Finally rain arrived. Great for the garden, less good for other plans. I’m having family over for lunch on Sunday, and rain is forecast all day. Outdoor entertaining will have to come inside and someone will be cooking in the rain! This week has been very hot. The plants in the garden are scorched, the veg plot is desiccated but I managed to find six things in the garden:.
One
The lawn. Quite an interesting view at the moment. The crispy dry stripe is where, long ago, there was a path. The middle section is a mixture of green weeds and brown grass and the far corner is the part of the lawn that is always waterlogged through the winter. There is local talk of underground streams but I think even these have dried up this summer. The grass hasn’t been mown in months but a close look showed the creeping buttercup is, of course, creeping very nicely and the little acorns planted by squirrels are growing into mighty oaks. The clover is mostly going to seed and providing food for the birds. Such biodiversity.
Two
The hydrangea in the front garden is usually uniformly pink but this year it is pink on the side that gets the sun and shades of pink, purple and blue on the less sunny side. Curiously it is doing well in the heat. The front garden is watered very sparingly – and this plant hasn’t been watered once. I hope last night’s rain will keep it in good health. It will probably die of shock.
Three
The first ripened chilli in the greenhouse. It’s a cayenne – looks pretty hot to me but apparently not a knock your socks off chilli. Picked now and soon to be added to a tomato salsa. The tomato crop is also ripening you can see a few ‘Golden Crown’ tomatoes in the background. Note for John K – I’m only up to four trusses.
Four
The combination of tithonia and blackberries looks so autumnal to me. There are lots of berries to pick and I haven’t watered these at all. Maybe they do have their roots down in an underground stream. The tithonias have now made it to six feet and with the help of the magic water I think they may well make eight feet.
Five
The shallots have been harvested. They were planted out in late November and again I didn’t water them so they are on the small side. I have been so mean due to a combination of lack of time and a short hose! Some of these are heading into a potato salad this weekend.
Six
And finishing on a sort of ta-daa! Work on the ‘ugly end of the garden’ project started. Temperatures were in the 30s and all was going well until the imminent thunderstorms meant the electrical equipment had to be packed away. Now I want the rain to stay away today so that the job can be finished. Then I need to start planning again. The beds get afternoon sun and I have asparagus on my wish list. I’ve grown beans against the fence for two summers but I think it is too shady for a really successful crop. More thinking to be done.
Who else is suffering and who is winning the rainfall lottery? Those down under speak of cold winters. Find out more by visiting The Propagator’s blog for this week’s links.
n20gardener 
I don’t have a lawn like yours yet but if the rain doesn’t come, I will probably take the same photo in a few weeks … I also have a lot of blackberries and shallots because of the nice dry weather. I have not lost much of them by rot. Good luck for the new bed, your planks make me want to create new things! …
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Thank you, I should have posted a before and after shot – something to tweet perhaps.
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Yes, a very cold winter here! Your garden project is looking very interesting and the woodwork very smart. So interesting that a hydrangea can have two different colours, and also that it can cope with the heat.
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My other hydrangeas wilt every other day!
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Hydrangeas are a mystery to me, one of mine is at death’s door, another right beside it is fine. And try explaining the colouring to a garden centre customer who just wants a blue hydrangea, no ifs and buts.
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I prefer my multi colour version!
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We won the rainfall lottery in St. Michaels, Maryland this week.
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I’m still hoping for a dry Sunday and then some rain!
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My lawn looks exactly like yours, except mine has dandelions and morning glory instead of creeping buttercup, which is creeping elsewhere in the garden. It seems futile to mow, as there is no tall grass at all. Gorgeous hydrangea and an impressive carpentry project!
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I only have one small crop of dandelions which is quite surprising! The ground is still so hard even after the rain of Friday
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Interesting how the lack of rain has affected the lawn. Hopefully, if the forecast is right, my garden will get rain this weekend. My chillies are nowhere near red so I’m envious.
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Our hydrangea is the same, usually red but now a combo of red and purple. Tomato salsa sounds delicious!
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That hydrangea is stunning! I only grow one hydrangea after killing one through neglect a couple of years ago. My remaining one does get watered if it starts to flop. I quite like a crispy lawn.
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Others have also posted pictures of dried patches in lawns. It is normal for some of us here. Those with perfectly green lawns have artificial turf, or are scorned for wasting water.
Those hydrangeas are trippy! I fertilized some to get them to bloom blue, and others to bloom pink. Yet, there are some that insist on ‘trying’ to be one color or the other, and they are all mixed up. In a group that was fertilized to be blue, one is quite a rich shade of blue, but right next to another that is pale lavender pink. It looks silly.
Your blackberries look like the weedy Himalayan bramble rather than a garden variety that is easier to work with. I just posted pictures of ours. The berries are good, but too much work to get to.
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Yes the black berries are probably brambles – very prickly. We inherited them as a very wild patch. I’ve thinned then out but for the moment what’s left will stay, they do have a good taste. As you can imagine the roots go deep!
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My whole lawn looks like your brown strip, even after a few days’ rain. Did you get your dry Sunday? Sounds like you’ve got lots of yummy food from the garden – salads & salsas & berries, o my! – so would be a good visit anyway. Where there’s food, there’s fun. Except at funerals, I suppose, altho in my family, we do a lot of laughing at funerals. And on that note, I’ll bid you fare well until next week!
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Sunday was great fun – rained overnight and in morning so garden furniture was too wet and it was very windy but we bbq’d and then ate inside. As you say food and good company = great times!
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