As I’ve mentioned (and as I know many of you are also experiencing), it’s been a slow burn of a spring around here. Unseasonably cool — often downright cold. Windy. Cloudy. Quite a lot of rain. Luckily, no late freezes — but close enough to curtail planting. And it looks to continue for a while longer. Although a few morning hours of sunshine bring hope and a glorious optimism, they don’t last long here . . . and a bit of sunshine + 48 degrees F don’t do a lot to encourage flowering.
What this means in my garden . . . is that plants are growing – but slowly. Buds – while present in abundance – are in a holding pattern. A couple of warm, sunny days will make everything pop in my garden. But we haven’t had a “couple of warm, sunny days” . . . in weeks and weeks.
So I wait.
And dwell in possibility!
On the plus side . . . the deer haven’t visited my backyard garden this year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that our “fence extensions” are working to deter them. (They had already destroyed my garden by this time last year.)
We’ve also had time to plant a couple of new trees. And do a lot of transplanting. (Some years things grow too big too fast, and it’s harder to transplant them.) And . . . well. Weeds are a lot easier to pull when the ground is wet, y’know?
I’ve only just this week started planting my containers and putting in my herb/kitchen garden. Things are slow. But I’m certain they’ll catch up . . . as soon as the sun and warmer temps return. (And I know they will . . . )
How about YOU? How does your garden grow?
Ditto on all counts. Very weird weather for the midsouth! Every time they give me a forecast for sun and warmer temps, they rescind it. I am trying to see the benefits of lower utility bills and better sleeping conditions. High humidity along with high temps will be here soon enough independent of my desires. 🙂 BTW, your garden looks lovely already!
Anticipation (remember that Carly Simon song?? – LOL) for a blooming garden. It definitely has been a chillier than normal and wetter than normal spring. Weeds and the grass are growing. Fletch did plant the pots for our patio (eggplant, rosemary and basil) and the kitchen window box. He also managed to get some things in the raised beds (tomato plants and pepper plants). My French Thyme which wintered over is blooming like crazy and the parsley that wintered over too (so surprising) is huge.
It is in a bit of a holding pattern here as well, but it looks like next week it will kick into overdrive (with temps going from 50’s to 80’s… sigh) One bonus, this chilly weather is really making my poppy a thing of delight each day… one or two buds pop open in the afternoon sun and I will take that versus they all open in one very warm day and are over! I am ever so happy that your deer have stayed deterred!
This is our second week of warming temperatures and the weekend might have been the best Memorial weekend in years. It was near perfect (not to brag) and we got the garden planted as well as all the pots for the patio. For once we feel relaxed about the garden possibilities. (For now.)
Ooof, I hear you on this slow start to spring. Our 10 day forecast has temperatures that are still on the low side but high enough that it feels safe to plant my containers, finally. My dahlias are coming up, 14 out of 24 as of yesterday. Ironically, but as a result of this weather, the pansies in my window boxes are stellar.
Things certainly are green with all the rain even if the temperatures aren’t very warm. This at least is keeping me from complaining about heat and humidity. But John is quite unhappy with the state of the garden. Lots of seedlings have been drowned in deluges of rain and chilly temperatures haven’t helped. I figure we should have tomatoes ripening in October if this weather keeps up. We’re going up to Ryan’s tomorrow to see what we can salvage and what plants we need to replace.
Out here we jumped from mid sixties last week to high eighties yesterday. We rely on irrigation for all – after a week with a broken line it’s finally fixed. Chuck was watering by hand and the lawn was beginning to show it. Today isn’t supposed to be quite so warm, which is good news!
What part of the country do you live in?
I’m looking at Carole’s comment and we just planted our dahlias today! And the sunflowers and boxes finally. 5/29…Mother Nature is really really ticked. (As are the rest of us!)
We’ve had a cool May, too (relatively) … only one day at 90 (and that was rounding an 89.7) and so much rain. Still, the pots that Marc planted in mid-April have totally filled in and the tomatoes just need a few days of sunshine to ripen. I have high hopes for summer actually arriving this weekend!
Your garden areas look lovely and you are right about pulling weeds from damp earth. Fingers crossed that the deer have moved on and leave your garden in peace. I’ve been a little under the weather so my garden is a little wild and weedy. It’s all growing and some flowers have bloomed with others on the way. This is going to be a year for the natural look.
Garden planting always is delayed for us until Christmas trees are all planted, then even later this year since we built a raised bed for the vegetables. Finally planted the vegetables this week, need to put some flowers out still. But, with the cooler weather I don’t feel too far behind!
I’m glad to hear the deer are staying away! Is that why they’ve been visiting my yard? LOL. It’s been wet and cool here; just yesterday on the local news they were saying that we’d had the longest stretch of days without highs reaching 75 since the late ’90s! Things are slowly growing in my garden (the rain has helped), but we do need some sunshine. Looks like we’re going to jump to summer weather next week, so it’s coming!