Summer Snowstorm

Not here, but over in Yellowstone and up on Beartooth Pass … the pass is closed because they got 18 inches over the last two days. Glad I didn’t take the Wall O’Waters off the tomatoes … it’s just been gloomy and rainy down here, which is a mixed blessing. The plants love the rain, but it’s been so cold that the beans and zucchini are having a hard time getting off the ground. It’s supposed to warm up later this week.

Not much happening in the garden right now. The lettuce is coming up really well, as are the basil seedlings. The beets, Chinese kale and even the parsnips have sprouted, and I have a lot of radish and carrott seedlings going on out there. The cucumbers aren’t doing so well … too cold, I guess. They’ve pretty much all died. The first set of flageolet beans also keeled over, so I reseeded and also seeded in some Chinese long beans.

As for flowers, most of the peonies have bloomed and they’re all a gorgeous fuschia color. I love peonies and am so happy these aren’t white. Come fall, I’ll have to move them since they’re plunked right in the middle of my front lawn, one on each side of the walk. I want to do a cottage-garden sort of bed down along the front fence (four-foot chain link, sort of ugly but very practical) and I’ll move them when I put in those beds. The roses along the south side of my house also bloomed — they’re very old white rugosas, and while I thought they were going to be boring, they’re actually very pretty. I want to underplant them with a later-blooming dark pink of some sort, perhaps some more Terese de Buget. Again, next year.

It’s clearing up a little this morning, so I’ll have to go out and see what’s been going on out there during all this rain.