End of July: Chaos in the Garden

I began this post on July 31st, thinking to do a wrap of weather and projects. 

Photos refused to load from my Canon camera to desktop PC in spite of several attempts. I did manage to load them onto my recently purchased and set up Dell laptop  and from there onto a blog draft, although not in the order that I selected.

Being rather persistent [even without a clear idea of what I'm attempting] I made a late evening repeat of plugging the camera into the PC--photos loaded but with a different format which seemed to indicate that 'Microsoft' had updated/installed a change. Not that I authorized such a thing! When something works, why must it be continually tweaked?  

Not surprisingly, July was hot and humid--a blend of weather that leaves me less than energized. The rather unusual factor this year was frequent rain; 

The past two weeks have featured brief but tempestuous T-storms with bouts of gusty wind and pummeling rain. 

We lost internet and land-line for a day due to storms, and there have been frequent power blips which result in going through the rooms to reset digital clocks.

Jim departed on the 22nd for a week with his twin brother in Wyoming, returning on the 30th--retrieving his pickup at M and G's in time to drive home through a downpour.

I set myself a perhaps unrealistic roster of 'things to do' while I wasn't tied to regular meal prep.

Out of bed between 6 and 7 each morning to begin the routine tending of the cats, some minimal cleaning and tidying, refilling the hummingbird feeders.

My indulgence was enjoying Kate of The Last Homely House [you tube] while sipping a half cup of cream-laced coffee or a mug of tea sweetened with honey. 

One of the tasks tackled while on my own was cutting back achillea and the New England asters which have taken over the raised bed along the east wall of the house. These plants haven't been a good fit for that area as they grow too tall and then lean over the edge of the bed, dropping seeds which sprout between the bricks of the walkway. I pruned and weeded, pried up dandelions and other pestiferous things that have overtaken the graveled area near the steps.

The humidity was punishing even with an overcast sky.

A cloudburst drove me inside before I could cart off my pile of weeds.

The cleared walkway, rain-drenched. 

Everything in this raised bed needs to be cleared out: the blackberry lilies, asters, blue prairie flax,, all raised from seed, the achilleas purchased at my favorite nursery. 

Zinnias in the tubs are this year's seedlings, some started in my little greenhouse; others self-sown into the  gravel walkway were carefully pried up and tucked into pots and tubs.

A few seedlings of coneflower hastily stuck into the south-east retaining wall strip have multiplied thuggishly. 

Red-orange seems to be the prevailing color for the zinnias.

Signet marigolds, my preference for their ferny foliage and dainty blooms, didn't germinate this year either from saved seed or from the remainder in last season's packet. 

These French marigolds were rescued from the Wal Mart garden center and coaxed back to health.

A stalk of Joe Pye Weed sprang up at the edge of the fire-damaged hybrid magnolia that still stands near the site of the former owners house [which 'mysteriously' burned to the ground two years before we bought the property.]

I first noticed this in tight bud on one of my dog-walking rounds and have delighted in marking its progress.

I feel over-whelmed by the garden. Jim has valiantly tilled, strung electric fence around his sweet corn. I have battled the horrid yellow larvae of the Mexican bean beetles, bent over rain-pummeled plants to pick the beans. The earlier crop, maturing before we had frequent rain, were lacking in tenderness.

While Jim was away, racoons spent a night feasting on sweet corn--strangely, only the one night.

I wallowed about in the mud, picking corn, discovering cucumbers that had fattened beyond appeal, harvesting green peppers, Carolina Gold tomatoes.

I sorted the good veg into two containers which went with me to church to be given to those who don't have gardens.

The first sunflowers to bloom were the volunteers from last summers scattered seeds.

Goldfinches have been flitting among the heads anxious for the seeds to mature.

Dwarf sunflowers, this season's planting on the far edge of the garden, photo taken Wednesday before two more storms swept through. 

Most of the sunflowers have been toppled, uprooted or the stalks broken.

I've picked beans from the second planting, my third planting struggles in the mud.

Tomatoes and cucumbers must be rescued from wet ground, melons brought in before various 'bugs' can drill into them.

Jim has revived the electric fence, taken over the corn harvest.

I've canned salvaged green beans and tomatoes--feeling that the yield was scarcely worth the labor.

My real accomplishments for July were projects other than gardening.

There's been a power blip as I typed this. 

It hasn't stormed since mid-morning, but there has been so much wind and rain recently that water-logged branches fall on power lines--at least that's what we are telling ourselves.

Its been a strange month!

What will August bring?