By Jill Williams
“The great wonder, in gardening, is that so many plants live.”
– Christopher Lloyd
I’m not sure about everyone else but I’m getting very discouraged by this summer’s extreme dryness. In the vegetable garden only the tomatoes seem undaunted by the drought. They get watered every few days and they don’t mind my watering instead of rainfall.
The same can’t be said of the other vegetables. The pole beans have been very slow to climb up their poles and I’m watering them often and willing them to grow. The bush beans were planted late and I’m hoping that they will still amount to something.
I don’t remember another year when I have had to water morning glories and nasturtiums. Both of these normally grow like weeds and can be mostly left alone. But both are struggling in spite of my efforts.
There are some bright spots in the dry garden, though. Many colours of Shirley poppies are unaffected by the dryness. I’m glad I have these popping up between the vegetables; they’re cheerful and they come back every year with no effort on my part. The self seeded California poppies are still blooming away but they’re much smaller with the dryness.
Almost no opium poppies and nicotines appeared this year. I know that the seeds of these last for many years so I’m hoping that they will come back next year. It is, of course, the gardener’s refrain that next year will be better.
I was pleased to see that the Asiatic lilies were not affected by the dryness. They’re very resilient and have done well with very little water. The late blooming Oriental lilies, one of the glories of August, are still to come.
Also surprisingly resilient are the sweet peas. I have been well rewarded for my efforts with these; there are enough of them for me to cut some every few days.
I know that I probably said back in the spring that my favourite flowers were the daffodils. My favourites now in high summer are definitely the fragrant sweet peas. The Asiatic lilies make very dramatic cut flowers. But I also appreciate the more subtle sweet peas and I’m grateful that they’re doing so well this year.
I’m also grateful for all the colours and varied blooms in my annual pots. Somehow post ice storm I managed to buy some annuals and put them together in pots for the porch. In a dry years like this the porch pots require a lot of watering but for all the colour they provide it’s worth the effort. My favourite annual this year is a shocking pink double petunia which I paired with amore subtle white euphorbia.
In this short season it will be fall soon enough; let’s appreciate the annuals while we can. In the side porch, the second phoebe family is growing every day. I think there’s three of them but it’s hard to tell until just before they’re ready to fly away. Soon they won’t all fit in the nest and the next day they’ll be gone.
I always feel a little sad when the second family flies away but they will be back again next spring.
It’s hard to even imagine fall with all the hot weather we have had recently. I hope the weather gods will bless us with a long fall and lots of rain. I have already received a fall bulb catalogue but it’s too early yet for me to have any interest in it.
I’m looking forward to some cooler days but I’m not in any hurry to get there.