Starting over

What a roller-coaster ride the weather has given us of late; from heat during the second last week of May, to brutal frosts the last week of May, to energy-sapping heat and humidity today. It has been very dry, and the township is under a fire ban, but late yesterday, we had a lovely quarter inch of rain, and this morning the yellowing spots in the yard are all green, green, green!

After taking a chance on that warm weather in May, and planting out my tomatoes and peppers, the frosts in the last week of May pretty much did the tomatoes in, but surprisingly, the peppers were only singed here and there, and are coming back now, and blooming! I double covered the tomatoes and peppers, and left the covers on well into the mornings, as the day temperatures did not even rise into double digits. The cool days and cold nights all in a row stopped all the growing things in their tracks. We were lighting the fire each morning! The frost even did in native plants/weeds. The Milkweeds are burnt, the Spreading Dog bane is toast, and even the base leaves of the Orange Hawk weed look shriveled.

I had to buy new tomato plants, and when they were rung up, realized how much money I save by starting my own! Choice is also limited when buying starts.

So, I am starting over, and spirits are again on a positive swing. Yesterday I finished planting the warm weather stuff, cucumbers, squash and beans. Two bare places are left in the beds, one for the second planting of beans and one for a later planting of carrots.

There isn't much green to be seen yet in the beds, an 8 foot row of peas had their top leaves scorched yellow in the frost. The 8 foot row of climbing beans have just popped through the soil. The blue rounds in the third bed were cut from a leaky water barrel, and sunk into the ground, as there is bedrock just below the surface there, and the rounds increase the soil depth, and hopefully will contain the mint and oregano, which are just starting from seed in them.

The garlic had their tips yellowed in the frost, but otherwise had no issues.

The rhubarb wilted a bit, but is going great now. Some of the stalks are almost as big around as my wrist!

This is a baby white oak tree that we planted when we moved here. It has been doing very well. The brown leaves are frost damage, but it will come back. It got singed badly because we planted it out in the open.