Gardening and Observing Life in SW Washington

Flirting with Summer

Posted by: BriarCraft, 17:08 GMT 17. Květen 2011

June 15:
The Nootka Roses are starting to bloom. I'm glad I was able to snap a couple of photos before heading off on vacation. Now you can see what they look like.

For comparison, here is an old-fashioned Rugosa Rose, which I grow for the huge rose hips.

June 12:
It's going to be quite hectic around here this week. Saturday, June 18, we leave for Minneapolis to visit hubby's family. Neither hubby nor I will put up with airport intimacies and airline rip-offs. So we drive. Totally unplugged -- no cell phone, no computer. And it is a lovely trip.

Between now and then, we'll be scrambling to get the garden and yard work squared away. Even so, everything will be overgrown when we return and it will be another mad scramble so that the weeds don't get a chance to choke out the veggies. We've got a housesitter who will care for the cats, feed the wild birds, and water garden and flowerbeds, but no weeding or mowing. At least with the unspring and late planting I won't be missing out on any harvests.

I did take time to snap some photos, which are posted in the comments section below. If the native Nootka Roses cooperate, I promise to snap a photo or two before we leave. The buds are there, but whether they open before we leave is another question. They're usually in full bloom by now, but not this year.

June 7:
I made good use of the good weather the past few days. The garden is officially planted now. I still have 4 6-packs of parsley and 19 6-packs of flowers languishing in the greenhouse waiting for a home. Coincidentally, I have one neglected herb bed and two neglected flower beds badly in need of weeding. Over the next week, all that will be remedied.

Still flirting with summer, it looks like the weather pattern finally, at long last, is changing. After 13 months of cooler and wetter than normal, it's about time and then some. We've actually had 4 consecutive dry days, Friday-Monday, and not only that, but 3 of those days actually logged warmer than normal temperatures. On Saturday, the temp. actually reached 81°F. The last time it topped 80°F was Sept. 27 of last year, 250 days previous. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Yes, I know western Washington and Oregon have a bad reputation for being wet. Actually, there are many parts of the country which log more annual rainfall than our 50" average. For example, Wilmington DE gets 54", Miami Fl 56", Jacksonville FL 51", Atlanta GA 51", Charleston SC 51", Memphis TN 52". New York City comes close with 47". (If you want to know more about weather averages, check out Climate Zone.) The significant difference for the Pacific Northwest is that it rains a little bit for a lot of days, as opposed to a lot of rain on fewer days. And along with that, there are a lot of days when it's cloudy. Now add a weather pattern that results in cooler and wetter than normal and the result is just plain depressing.

Now, we're moving into an on-shore flow pattern, which at this time of year results in what is known as June Gloom as far south as San Diego. It's normal. It means overcast mornings, and partial to complete clearing afternoons. Really rather nice weather for gardening in the morning and sitting back to enjoy the results in the afternoon. Still many days with a chance of rain, but the chances are decreasing from the old 80% to the current 30%, so many of those days will in fact be dry, if cloudy.

So while we continue to flirt with summer, there is now hope that the flirting will pay off and his big sunny face will shine enough to make the land (and my garden) bountiful this summer. At least I'm encouraged enough to keep flirting.

June 3:
Gone gardening while the sun shines. I'll be back with an update and maybe some photos when the cool and clouds and showers return.

May 17:
There comes a day, a time when you just know. The season has changed. It has little to do with calendars or meteorologists. There's a feel to the air. I don't know how to describe it, but I think if you're a gardener or outdoorsperson, you know what I mean.

Yesterday, the shift happened here. The season changed from "unspring" to true spring. Yesterday morning the forecast was for 30% chance of rain and cloudy. The sun came out in the afternoon. And stayed. It was here this morning when I awakened. The forecast is saying there's another 30% chance of rain for today, but I can tell it won't. Not here. Not today. The cats know it, too. They were all outside as soon as I opened the cat door this morning, not waiting for breakfast.

Today, I start transplanting flowers from the greenhouse to the flower beds. The garden needs a couple of days to dry out after La Nina's last dying gasp over the weekend, which dumped 1.1 inches of rain.

So pardon me, dear WUfriends if I don't visit your blogs or reply to your comments here as promptly as I would like. I'm behind on my gardening. And the growing season is short, and late in arriving, too. And I've got lots to do. So don't fret. I'll be back when I'm too sore to move or the next rainy day, whichever comes first.

Here's the new baby Mountain Fire Andromeda I told you about in my last blog.

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ToledoTel Toledo, WA
Elevation:	302 ft
Teplota:	48.1 °F
Rosný bod:	46.2 °F
Vlhkost:	93%
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Nárazy větru:	0.0 mil/h
Updated: 02:34 PDT 25. Květen 2013 Station History