I've Seen the Light!

. . . at the end of the tunnel, that is. Last spring and the spring before that, Romie and I worked like crazy people on projects, breaking new ground, amending the soil, planting seeds and plants and shrubs and trees, and spreading mulch. Last year, I told him that once we got things done, we wouldn't have to kill ourselves like that.

I said that the year before, too.

Yet here we are, both exhausted, both wondering if a garden is ever really done. I'm going to temper my statement this year by saying that after this year, I can't foresee any major projects for the garden. That's easy to say... now.

We've had good weather and bad, the latter coming most recently last Friday night, when at midnight, I received a severe weather alert from The Weather Channel. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for our area, because they'd seen a severe thunderstorm with rotation centered over guess where? Our little village of less than 200 people!

I turned on the outside light and saw that it was raining hard and the wind was blowing, but I've seen it far worse. And then it became deathly still. The rain slowed to a sprinkle and there was no wind at all. It was eerie. Then it all started up again.

You'd think at this point I would have awakened Romie and we'd go to the basement, but for some reason, I didn't. I checked the radar online and it appeared that the storm had moved just east of us. I went to bed shortly after. The next morning, I looked out the front door and there was water over the road and a small lake in the field across from us.

Later, on the news, we heard that a tornado touched down in a couple of places, and that there was damage to property just five miles south of us. We went past it and saw that a metal grain bin had been destroyed, as well as an outbuilding. Debris was scattered for a fairly large distance in a couple different directions.

The cause of this particular damage was determined to be not a tornado, but straight line winds. It doesn't matter though, because it was still a powerful storm that caused tornado-like damage.

We got 3½ inches of rain out of that storm and the garden was gushy and soggy. I was glad that I hadn't planted seeds the day before, because it had rained so hard that some of the mulch we'd just put down was all piled to the side and had to be respread.

Later in the day, a tractor with a front-end loader was out scooping up the corn stalks that had floated out of the fields onto the road.

The garden is growing like gangbusters and I've also been kept busy trying to keep up with normal garden chores like weeding and deadheading. DEADHEADING! We're already into deadheading season! We're pinching back things like the coleus and mums, too! And today, I sowed the final seeds for the flower gardens.

Isn't it too late for planting seeds? No. In my limited experience, I've found that sometimes it doesn't really pay to get into a big hurry putting them in the ground. We'd planted the corn a few weeks ago, but we had to replant some of it because we'd had too much rainy, cool weather and the seeds rotted in the ground. Later-planted seeds will germinate quicker in the warm soil and once they're up, they'll grow fairly fast and will eventually catch up to their earlier-planted versions.

There's still some work to be done before I can declare the gardens ready for summer, but I expect I can get it done in a day or two. Last year, we went all summer with the mulch pile in our driveway turn-around in front of the house, and I vowed not to let that happen this year. At day's end tomorrow, I fully expect this year's pile to be where it's supposed to be - spread out in the gardens.

I've got a few bulbs to pot up (Acidanthera, Calla lilies, and Oxalis), and the Caladiums need to be planted in among the Cotoneasters and on the back side of the trellis. Once this is done, the gardens will be fully dressed and ready for us to enjoy watching things grow until fall is upon us once again.

So much has been done this spring and I will be blogging about it in the next week or so, trying to catch up with an account of it all. Several factors have been behind keeping me from staying current, with the main one being the fact that we've spent so much time and effort doing that which I still need to blog about and I'm just plain tired when I come in the house for the night. But a temperamental SD card that contains many of the photos that will accompany the blog posts has also been frustrating. And then there's my wonky ISP. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!

Enough of that - and on with the fun stuff of gardening! Coming posts will include a series about new additions to the gardens in the way of shrubs and perennials, a post about the wildflowers of Litzenberg Woods, a bird and butterfly report, and the kitties will check in.

Stay tuned!