Day after day, after day after day, month after month we have been pelted with first snow starting in mid-January and then rain starting in April. When will it ever let up? My rain gage reflects the amount of rain that has drowned my yard for the last two weeks only. It has been incessant!
These daytime shots look more like late evening due to the dull grey blanket that is hovering over this island, and....this is good! Some days the fog has been so bad that I couldn't even see the fence from the house. I can only imagine that Vitamin D has been flying off the shelves in the health stores. Without question, this prolonged period of time without sunshine begins to wear away at the psyche.
Beyond that it has been a huge hindrance to my preferred activities at this time of the year. On some days when the wind is less than 25k, I do go out for a walk and try to do some bird watching. However, on many of those days the clouds opened up and I got drenched. It is a real deterrent. I am less willing to go work in the yard under those conditions because everything is so wet! Two years ago I bought a rain barrel and set it up in case of drought. What was I thinking?
At this time of the year I host an annual garden party. This year my yard is not ready. Every day I check the weather and hope that this will be the day that I can get some work done.
I have completed a couple of projects this year but under less than ideal circumstances. I cut out the grass/weeds and put in my water fountain and surrounding ground cover. The mulch is down and I consider that section ready. The remaining mulch and top soil is lying in wait for the next good day. I wonder when that will be. The lime and fertilizer plus much rain has really transformed the dull grass to lush green.
One morning about 10 days ago, there was a little ray of sunshine peeking out through the clouds so I rushed out and completed the section to the left of the seating area. I cut out the weed-bound area and planted perennials and mulched the area. It is a good thing too because I had eight perennials sitting in planters and they needed to go in the ground. By mid-day the cloud had taken over and a cold front spurred on the fog and further work was out of the question.
I have managed to get a few vegetables planted but they haven't had a chance to grow. The Romaine lettuce seems to be drowning as do the snow peas. It is my intention to prepare another vegetable bed to plant this year. I am really afraid that it is too late, but I will try. I have numerous seeds growing in a planter box. What will come of them?
I have laid many stone walk ways in my garden and they are crying out to be cleared and tidied up. They look very nice when cleared properly and they look so abandoned when left to grow wild.
This shot shows what the space looked like two years ago before many hours of back-breaking work. The one thing missing from the shot is the crazy amount of weeds that had a grip on the yard. I worked for hours to try to get rid of them in a natural way.
This shot from last summer clearly shows what the walkway along the perennial garden should look like. That is a project that I need to do right away: Reset the stone barriers, mulch around the plants and clear the walkway of over-grown grass and weeds.
There are over 70 perennials planted in the yard, most of them of the flowering variety but so far they haven't had enough sun to coax them open. I also have an area that I plan to work on to groom a space for outdoor toys for my grandchildren. I had hoped by this time to have stained the fence. When I look at my yard I see so many things that I want to do to make it a comfortable room out doors. I have been cutting wood for my fire pit but I haven't even set it up yet because it would just become a rust bucket. Will the weather finally clear and allow me to at least tidy up what I have completed before party time? I hope so but it really is out of my hands.
