Good morning, and everybody must get stoned. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
We've had a wild July here in Denver — despite the National Weather Service which had predicted
The national weather service 30-day outlook models suggest that precipitation during July 2011 will be at or near normal amounts while temperatures will be at or slightly above normal.
Uhm, yeah. About that prediction — out at the airport, the 3.2" of rain which has fallen is 2.26" more than "normal". In my neck of the woods (the nearest weather station is about 2 miles away) 3.91" of rain has collected.
We had a thunderstorm every day since July 5. Some have been spectacular, with rainfall rates of hitting up to 25" an hour in isolated locations at the core of the storms (yes, that's over 2 feet an hour); luckily those bursts seldom last more than a few minutes as the storms move on — and the rain settles down to a more sedate inches, rather than feet, an hour.
It's been ten years since we've had a monsoon season this intense. Another half-inch of moisture and this July will break into the top ten wettest Julys on record. As the month is only half over, and there are more storms in the forecast, we just might make it.
And Wednesday night the dreaded hail hit my neighborhood — hailstone as large as a quarter fell for ten minutes or so.
So right now my garden is a tattered, squishy mess.
It could be worse — at least the hail wasn't too thick, so many plants emerged with only shredded leaves. However (and isn't there always a "however"?) a pepper plant had it's top broken off and will likely not recover; a hailstone chipped the top edge off my single baby bell pepper, creating a nice hole where insects can invade; the emerging buds were knocked off the brugmansias.
The brassicas have faired the worst, though. Those large, stiff leaves are easily snapped and several of the cauliflower may not flower as the crowns have been broken.
And the kohlrabi — they're just getting big enough to pick. However, the excess moisture caused several to split.
All the rain has also brought on an abundance of weeds. Every day as I head into the house from work I stop and pick a new batch of spurge and purslane from the rock surrounding the stone planter boxes; and every day I find even more have emerged. I also have to remain on the prowl for the nasty grass with the spiky seed heads; the seed heads get tangled in Zasu's fur and creates horrible mats. Last weekend I pulled a bushel of it from my neighbors' yards where I noticed it growing along sidewalks and hardscaping.
My grass patch is in desperate need of mowing — perhaps by this afternoon it will be dry enough. The good news is that all the rain has let the thyme, roman chamomile and clover planted in the grass to gain a good foothold.
Oh, and the melons have loved the rain — I have a few baby melons on the vine.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in you garden.