Slogging Through Summer

After the thunderstorm on Thursday evening.
I picked green beans in the morning, a back-aching sort of job.
J. dug more potatoes, then left to deliver a tractor to a buyer below the Tennessee state line.
My mid-afternoon black clouds covered the sky, thunder crashed and rain came down in torrents.

I planted sunflowers very thickly. Some have come crashing down in the

frequent rains.

This bronze-y gold one has attracted bees.

A sunflower about to be.

Cosmos, from seed saved last year, have grown to frothy greenness.

Viewed closely some have distorted stalks--again from the abuse of rain and wind.

Zinnia's also from saved seed.  These flowers prefer sunny drier weather.

The flowers and smaller and less colorful than other seasons.

Elderberries forming.

Queen Anne's Lace in meadow grass.

Stargazer lily which has blossomed today.

Friday was clear and warm--dry enough to work along the edges of the flower strips.

I sheared back the mass of leaning spent flowers--achillea, daisies, veronica--all with extra tall lanky stems.

The southernwood in the background had a tangle of spindly branches dragging on the ground--those are now clipped away.

 

Edward watched from the box elder tree as I clipped and snipped, restoring order to the herb garden by the back door.

The cats came close to wallow in the pile of fragrant clippings: lavender, lemon balm, long straggling stems of thyme.

I ruthlessly lopped the stand of catnip just across the gravel from the herbs and tossed those stems on the pile.

The cats' fur smells deliciously of sun-warmed herbs.

The wet weather has continued so long that as farmer/gardeners we are discouraged.

It is too wet for haying.

The wheat could not be harvested.

M. and G.'s garden, so promising in early June, is soggy, the plants going yellow.

Many of the potatoes we harvested are rotting just days after being brought inside.

Dealing with adverse weather is a humbling thing--no amount of clever husbandry can compensate for a bad growing season!