked questionable, but I think they’re going to make it. I have had 3 pickings of everbearing strawberries and my one year old rhubarb plant gave up enough for one rhubarb pie. I know I should have waited, but it looked so good. Year three will certainly show promise on those and some others I plan to plant later this year.

The lilies I inherited from my parents are going strong – so strong as a matter of fact that it is time to thin them out.  I will leave that task until after the blooms are all spent. We will be having some work done to our home so I don’t want to risk having the contractors crush those plantings before they have a chance to establish themselves. Our 5 year old Yucca plant is in full bloom as I write this and is centered right in the middle of my perennial garden. It is surrounded by hostas, Italian chives, day lilies in several shades of yellow, orange and spotted orange. It is in desperate need of thinning and so that will be my next project to tackle.