Each Little World

White Sound

When rain

whispers

it is snow.

 

— Julie O'Callaghan

Saturday night's light rain turned into snow sometime during the night. I sat on the couch admiring the garden Sunday morning and casually shot this photo with my phone through the window; thus the strange bit of reflected light. By late morning it had started to lightly rain again and most of the snow is gone this morning.

The strange weather continues with temps hovering around 40°F during the daytime hours this week; until Friday when the forecast says we'll hit somewhere in the 50°F's.

Over the weekend I told a gardening friend that I will no longer blame myself when plants in my garden die. From week to week for the last year we've had little of what used to be our "normal" weather. It's becoming extremely difficult knowing what to plant and what kind of weather to protect the plants from. At least my Amaryllis is putting on a gorgeous show to keep my spirits up.

Just enough rain . . .

to give the garden a drink and provide some art in the driveway.

Mushroom mania

Fall always brings mushrooms here and there in the garden. Sometimes just a stem or two and sometimes big clumps. 

I love the way these appear to be looking back at the photographer.

I don't remember "puffballs" in the garden in past years. When I first saw it, I almost kicked it thinking it was a rock.

A few days later I delicately brushed the dirt off of it. A couple of days after that I brought a ruler out to measure how big it was getting.

When we came home from Milwaukee, it was bigger still but it had split open. It looks like it did that on its own as the cracks are very smooth and don't have any evidence of critter damage. Wish I'd had a chance to see it one more time before this happened.

Rain!

It rained just about three inches in the first three days this week. That total is three times the amount of rain we received in the prior three weeks of September. That seems to be our new normal: Rain that rarely makes it through the leaves to the ground and then a sudden catch-up. Not the best pattern for the garden or the gardener. 

The big question is how many days can I go without watering again, given that we're going into October with sun and temps in the high 70s° and low 80s°. 

Yay! It worked.

I guess all I needed to do to get some rain was to complain in print! The radar pix all seemed to suggest yesterday's projected storm was going to slide by us again. Until it unexpectedly burst on the scene around 3 p.m. 

I went down to open the door for Mark who was out running errands and saw this workman who'd been operating a laser transit on our front lawn. He was one of the few who brought his rain jacket to work.

Amazingly the crew worked right through this cloudburst and continued until the second one arrived a while later. They got the road and our neighbor's driveway passable and then called it quits earlier than usual.

I'm thrilled as we got 1.35" of rain which has the garden looking lovely this morning. It's green and cool and calling me out to weed. 

Weather report

Went out late this morning — a little after 7 a.m. — to get some watering started. Since the temp is only supposed to get into the low 80s° today, I thought I would also plant a few things that have been sitting in pots for weeks. Managed to get a Heuchera and an autumn fern in the ground before I had to come in. It's only 10 a.m as I write and the temperature is already at 87°F with humidity in the 70% range. 

Despite endless watering the plants in the entire front garden are coated with grit and dust from the street construction. It was lovely having a four-day holiday weekend with no noise or dust. I watered out there in particular hoping to clean the leaves as well as give all those plants a drink. 

This is what the deck looked like the last time it rained. It wasn't heavy enough or long enough to get any water through the tree leaves and into the ground. We've had rain forecast for days and days and it just passes us by. We're currently 6 inches below normal. 

I know it's summer and supposed to be hot. But I am quickly wiped out with the kind of high temperatures we've been having. I've spent way more time watering than planting, weeding or fine tuning the garden so far. OK, rant over. Maybe today's predicted rain will materialize.

The strange spring continues

Thanks for all your comments on my recent blog posts. I had my second cataract surgery last week. Everything went well, but I haven't quite got back into my normal routines, including replying to your comments and keeping up with your blogs.

I'm currently doing drops of multiple medicines in each eye four times a day and taping a big plastic patch over my latest eye at night. It seems like when I am not doing that, I'm watering the garden.

We only had 1.26" of rain in May and a mere .35" so far this month. Storms just keep slipping by — which is what I expect will happen with tonight's predicted rain. We've had temps into the 90°s and down into the 40°s in recent days. My Epimediums are getting crispy and my lovely Eucomis froze. 

