Rain Falling, Trees Falling, Sky Still Intact: June in Review

"The best-laid plans of mice and men
Go oft awry"
from To a Mouse, Robert Burns, 1785

And so went my plans for weekly posts in June as well as completing May's photo album before June was gone. July is here and the rain unbelievably persists, 2" on July 3-4, 0.3" last night. I have not watered any garden bed even once this season. Vegetation is lush. The grass is thick and green and demanding a weekly mow. The lilies bloomed all of the month of June. First, the asiatic lilies put on a show, then the trumpets and fragrant orienpets (6 feet tall oriental-trumpet crosses), accompanied by daylilies and now the tiger-lilies. The old-fashioned crinum lilies have kept it up non-stop since early June.

I wasn't going to plant a vegetable garden , then decided to reclaim an old garden bed that was grown up in weeds, bronze fennel and unmanaged garlic. It adjoins the existing herb bed and now hosts 3 tomatoes, 3 peppers, one hill of yellow squash and a couple small rows of bush beans. I should eat the first squash and beans this week with tomatoes soon to follow. I've about decided to give up on roses, beautiful as they were in May. I didn't spray for black spot so the plants suffered greatly in the cool wet spring. Then the deer made nightly forays (and some in the broad daylight). Finally the Japanese beetles devoured any remaining blooms. Coneflowers, salvias and lilies, on the other hand, seem eager to please and don't have nearly the pest problems.

Rain, accompanied by high winds, took out a huge oak in the front yard. I knew that it was hollow but it had been for some years and still had plenty of live vegetation. A friend cut it up for firewood -- it took two full days. Before that task was done another storm took out a wild cherry along the north property line, which in turn took out a hackberry that had grown up. I hired a professional tree service to chip up and haul away the brush pile created when the oak was cut up, and to haul away the cherry and hackberry, and finally to trim limbs on trees around the house. I never realized just how much attention had to be paid to keep trees in check. To finish up the month, I spent two weekends cleaning out the south fencerow of tree sprouts and wisteria, as well as trimming back branches so I could mow. I burned that brush pile and now have another from cutting back bittersweet vines.