With all that said, the wet weather has allowed some of our plants and flowers to thrive this year. I went out early yesterday morning to take some pictures of our yard before the clouds moved back in to make it another dreary weekend day. Our back berm is nearly overgrown again with wildflowers. Since we had a very wet spring, it was the end of June before the berm dried out. But since we've had all the rain last week and cool temps the past few days, it's pretty wet again. Cindy got some lilies from one of the neighbors to plant in the berm, but she doesn't know when it's going to be dry enough to dig back there.
Our tomato and pepper plants are doing well again this year, despite the lack of hot weather they seem to love. I expanded the garden this year behind the garage and doubled it in size. We could only plant either peppers or tomatoes in the garden - one or the other - because it was only 6' X 8'. Now it's 12' X 8' and we were able to get both red peppers and tomatoes (Better Boys and Cherry) in the garden this year. And for good measure, Cindy planted Brussel Sprouts. They're literally taking over the pepper plants. Our herbs in the pots behind the garage are also doing rather well. I've got three different types of basil growing, as well as oregano and lime balm (for fun, primarily). My parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme garden growing in the old wash tub by the deck is also going nuts this year.
Because of the wet conditions, we haven't had to water too much this summer. But the lack of heat has also hurt the growth of our rose bushes in the garden beside the garage. We lost two of our rose bushes over the winter - not bad considering the amount of rose bushes we lost a couple years ago after a very warm March allowed the roses to prematurely bud, then a killing freeze for three days in a row in early April killed them off. Actually, one of the bushes was eaten by a rabbit - which has been dispatched for his transgressions. And it was a Mr. Lincoln rose bush that grew these big beautiful red roses. I promised Cindy that we'd get another one, along with the Belami rose bush that we lost due to the cold weather.
Our flowers and rose bushes on the east side of the house are doing well, however. We're sort of in between budding on the bulk of the rose bushes right now, but the bright yellow Sunsprite roses are really flourishing. The east side of the house gets a lot of morning sun and it dries out the window box pretty quickly. About the only thing we've had to water on a regular basis this summer are the potted plants, hanging baskets and window boxes. With a recently proposed 25% boost in our water rates looming on the horizon, we're digging the rain we've had this year.
One of the great things about the wet weather has been how well the grass has been looking all summer long. But it also means that I have to mow about once every three to five days. We hire our neighbor, Steve, to come over and do the trim work on the driveway and sidewalks a couple times a year. He did it this last week and I mowed Friday evening. One of the things I wanted when I became a home owner was a nice yard. It's looking pretty damn good this year.
Oh, there are some parts of the yard that aren't too pretty - we've got an ongoing battle with growing grass on the west side of the house. And because it's been so wet, the sump pump has been running constantly since March. We've developed a swamp from the mouth of the drain pipe to the sidewalk, and then again in the parking area between the sidewalk and the street where the water will settle. It's sort of embarrassing to see these tall blades of grass sticking up, but I can't get a mower in there while the yard is so wet or it would tear it up worse than what it is. In order to cut the grass in that area, I have to get a weed whacker and skim it across the top of the ground, hoping that I don't make pock marks on the ground from getting the weed whacker too low.
One benefit from the wet weather has been the growth of the wild flowers that Cindy has planted the past couple three years underneath our Maple tree in front of the house. We've tried all different types of annuals under the tree, but found that we were just pissing money away. Cindy decided to start planting perennial wild flowers, irises, Columbines and ground cover under the tree. In fact, the ground cover was growing SO well that she had to go in and pull a bunch of it out about a week ago. It filled up one of those 30 gallon yard waste bags that we have to use to recycle yard waste here in Davenport.
Here's a close-up shot of the back berm, once again. With the new blooming crab apple tree that we planted last year, along with the lilac bush and a wegela bush, our ornaments are starting to get lost in the jungle. It's tough to see the Mama Moose and her baby, and we've come to the determination that we'll probably have to move the windmill. Cindy has already told me to get rid of the Mama Bear and her three cub cut-outs that we have along the back fence. You can only see them in the winter time, now. Our new neighbors who moved into the house behind us, Jesse and Amy, love to look over the fence from their pool at our backyard. Amy is especially fond of the Mama and Baby Moose. Except she said the other day, "I can't see them any more. It's too overgrown!"
While it's been a cool, wet summer so far, I suppose I really can't complain. We've only had to run the air conditioning about seven days in June and probably three days so far in July. While it's somewhat hampering the growth of not only our plants and flowers, it's hampering the growth of corn and soybeans for the farmers. At the local farmer's market yesterday, we saw the lady who we like to buy sweet corn from. While other vendors had some sweet corn already, we like her "peaches and cream" variety the best. She said, "It hasn't been warm enough for the corn to fully come to maturity. I won't sell my corn until it's fully matured to the top."
It's supposed to be sunny and in the mid 70's today here in the Quad Cities, with temperatures rebounding into the 80's the rest of the week. I'm just hoping for great weather this coming weekend for the Davenport One Street Festival, of which I'll be working for the 12th year in a row. And I'm hoping we see some dry, 80 degree days for a long period of time. I love summer, but I don't like it when it's only in the 60's for highs.
Great picture of the guy on the bike. My wife said, "I didn't know a penis could be that small.
Posted by: Tim Lake | July 19, 2009 at 09:21 PM