OVERHEARD

I live on a small one-way street and in the summer we keep our windows open.  We don't get many people walking down our street so when I hear people outside my Mrs. Kravitz comes out.  Sunday afternoon I heard quite a ruckus and turned around to see what was going on outside.  It was a group of about 6 adults clearly enjoying the break in the rain with a walk.  And then as they passed the house I heard: "That's pretty."  I saw several of them turn and look back at this view:

"Oh, yes it is." 

Well my heart swelled. 

I also took advantage of the lull in the rain by walking my garden for the first time this week.  I really have no idea how much rain we've gotten, but I did just read that the area has received more than 2.5 times the norm for June already.  But even with only rare sunshine some things are blooming.  Lamium:

 

My first blooming dahlias!  It's the micro-mini plant:

But the Bay State Angel isn't too far behind:

There's nightshade in the bastard garden:

The hydrangea:

Which is just loving this weather:

It's funny that all of a sudden the Japanese painted fern is showing color since I was lusting after these on the garden tour last week in other people's gardens.  Who knew I already had one:

 

VPH can't get over the grass sprouting on top of the blue stone after the dirt and seed washed down in the first of the torrential downpours: 

 

I really must get mulch down, these beans turned, and string trellises up:

 

Something's eating the heck out of the scarlet runner beans, but I remember the morning glories were hit just as hard in this spot last year:

 

And the vegetable garden (complete with weeds) is growing like crazy:

 

If the rain is keeping me out of the garden, at least its not keeping me out of the stores.  Some new garden additions include glow-in-the-dark stepping stones (the white parts glow):

 

I thought it was cute that the moon glowed on this one:

This one is a little too cutesy for me, but buried under the grass the cheesy inscribed saying isn't too noticeable:

And the local garden center was selling perennial herbs for $1/each.  How could I not buy a few, or eight?  2 peppermints (one is for my friend Mary), 1 pineapple mint (which has one albino stalk), 3 purple sages, and 2 lemon sages:

And you think I'm kidding about the rain?  Any idea what this is:

Did you guess the bottom of my bird feeder?  Not sure what I'm going to do about this yet, I'd kind of like to see what plants we'd get:

 

How's your garden surviving the deluge?

Comments

[Dave]

I'm in zone 6b in southern NJ and its been wet as well. I see you are making great use of your space. What state are you living in?

I once had sprouts in my bird feeder too, then I switched to just black oil sunflower seed in my feeder and put the mixed feed on the ground. - Dave

http://snjgardener.blogspot.com/

[jonquil]

the lamium is beautiful. my house is damp, the few rosebushes are bedraggled & have yellow bug-et leaves!

[Jennah - MD]

Want some more lamium? It's a weed here! A pretty weed, but a weed nonetheless. I think it's done for this year anyway.

ANd my birdfeeder looked like that until I washed it out, too! If it would just rain ONCE a week, that would be nice.

[Carole]

Hi Heather
just wanted to stop by and say hi. I usually like a little rain break but unfortunitely by customers don't like to get wet...so biz is slow.
Yes Hydrangea love this weather!!!
Ours look great this year!!

[Heather's Garden]

Dave -- Thanks! I'm in southern, central CT about a mile from Long Island Sound. I'll check out your site.

Jonquil -- Sun is in our forecast! I just hope it sticks around for a while.

Jennah-MD -- I've heard from some people that lamium grows like a weed for them, but it's my first time growing it in my garden. It's certainly trying to take over the container it's in!

Carole -- Sun this weekend! My hydrangea is blooming like mad.

[eric]

I wish we had some rain - Instead I think we are on 12+ days of 100° weather.

[Maggie]

I just came across this site and I absolutely love it! Thank you!

[Bea]

The bird seed sprouting is too funny -makes me think of a 5th grade biology project!

[Heather's Garden]

Eric -- We all want what we don't have, don't we? The sun came out this afternoon finally!

Maggie -- Thank you so much!

Bea -- I emptied it tonight, it was all gross and smelly in the bottom. I think I need to drill some drainage holes in the bottom of the feeder. But hopefully we won't have 3 straight weeks of rain again!

[Hit 40]

Your poor birdfeeder!!! Yuck.

I have been surprised how well my Japanese ferns have held up. I thought I killed them the first year from lack of water....

but they popped right back up. I want to get an ostrich fern with really big leaves.

[Heather's Garden]

Hit 40 -- It's okay now, but I'm still debating drilling those holes. I love ferns, I think I'll be adding more and more of them.

[Pam Stevens]

Hi. How are you? Really enjoyed your site. I was wondering where you found and purchsed the half moon stepping stone. I have the sun with the saying on it. But I really liked the one with the half moon. Maybe I can find one near me. Thanks!!!

[Heather's Garden]

Pam -- Christmas Tree Shops, but it was a while ago, don't know if they'll have any left. Hope I didn't offend you with the cheesy saying comment, I'm just not a very sentimental person.

[Pam Stevens]

Hello again,
Oh no, you did not offend me. I just like the sun and moon glow in the dark stones. The half moon was unique. Maybe one will turn up for me soon. Thanks for your response. Also, I found another site similar to yours. It's called rantings,ravings,and rovings.blogspot.com or something like that. Thought you might like to check it out. Talk to you soon.