Friday, July 24, 2009

You Think Your Garden's Not Doing Well This Year?

Well, I bet mine tops yours in being the best of the worst. (Somehow, I think that's an award I'd just as soon pass on, thank you very much.)



It's such a good thing that I've become so well-adjusted (did I just hear my husband laughing in the background?) that I'm not losing sleep or developing an ulcer because of my poor, sad garden that seems to be waging a losing battle this year.



As I've mentioned before, I love having cut flowers in the house. Here we are galloping up to the end of July and we haven't had enough heat for my good ol ', grow-anywhere, run-of-the-mill zinnias to push out more than one or two flower heads. (And I have a LOT of zinnias in the garden!) These are the same plants that had a good head start by being started inside this spring. The sweet pea vines are only about 12" high . . . no sign of them flowering any time soon. I've been reduced to cutting marigolds and bringing them in with their puny little 2-3" long stems just to have some flowers in the house.





Remember how sad the California Poppies looked after I HAD to set them out (even though the weather was still very unsettled) when they had grown too big in the pots I started inside?





Apparently they are one plant that IS thriving in this cold, wet weather. I am very grateful to them for supplying some much needed color in the garden. And perhaps encouragement to their vegetable neighbors showing that something really can grow and prosper under these adverse conditions. Too bad they don't appreciate being cut flowers in the house. They take one look around and immediately drop their petals.



Our temps have been hanging in the 50s with a lot of rain. It's raining hard now and our forecast warns of thunderstorms later this morning with possible 40 mph winds. Yikes. Rain is in the forecast for the next several days also.



Those strawberries that I mentioned yesterday that needed to be picked? Still need to be picked. I just know I'm gonna have lots of rotted ones when I finally can get into the patch.



It's getting darker and darker as I sit here writing. Also, cooler . . . I just put on a heavier sweatshirt . . . and I may make another crackling fire in the wood stove again this morning as soon as I finish here.



But what a great day to make that meat loaf for dinner that my husband has been craving. A perfect day for getting caught up on desk work, or reading, or sorting closets and drawers, or quilting (yes!), or . . . oh, yeah, washing those smudged-up kitchen cupboards.



It'll be a good day, especially now that I'm no longer agonizing over my lost-cause garden. (WAAAAH!)



8 comments:

Jennifer Jo said...

You certainly should win a very fine award for all your garden woes. Maybe I oughta ship you some zucchinis?

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Mama JJ - And don'tcha know your garden is a real bust when ya can't even grow zucchinis!? That's gotta be the depths of gardening dispare (or is it disparity?). But no warm weather, no zucchinis!

No doubt about it, we do struggle to garden up here but it's really not usually like it's been this summer. We may be behind (okay, waaay behind) most everybody else in the nation, but we are able to grow a decent crop of most everything but corn and tomatoes. And there have even been especially good years when even they have matured. This has just been one heckuva weird summer.

Chicken Mama said...

I'd encourage everyone to come take a peek at a post I made about my mama's (Mama Pea's) garden at

http://swampriverridge.blogspot.com/2009/07/mama-peas-garden.html

:) Chicken Mama (or is that 'Baby Pea'?)

Mama Pea said...

If anyone is interested, go read the comment I made on Baby Pea's (I mean Chicken Mama's) blog post regarding my garden!

Heidi said...

We are having the same kind of summer up here in Ontario. Lots of rain not so much sun, it has meant good pea crops but not much else. I have so many zucchini and other assorted squashes and have had one teeny little zucchini so far!

I am starting to wonder if the emigration wasn't a dream and I am really still in England and its October!

Oh well, at least it gives me more time to read my favourite blogs and find new ones! :)

MaineCelt said...

Maybe I need to make your Wise Tiny Creature into some sort of Garden Wizard? Careful, though. A few years ago, we had a drought, so I made a Water Wizard, and now look at us!

Mama Pea said...

Heidi - I don't think we're alone in this weird gardening summer. Seems every blogger I read who has a garden has had some sort of unusual weather or minor calamity to deal with. What's goin' on here? Just goes to show ya we have absolutely no control over Mother Nature!

Mama Pea said...

MaineCelt - I'm getting a Wise Tiny Creature? Oooo, oooo, oooo! (I'm bouncing up and down in my chair!) Happy, happy, happy!

You've been chasing pigs all day? Why don't you keep them penned up? (Ha-ha-ha-ha!)