Thursday, June 08, 2006

When it Rains it Pours

6-8-06 VERMONT: We came up on the devil’s day, 6/6/06, with solely light traffic, thanks, Satan. There was 1.1” rain in the gauge from the week we were away. Everything, almost everything, looked great, fresh, growing, dewy and vibrant. The Judd viburnum actually has been breakfast, lunch and dinner for something and looks depressed but does show a bit of new growth. Maybe it will survive. Many of the Wentworth viburnum have also been eaten and look dead. More of the devil’s work no doubt, 666 inch worms at his behest. So whats the deal, are viburnums God’s favorite or something to be singled out like Job? I used the afternoon we arrived to do a bit of work, speaking of jobs, using the string trimmer out front, in the drive and around the fence roses and weeded some nasty devils.

New blooms: lilacs, more azalea, more blueberry, barberry, burning bush, native roses and fence roses, more viburnums, columbine, may apple, false solomon seal, hesperis, centauria, lupin, more cranesbill, and Jacobs ladder.

Yesterday I got out in the morning and did a few hours of pruning between the house and garage before it started to rain hard and then retreated inside to do some other chores. We had dinner with the Hileys in Lebanon.

Today we had another 1.15” in the rain gauge and after threatening all day it is raining again now. I got in a full day finishing the pruning and weeding I started yesterday and moved on the the native roses and the terrace beds, and the beds framing the lower yard and delivered another huge load to the burn pile. The wet half of the yard, south of the pond remains a swamp.

Wildlife: rosebreasted grossbeak and goldfinch on the feeder today. The bugs are out in force, repellant essential for survival.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Any gardener who PRAISES SATAN is OK by me! I'll bet he'd save your viburnum if you'd ritually sacrifice a dog (god spelled backwards).