I spent several hours this morning clearing out weeds and weedy grasses. I didn’t even make a dent — the growth (except for some things I want to grow) is overwhelming. I can’t imagine living in a climate where it rains all the time, though this past week where it’s rained so much (and yes, it did finally rain last night about 1:30 AM), I’ve had a glimmer of what it would be like. There would be a lot of good things about it — no time spent watering, no coaxing plants to grow in the arid climate, no dealing with plants dying because of a single day’s neglect. And it would be a lot cooler. Maybe. But keeping on top of weeds and such? Yikes.
My current plan is to do what I can, and when the annuals start dying off this fall, dig up the whole area where the weeds are now too deep seated for me pull easily, and replace them with a different sort of plant. I’m finding that I prefer clumps of flowers, like echinacea, New England asters, and four o’clocks, to single flowers because they are easier to weed. They also tend not to be as weedy, so that helps.
The wild four o’clock is blooming, mostly when I’m not around, but I did capture a couple of the flowers late yesterday afternoon. They are pretty, and when blooming in masses, must be awesome.
I hadn’t planned to write another gardening post so soon, and I certainly didn’t want to bore people with talk of the weather, but this morning’s exertions wore me out, and so there’s not much else in my head to blog about.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll have some wisdom to impart.
Or not . . .
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Bertram's Blog 
July 29, 2022 at 2:58 pm
The color of the wild four o’clock blooming is transmitting some how the wisdom to impact in plants way.
That’s is good news of the rain. Please send some rain more than 8000 miles. I need desperately. Or I wish. Bon courage for the weeding.
July 29, 2022 at 6:28 pm
The rainy season is coming to an end. Maybe it will head your way.
August 1, 2022 at 10:40 pm
I don’t have to imagine living in a rainy climate. Here is southwestern BC we’re supposedly considered to be in a ‘temperate rainforest’. You wouldn’t know it from last summer’s weather (or this one), though, as we’ve had a lot of sunny hot days, so I’m out watering the annuals (and the potted tomato plants and herbs on my deck) by hand every evening. I’ll be happy if our weather pattern returns to normal.
August 2, 2022 at 12:11 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if your weather pattern returned to normal. Our weather will be back to normal for the next couple of months, but what that means is lots of heat.