It has been the goofiest couple weeks with rain patterns since my last garden post where a very long dry spell was just letting up! If you are gardening too, make sure to hit @gardenhive/are-you-ready-for-the-hive-garden-august-challenge with your entry as there is a fantastic rewarding gardening community here!
For those of you just starting to follow along...a few years ago, I began reclaiming lawn space building raised boxes, and blogging about my adventures in gardening. This might be year 7 of the ever-growing garden that officially launches May 2-4 Weekend every year. The community that @GardenHive has become is for us green thumbs and there are contests my gardening friends can play along with by following them.
3 full weeks of no rain was where we left off and it has been nothing but intermittent heavy rain since. Here we go!
I managed to snap a pic of the wide angle between rain storms when the sky was blue. There has been plenty of sunshine as well and you can see evidence of both in the green coming from everywhere. I have rebuilt the dog barriers which coincidentally discourages weeding as well so there is definitely pruning and weeding to do. Let's have a closer look
Water
For most of the last 2 weeks, I have a couple of inches of water for the lawn to swim in. It will dry up a touch, not enough to mow, and then another storm blows through and fills it right back up again. Wading through the still water grass swamp to mosquitoville to tend to waterlogged garden boxes has been a bit of a bummer but things must grow.
Flowers
You know what loves water? Hydrangeas. Makes sense when you look at their name. Huge balls of flowers have been exploding from the plants that the pollinators enjoy. Then, the sky opens up and rains those puffy spheres right to the ground. The bounce right back up and pose for the camera with their little friend.
I have some new annuals finally throwing up blooms including what I think are Dhalias. I say think because it was my daughter who picked this one out a month and a half ago and this is the first flower. She had forgotten what it was and my wife almost cut it down because it was looking like a flowerless weed. A good dozen fist-sized flowers are making this a nice mid-season surprise.
These daisies spent a little too much time in planters but are looking to bounce back nicely. Something pure about daisies for me as I remember them growing wild all over up north. Hopefully they will bounce back big in the next couple weeks.
It is also time for these to have their day in the sun. I am not sure if these are coneflowers, Echinacea, or if that is the same thing. They were planted over 15 years ago by the previous house owner and all I know is I Really enjoy them.
Veggies!
I couldn't have you believe that the veggies were a failure this year. Quite the contrary as we are swimming in English cucumbers and yellow Italian squash (aka zucchini.)
We like to pick the first few a bit smaller so they don't get seedy and it could inspire more veggie growth for the plants. Now, I am puling off one of each every day or 2 and the salads are starting to freshen up around here.
The tomatoes are doing very well in their home where the peppers have traditionally grown. I planted them a little too densely and let them grow a little too wild last year which caused problems with the fruit. This year, I am mercilessly knocking off not just the suckers between the branches, but the lower branches themselves. Everything below the lowest tomato is the plan so that the resources go into the fruit, and there is good airflow at the bottom of the bed.
The peppers, both sweet and hot varieties, are in varying states of progress. A few plants were trampled by a fence jumping moron of a k9, others are battling the soggy conditions, and others are doing just fine. It is a little later this year but we are starting to get our first jalapenos and I am hoping for some habaneros soon to follow.
The raspberries are starting to produce a bumper crop too. every day I happily harvest a half pint and deliver them to the ladies for snacks and desserts.
Work to Do
It seems my garden time has been reduced by the elements and everything is either struggling a little, or going nuts. The vines are even growing up into my shed for a little indoor decoration. I am hoping for a slightly drier period so that I can finally tend to the lawn, and the soil dries up so that the plants start going into produce mode. Still half the season to go so I should have updates with even more variety in coming weeks. Perhaps the best is yet to come and pickles may be in our near future!
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire others to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
Just make sure you tag #creativegarden and check out the latest 
Wherever you are...JUST GROW!
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