Too Much of a Good Thing

   
   The last few days have brought a few light sprinkles, but the heavy rain started last night.  The ground is saturated, all the water barrels and buckets are filled with water, and the driveway and gardens have puddles.  The basement sump pump is getting a workout.  This weather is similar to last year's soggy, cool summer. I am holding onto hope that things will dry out and warm up soon.

North garden - garlic, white scallop squash, cosmos, peas

The pea patch in the North garden

Planter with waterlogged flower seedlings

All the rain barrels, buckets, and watering cans are full.

The driveway.  If I can't have a pool, big puddles are the next best option.

South garden - string beans, cauliflower, tomato, zucchini, cosmos

 Grateful for the trench beside the house. This water (which is flowing like a river into the alley) would be in our basement, otherwise.

   Little Lou snoozing.  Or meditating.  It's hard to tell which, but she sure is sweet.  💛

   In the last week and a half, a few more tomatoes were planted (49 in total: 45 here and 4 at R's family's farm).  I also planted wax/string beans (Red Swan, Romano bush, and Calima) in the south garden.  Some of the summer squash (zucchini and Early Prolific) and acorn squash (Table King) that had been started indoors were transplanted into the garden.  The Ruckle, Beka Brown, and Agate Pinto dry beans have begun to germinate, as have the Gaspe Flint corn and the Muncher and Snacker cucumbers.  

   The two North Georgia Candy Roaster squash transplants that were planted at R's family's farm were killed by frost last week.  The Lower Salmon River squash and Long Pie Pumpkin transplants that were planted at the farm are apparently still doing okay.

   The only tomatoes that have developed yellow flowers thus far are "Cole", a very early variety.  The Coles have been transplanted at the farm.

   The flowers beds are a bit of a mess, as the vegetable gardens have taken priority up to this point.  The deep purple tulips planted last Fall have come up (beautiful!) and the irises will be blooming soon (thank you, Jackie, wherever you are).  The sunflowers I planted along the back have begun to germinate and some volunteer pansies appeared. The latter were transplanted into a pot on the front step. Getting the Creeping Thyme under control (it is pretty and the bees adore it, but it self-seeds and spreads like crazy) and the grass weeded out from the Woolly thyme is on my to-do list.

   There are three beds at the back of the house that haven't been planted yet.  They don't get much sun at this point, so I am pretty much limited to planting (yet more...) greens and a few herbs.

   A few items remain on a heat mat under a grow light indoors: summer squash (the one that just germinated is a zucchini), summer savoury, French lavender (clippings from our houseplant), and the waterlogged herb - brought inside from the rain - is marjorum.