Although I have to say – it hasn’t been continuous – there have been dry bits. It’s just there has been some rain EVERY DAY! But still – it’s supposed to be summer – you know – ice cream cones, getting wet by swimming at the beach not being drenched because you can’t find your umbrella, T shirts and shorts – not jeans and jumpers. It is supposed to be hot. Driving around in the car with the aircon on is one of the simple pleasures of the chaos that is Christmas shopping. I don’t even feel like doing any Christmas shopping. The weather is all wrong – so I’m not in the right mood!
The upside is the garden is loving it. Everything is so lush and green. The spinach has gone all spinachy, whereas last week I was beginning to doubt whether it would come to anything at all as it looked like it was about to bolt. The cucumbers, zukes and squash have begun to move after just sitting there for over a month doing nothing at all.
But the plants aren’t the only greenery going nuts – the grass has gone all long and is making the feel of the garden all scruffy and out of control. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I mowed the garden, but now it’s like it never happened at all. But mowing in the rain isn’t recommended, and isn’t very pleasant either!
Another upside is I don’t need to be out there with the hose, however the time taken to water the beds was supposed to be spent weeding, but these unwanted interlopers are getting a free reign in my fertile soil while I’m trapped inside watching the rain fall and trying really hard to feel festive. I’m going to have to get out there when it dries out and give my precious plants a bit of a feed to give back what has been stolen so brazenly!
The other problem is that harvesting of things like strawberries and peas isn’t being done with enthusiasm – in fact it’s not being done at all. It breaks my heart to think of the strawberries that are very possibly going all smooshy in the rain, but as much as I love strawberries, I’m not in a hurry to catch a cold or other nasty lurgy, that would interfere with the Christmas preparations and fun on a grander scale than a bit of rain.
The weather boffins reckon we will see clear blue skies again in about 5 days, but only for three days until the sunshine returns to its liquid form, like some kind on fairy tale princess out passed midnight. But having said that I don’t really trust the boffins. They are always wrong and the recent advice to farmers was to prepare for drought this summer…. Just in case! I love a decisive boffin!
So here I am … inside, damp, and in desperate need of a yule attitude. Maybe I should deck some halls…
Come again soon – we will find the jolly-ness if we have to kidnap the fat man himself!
Sarah the Gardener : o )
Our drought summer started out like that this year…wet, wet, wet at the beginning then the rain just quit, nothing for months. I came to appreciate the long stretches of rain much, much more when they weren’t there!
Your garden looks wonderful! I just got my first seed catalog in the mail last night and I”m ready to start planning next year’s garden. With yours on the opposite side of the globe, I get to enjoy the greenery and harvest from afar while dreaming about mine. 🙂
Hi Jenn. “They” say it is supposed to be a long hot summer, but at the moment I’ll just settle for a little bit less rain. If I look on the bright side, the garden has had a good solid moisture base to begin the season.
Reading about northern gardens keeps me going through our winter until I can finally plant those new seeds that start the whole growing season all over again.
Stay warm.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Send it our way…please!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Hi Linda.
I would if I could… we have had so much.
Some would say too much. We had 21mm in 10 minutes the other day. It was actually a very dangerous 10 minutes, as there were flash floods, a couple of rare tornados and severe winds and tragedy for a few families.
So much for summer!
Cheers Sarah : o )
We have been having too much hot weather here in tasmania! We just had 2 days of rain and the veggie garden is incredibly happy and I can start to cool down. We decorated our tree and are just about to decorate the front gate in an effort to inject a bit of Christmas Spirit on Serendipity Farm but this year feels decidedly unChristmassy…We have spinach though! Maybe a nice spinach quiche (we have LOTS of eggs as well 😉 ) might improve the situation 🙂
Hi Fran. Thanks for the spinach quiche idea. I also have loads of spinach and loads of eggs. We had it for tea last night and it was really yummy. I have finally finished decorating the house – oh apart from the lights outside so the festive thing is starting to get there.
Cheers Sarah : o )