May Showers Also Bring Flowers

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After 10 days without rain, we were SO happy to see those dark clouds piling up this weekend. It’s been an intermittent, rain-like-crazy cloud burst followed by humid gloom few days, but the garden plants grew inches overnight. John and I walked the orchard today. He measures the baby trees against himself to see how they grew. Two pear tree shot up another few inches, and the apricot tree is over the top of its protective cage. Best of all, the tiny plums are growing bigger! I can almost taste them…yum…fresh plums!

I’ve been picking strawberries like mad and today noticed that all the plants have set runners. I hope I left enough room for them. Jack (John’s dad who lives with us) made strawberry jello, which I hate, which is good because then I won’t be tempted by the sugar. But he added sliced strawberries to it and there was enough left over (sans disgusting Jello) for a nice fresh snack for me.

The broccoli rabe has set seed for good, so I’ve got to pull it out. I’ve tried cutting it way down, hoping to get another crop of the stems and leaves. It’s so delicious when you saute it with some butter and garlic. But it just grows flower stalks and sets seed. The spinach came roaring back after I froze about two gallons of the stuff last weekend, so I have a feeling I’ll be back in the kitchen putting up more vegetables in the freezer.

The flower garden…oh I cannot stop looking at it. We planted wisteria against the woods and I can see them from my office. There will be a wall of purple flowers some day. Snapdragons hiding from last year are now peeking up over the evening primrose and along the pathway. In the butterfly garden, the Butterfly Weed and Monarda just burst into bloom. We’ve had brilliant yellow and blue butterflies when the rain stops, and lots of brown ones too. I squeezed in a lantana and hope it soars up into the giant bush I had last year; boy did the butterflies love it!

Today’s photo is actually from the butterfly garden and shows off some beautiful nepeta (Cat Mint) and Salvia.