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It's raining, it's pouring,...

It's simply amazing how things change from year to year , here in New England.

Last summer we had to figure out which plants were the most drought tolerant.  This year seems to be an experiment on how much water each plant can hold.  Black eyed susans seem to be exploding everywhere for a very long stretch this season.  Impatiens look absolutely wonderful as do the nasturtiums.  I had direct seeded, both in the ground and in windowboxes, a variety of nastutium with a variegated leaf that I have been quite pleased with.  The flowers are a wonderful sunshiney yellow and orange.  For whatever reason, aphids have not attacked these plants as they have in the past.   Nastutiums with too much fertilizer and water generally get lots of huge foliage and very few blooms - I did not see this happen with this variety and all the rain.  My sweet 100 and grape tomatoes are huge and lush but the fruit is taking way too long to ripen.

This cool and wet season has allowed more flexibility with pruning hedges and shrubs.  My boxwood and privet are in morning sun which also helps.   These plants managed quite well with aggressive pruning.

I did want to pass along a bit of an update - a species of lady bug has been found that feasts on those woolly adelgid that are taking over the hemlocks!

I'm hoping for a very sunny, not too hot, Indian summer, kind of September.

9/1/00