Oh summer, will you make an appearance soon?

Since we moved here 11 years ago, our summers have been dominated by drought. Indeed, the worst drought in 50 years plagued gardeners and farmers throughout 2007. So it feels really odd to be experiencing the second wet summer in row - at least so far.

According to the local paper, we had 30 percent more rain than normal in June and temperatures have been an average 1.5 degrees cooler than normal. So far, we've had only one day that was hotter than 30 C (86 F), and no smog days.

All of this means that garden and crop plants are about two weeks behind when they would normally bloom or ripen. Our serviceberries are usually ripe on the shrubs in late June, but this year I was picking them in July. The cool weather and excess rain affected local strawberries, which weren't very sweet or plentiful. In our garden, the time I've been saving on watering is spent mowing because the grass never stops growing, and needs cutting every four or five days.

All in all, I'm happy to take this over a hot, humid, dry summer, but I wouldn't mind a bit of warmth. It was so cool the other day that I changed into my winter uniform: a black turtleneck sweater and jeans. But I'm not complaining, except about the strawberries.

(The link for Agriculture Canada precipitation map is here.)

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

What happened to spring this week?

What a roller coaster week we've had! Sunday was lovely. I spent the afternoon pruning low branches on all the young shade trees in our west field.

I had planned the big ornamental grass cut-down day for Monday, but I called my helpers off because of the miserable forecast. As predicted, on Monday the weather turned wintery, and Tuesday we awoke to snow on the ground. By today, most of the snow had melted.

It's been a real tug of war between winter and spring. Of course, spring is winning, but it's a long haul getting from cold to warm this year. Judging from the long-range forecast from the Weather Network, I see it's going to take almost to the end of the month for the weather to really warm up. I guess the silver lining is that we get a good run of blooming from all those spring bulbs.

Click on forecast to see larger. Note to US readers: don't panic - temperatures in Celcius

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

April in January

It got up to 16 degrees C (60 degrees F) today and was still 14 C (57 F) when we went to bed. Virtually all the snow that was here since the beginning of December has melted.

So we've got mud season in January. I prefer snow. But we always get a few days of mud season in January, and it appears to have nothing to do with global warming.

According to David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada, (who was being quoted in all the papers today) southern Ontario has experienced a January thaw every year since 1937, the earliest year for which records are available, except for 1977, the only year we did not have a January melt-down.

For us temperature roller coasters are quite normal in January, but one of the most dramatic happened three years ago: on Jan. 13, 2005, the temperature reached 17.6 C (63 F). Five days later it dropped to -25 C (-13 F). I remember it well because the golf course across the road opened up for play for about a week.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

Not welcome news: prolonged heat wave

If I can say anything good about this record dry summer, it's that the heat and humidity we usually get have mostly stayed away. The nights have been great for sleeping and we didn't have to use the air conditioner very often.

But that has now changed. We're into a heat wave that looks like it will last for at least a week. Hot, hot, hot - just what we needed on top of this endless drought! I may well start whining again, but this weather isn't unexpected. The last week of July and the first week of August are traditionally the hottest of the summer across Canada.

To my sister and my friend with the pool, you're going to see a bit more of me. (Or a bit less: since February, I've lost 15 pounds.) To tell the truth: I've had it with summer. Fall and winter just can't come soon enough for me now.

April is the cruelest month

I was an English major (a long time ago now), and so in April I like to take time to re-read one of the most famous English poems of the 20th century, The Waste Land. I have always loved the opening lines:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

When T.S. Eliot wrote these words, he had an English spring in mind, not the frigid weather that often descends on us poor northern folk when we're supposed to be enjoying Easter flowers and warm sunshine.

This has been the cruelest April in a long time, with bitterly cold winter weather forcing us all to dig out our winter coats again, or to just linger by the fire. Worst of all, it has lasted for a week, and is going to linger on for a few more days yet. The garden will have to wait.

The wettest fall in years

It seems appropriate that this morning, on Dec. 1, we are having an intense rainstorm with high winds. It's just after nine in the morning and the rain gauge already reads two inches! Par for the course: the wettest fall we've had in years isn't quite finished with us yet.

"A river runs through it" describes our acreage today. There's water from the neighbors' higher properties draining through the low lawn area that surrounds our house. Luckily our house is on a hill, but on days like this this our basement sump pump kicks in.

Fleeting fall color

I love this time of year. I don't think my garden is ever more beautiful than in October. And the same goes for all of nature up here in Ontario.

I took the above picture two days ago, but now the leaves on the 'Autumn Purple' ashes in the background have already been blown off. I've learned the hard way (many times!) that if you don't get out there with your camera the moment you see those "oh, my God shots", they're gone.

The weather is turning fast. After an achingly beautiful and very warm Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (Oct. 9th this year), we had pelleting rains all day yesterday, and there's frost and even a few flurries in the forecast for tonight, with tomorrow's daytime temperature in the single digits, around 8C! (That's 46F.)

Weather-crazed gardener

One of the things that first struck us when we moved to our 10-acre country property was the big sky. Although we don't live in western Canada, which really is big sky country, our southern Ontario sky can be pretty impressive.

It certainly was a couple of nights ago when a major thunderstorm with golfball sized hail swept through our region. The storm missed us - we had sunshine all the while - but the dark, almost black, sky to the east was amazing to see.

As I always do when interesting weather comes, I took my camera (I use my digital Panasonic point and shoot for this sort of thing, one of the newer models with virually no shutter lag) and managed to capture lightning, just visible in the picture above our barn.

Like most avid gardeners, I'm an obsessed weather-watcher, and only truly content when what the weather is doing is good for my plants.

So give me just enough rain - an inch a week during the growing season, please. And I want decent snow cover all winter, long cool springs, summers that are warm, not hot, and gorgeous autumns with just enough rain and that wonderful coolness in the air.

Ah, dream on, gardener: The reality is weeks of dryness, or so much rain that you can't keep up with the mowing. In winter, (at least lately) it's been too mild, alternating with too darned cold. And don't get me started on summer: heat, humidity and drought are the bane of my gardening existence. So pat me on the head, bring me a tall, cool Vitamin G (gin and tonic with lime), and make me to sit on patio with a book.

With regard to nature, gardeners and weather, here's how garden writer Henry Mitchell, once put it:

"There are no green thumbs or black thumbs. There are only gardeners and non-gardeners. Gardeners are the ones who ruin after ruin get one with the high defiance of nature herself, creating in the very face of her chaos and tornado, the bower of roses and the pride of irises."

Exactly right, now where's that G&T?