We haven't had winds that strong and no intense dry heat. Our yard has been part swamp some of the time. The zucchini are barely growing. I have some disease on my new halo dogwood shrub. The bottoms of annual poppies look rotted. I think one hill of zucchini has something wrong. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to cover potatoes with straw instead of hilling them up. The bush beans look terrible. Planted late but don't seem to be growing very quickly and they are spattered with mud.

Heard there was late blight in Franklin County MA.

Just saw an article today that our unpredictable weather is the "new normal"!

see link below...

Here is a link that might be useful: weather the new normal

Worked great for me. I plant stuff at my parent's house on Mother's Day and Father's Day. Sometimes the lack of follow up care kills them, but all the rain covered that this time.

This weekend I gave into all of the signs and pulled up about 8 dying/dead zucchinis that just hated all of the moisture this spring.

Tragic.

I just cut off three mildewed leaves off my summer squash plant, which still has no squash on it. The rest of the plant still looks healthy so I'm holding out a little longer. What a disappointment! And summer squash is usually everyone's biggest producer!

I hope your summer squash will bear fruit, Prairiemoon. My hill of summer squash never germinated at all. I tried a second planting, but there was just not enough sun and too much rain. The seeds must have rotted in the ground. :-(

Here's hoping next spring and summer will be sunnier!

Thanks spedigrees, yes, next year....SUN!!

July 2013---hottest ever at Hartford and Providence.

Worst year that I've had in the garden since I don't know when. I've harvested some nice size onions but that's about it.

The only good thing I can say about this year is that my fruit trees have gone berserk. I told my wife this year that if the cherry tree didn't finally produce, I was going to cut it down. We've had it for many years and yet never gotten a harvest from it. Low and behold, there were a gazillion cherries on it this year. My apple trees and my crabapple are also loaded down with fruit. Can't figure it out but it has been a nice surprise.

Another 1/2' of rain last night outside Hartford. My river birch trees have sprung many 6'+ long low branches since May and today I will rip out the squash and cukes that are no longer developing. Got 3 full size cucumbers this year, that's it. They're turning yellow and getting mushy at about 1" long. Newer flowering shrubs, however, have about tripled in size in their first full year.

Going to HD today to buy my first home generator (propane) before the hurricane season begins. Hope it has a reverse effect and we get no hurricanes this year!

Glad you have a fruit abundance, TO; nice to make up for some of the loss elsewhere in the garden.

Jane

Whie the weather has indeed been wacky this year, I have to say the last few days have been just gorgeous! A bit warm for my taste, but sunny, low 80's, low humidity, slight breeze, cool nights - wow. And some rain at night to help things along. I personally am not a big fan of summer, but if summer were like the way it has been here the last few days, I could definitely deal with it much easier. I'm really trying to enjoy and appreciate these days as I know they won't last!

Dee

I know Dee, it's August 1st already!! I like the weather just like this too. Sunny, in the high 70s, low 80s with a little breeze and then cooler at night with an overnight rain of about 3 inches once a week. Not asking for much, just perfection...lol.

I'm just happy I'm not dragging the hose around the garden.

Tree Oracle: How are your Crape Myrtles doing this summer? I assume they are thriving because of the heat and humidity in July--particularly the consistently warm nights? My Muskogee has grown something like 4 feet! And it started blooming earlier than ever before.

*sign* our new Halo dogwood shrub has lots of brown spots and is dropping leaves. It is putting out some new leaves so I took that as a good sign. Didn't bother to look up what kind of disease it is.

Zucchini plants are dying. I gave our daughter-in-law one small monster and several others and told her that would probably be it. She had planned to make relish and her neighbor also had a bad zucchini year. I looked up the disease and will need to avoid that location in the garden for 2 more years.

Tomato plants hardly grew but the ones inside the high tunnel (sides rolled up) get far less water because they don't get rained on and are huge and healthy. Hardly any peppers this year and I usually brag about my peppers.

My garlic harvest looks pretty good and *ahem* my bulbs are as big as usual and a lot better looking than what I've seen at some farmstands.

A local farmer said his peaches and apples looked good but all the veggies are terrible.

So today it's been raining and yesterday when it was great gardening weather, I had to run around town and waste all that good weather.

Rockman,

My crape myrtles have just started blooming. I have a couple of pictures below of the Hopi CMs. They have indeed grown a lot but the Hopi CM's always do anyway. Having a southern exposure next to the house probably helps. My Acoma is about to explode in bloom. I'll post a picture of it later.

Those crape myrtles are beautiful with that sprinkling of pink on top.

To update about my horrendous luck with squashes this year: A woodchuck moved in underneath the shed and decided the lone squash plant that survived June was tasty as all hell.

Such a sad year to only have about 5 or so squashes. My friends in the area had similar issues with all of the cucurbits.

The tomato plants are absolutely insane. I sprouted a few 'Big Boy' tomatoes from seed, planted them in may, and yesterday I measured them to be a bit taller than 7 feet. Wow!

The potatoes patch has benefited from all of the rain, thankfully. Yesterday I pulled a few new Yukon golds out of curiousity (and hunger).