More strangeness in this strange spring. Hosta 'Sagae' (above) has leaves growing adjacent to the flower bud at the top of the stem. Don't think I've ever seen this before. Hosta 'Inniswood' in the background.

Despite the erratic weather the garden is looking quite good. I'm not allowed to lift over 20 pounds or bend my head lower than my heart, which means I can't do much in the garden. Certainly not putting in shrubs and hauling my pair of Haws 2 Imperial gallon watering cans around. Can't wait until I get past those restrictions at the end of this week and can resume normal gardening activities. 

Mood reversal

I clearly posted too early yesterday as it turned out to be a lovely day. It was cool, cloudy and rainy for much of the day. We got .52" which was enough to make the garden sparkle. The rain, coupled with the recent hot days, has the garden on overdrive. I walked around a number of times just marveling at the beauty. 

As much as I like flowers, nothing beats the greens of spring. Up or down there was something lush and fresh to enjoy.

And, yes, there are lots of plants in full bloom like this unknown Peony. Last year I noticed a small stem on a mature species Peony whose leaves were clearly different from the main plant. I separated it and decided to watch it. This spring it shot up with a big bud that is opening into what looks like a gorgeous flower.

In the morning I got together with my garden gal pals to brainstorm some trees and shrubs that one of the members of our little group could add to her garden for winter interest as well as screening views of her neighbor's property. All that garden chat is always a boost.

When I got back home treats had arrived in the mail: The 30th anniversary edition of Gardens Illustrated magazine. 

I've been reading this mag since it hit the newsstands. I used to have the first 50 issues. I still have plenty of back issues, but now I only keep the ones that I really want to look at again — and again. This one is the second issue published. Also in the mail. was a box of plants from Odyssey Perennials. Mostly different Primula varieties.

This is Aquilegia viridiflora var. atropurpurea, one of the mail order plants. This is the nursery website photo as the plant is quite small. I'm going to put it with a group of Geranium phaeum whose flowers are deep violet and whose leaves have splashes of the same color. Despite my cranky start to the day, it turned out to be pretty perfect. 

Rainy days and Mondays

Rain was predicted for this past weekend, so I spent last week trying to get as much done in the garden as possible. I was digging, dividing, discarding, moving and planting as much as I could before it got too hot each day to keep working. I managed to get every plant that was a recent purchase or a swap from a friend in the ground by Friday.

Despite the weather forecast — even looking at the map — I was doubtful we'd ever get any rain. It looked like another one of those long narrow storms that was going to slide right by us. 

Not this time. It started raining around 9 p.m. Saturday night. It came down just heavy enough to make it to the ground through the foliage on our numerous trees. It was lovely to fall asleep with the windows open listening to the steady beat of rain.

I went out to check the rain gauge Sunday morning to discover we'd received 1.35" of rain in the last twelve hours. I was, of course, thrilled as I don't want to go directly into winter from a dry season like last year.

But that wasn't the last of the wet weather: It was still raining. Sunday afternoon the rain started to come down more heavily. Luckily our basement was still dry when we went to bed, having read about flooding in Chicago from the same storm system. We were trapped in a system that was swirling around us rather than moving away. It was now worrisome falling asleep to another night of rain.

When I got up this morning the temperature was 54°F. It's currently breezy with gray skies but no rain falling. We are in a big break in the storm system, but it looks like we will possibly get more rain at some point today. My gauge this morning showed another 2.10" between Sunday morning and this morning.

I am almost embarrassed to mention this amount of rain knowing how many of you are in the midst of long term drought. But I have to be happy, not just for me but for all my gardening friends and area farmers. It has been hot enough and dry enough that few of us are going to complain about three days of rain. 

Is this really August?

I've been working non-stop in the garden because the weather has been beautiful. Hot, but not enough to note the actual temperatures in my garden journal. What I am tracking is the rain. Sunday afternoon we had measurable rain for the third time in four days.

Amazingly, our rain total for August — as of yesterday — is a glorious 5.31". I can relax and be pretty confident that all the plants I am adding, moving and dividing will survive. I hate to even mention this wonderful weather knowing what so many of you are experiencing elsewhere. But, in truth, I'm looking forward to another week happily spent outdoors.