Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Bloomsday highlights and amazing thunderstorms

Peonies and allium seedheads before the storm

Why is it that we get the worst thunderstorms when the peonies are in full bloom? This is just rhetorical question: I'm not complaining, really!

Who could complain when Sunday night's rolling thunder revue (my dog's least favorite light and sound show) brought us three or four thunderstorms in a row? Well, I could take issue with the 15-minutes of pounding hail. Our precipation total that night: one-and-3/10ths inches! Amazingingly enough, the hail damage is minimal. Even the big hostas have just a few holes in their leaves.

The rain has made all the plants put on a growth spurt, especially the giant hostas. Everything looks 100 percent better, particularly the lawn, which I care about despite all the anti-lawn sentiment out there. (What other ground cover sets off flower gardens on an acreage as usefully as lawn? If I didn't have lawn, I'd have weeds.)

Peony with Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'


Verbascum 'Polar Summer' with irrigation running before the rain

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

4 comments:

  1. My husband loves his lawn! It is so big there is no real economical way to weed it though so we put up with the yellows of spring (aka dandilions)and the blues of late summer (aka chickory). It's funny because he often complains about having to mow so much. I keep telling him I could fill the yard up with gardens, and then the complaining stops! "I love my lawn!!!"
    Men are funny sometimes!!

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  2. OH I forgot to mention your Verbascum! Very nice! I'm glad to see someone loves this in their garden, when I see my common mullein growing wild in my gardens I love to leave them! They are soft and fun!!!

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  3. Anonymous3:58 PM

    Good to hear you are getting some rain. We have had great rainfall here in Markham and the gardens were looking wonderful. Unfortunately the hail we got was very large and damaged a lot of plants in 3 gardens but left 1 untouched? Very strange. Very sad as neighbours also lost entire veggie crops.

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  4. To Eve: Thanks for your daily visits! Always look forward to your comments.

    To T. Gordon: My sympathies. I hope your plants recover. We got off off lightly. We feared the worst because the hail was just pounding down. Good luck, Yvonne

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-Yvonne, aka Country Gardener