Poor Peonies! I was so glad to see everyone posting their beautiful peony photos on other links!

I started a thread on the New England forum--Suppose they gave a year without a June?--and that about covers it. But your garden is so beautiful, even in the endless rain.

Lovely gardens. I remember when we were having that kind of rain and I was wishing for some sun...careful what you wish for. :(

But I so well understand your frustration (I'm a New England transplant). I recall the summer of '67 when there were but two sunny Saturdays all summer long (my wedding day in late June and my cousin's in mid August). I wasn't gardening then, but do remember that my shoes literally molded in the closets! Besides that, it was the dreariest of years! Hope y'all pull out soon!

And Token's right - I'm in the dry, 90's neighborhood too and had to haul hose and water last night ..... grrrrrr! If only we could strike a deal w/Mother Nature for moderation in each direction!

There's always next year for the peonies. I wonder how many times in a gardening year that gardeners say "oh well, NEXT year they will be spectacular" over something that didn't go "quite right" with certain plants.

Token and Zigzag, my folks are in NC and I know what they go through with drought. They are constantly watering. It is definitely a much tougher battle to deal with drought than constant rain. Let's hope the jetstream changes soon and we can all get some relief!

We're having a few thunderheads but no rain to speak of. But everything is on automatic watering/timers. That's the only way to go out here in the dry west. I do some hand watering for new plantings to get them established and some pots.

Diana

I've got crushed rock, bordered by rotted leaf mulch and over the years the mulch has traveled into the rock parts and sometimes it looks downright messy! I have lifted and re-set runs of flagstones to some degree of success, but am always interested in different applications.

I'll appreciate any pointers you have to offer ... and again, thank you for posting such pretty pics! And I do hope you're getting some sunshine these days!

Enjoy the heavenly water - your plants seem to love it - I can see them dancing in a rain!

In reference to the questions on the pavers they are a thick blue slate from either western VT or eastern NY. We saw 2 pallets of them and bought them immediately. I've never seen them anywhere around here again (we bought them about 7 years ago). The slates are laid right on top of the virgin soil (which had been severely compacted by a bulldozer during building). The paths probably look pretty neat because my DH just finished the project (yes, after 7 years!) this spring. We started years ago and got halfway done and I just didn't like it. I think it was because we had used a whitish stonedust. We just stopped the project and thought about it...ummmm.....for 6 years! LOL! We were just about to rip it all out this spring and put in a more formal pathway when my DH found a bagged product called leveling sand. We bought it at our local Ace Hardware. It was a blue-grey color and that really worked for me. I think it looks much better because there is not as much contrast with the stones. Heavy rains do kick the sand up onto the pavers, but it can be swept off if necessary. The texture is a lot like stonedust as opposed to something like play sand. I think the only way to have a truly neat and tidy pathway is either brick or formed pavers fitted together. However, I do like the seedlings that come up in the path, and I think in a cottage-style area you can get away with being a little less tidy.

We did look into a product called Gator Dust which is basically a stone dust that actually hardens in the cracks. I've attached a link in case anyone is interested. It did sound like a great product for certain projects. With the frost heaving we get up here I didn't want a cement-like product in the cracks.

~Drowning in a town near you, mmq

I think we all have some of those UFO (unfinished objects). lol!

Diana