The spring runoff this year was substantial, and well up into the yard from Emerald, the trout pond below ...
and the waterfowl lake, Windigo, as viewed from the house balconies.
When this period arrived last spring, I began discing the south and west fields in anticipation of planting crops for the deer and turkeys and rabbits.
This activity nicely prepared the fields for planting with a push grass seeder. Not much fun but very effective.
And soon the first flowers appeared. As usual, of course, it was the daffodils. Accompanied by the other early show ...
the narcissus.
These two were soon followed the chives. That is, if the deer would leave them alone!
Such a pretty flower ... and tasty green plant!
But then the rains started. I did a posting last spring (May) describing the beginnings of our unexpected water world that spring. Still, some of the plants were making a go of it in spite of the flooding. Soon to arrive were the poppies. I always liked these guys because my Dad grew them in northern Michigan when we were children. Love the memory. First just one opened ...
and then lots. Sadly they are fairly short lived, so their season of expression is limited.
You will note that I only took flower pictures when the sun was shining, which wasn't all that often, since we set several records for volume of rain over the first 4 months of the summer. In fact, the rain fall in July doubled the previous record for the month!! Still a few hardy plants proceeded as if this wasn't a serious problem. For example, the service berry (below) looked great, whereas the 5 apple trees went largely unfertilized (bees don't like the rain) and 4 of 5 apple trees had no apples at all.
The critters were looking everywhere for a meal, mostly along the edge of the fields where the older growth was marginally serviceable for both the deer and the turkeys.
But there wasn't much for the doe below where the new growth should be in the tilled field. Her fawn, of course, didn't really care because it was still nursing, and simply bounced around like popcorn while mom looked for some delectables.
Even the turkeys (like this one-year-old jake) began to hunt in our lawn for insects, since the pickings for edibles in the fields were now spartan and had mostly drowned.
The waterfowl did not mind too much, since geese eat grass by the tons. When I took this shot, they had just entered the lawn (covered in aspen flowers) to feed, while the two mallard drakes were heading back to Windigo.
In fact, the grass appeared to like the rain, except in the places where it was under water. Needless to say, my under ground water sprinkler system did not run once from April (below) to August (next picture)
During this early deluge of water, the peonies bloomed and were lovely. I never guessed that they were so water tolerant. And again, first one ...
And then several.
We have 3 different color varieties, and they all seemed to do fine, even though they were often sitting in water.
Important to me also is the fact that the peonies flower for a long time -- like several weeks.
And the rains continued. Most of the other plants were suffering badly. The dahlias refused to grow at all and most ultimately died. The gladiolas struggled, but by the end of the summer they got a brief reprieve and a few bloomed. Nearly every day the sky would boil with thunder heads and then unload,
refilling the ponds to overflowing and again saturating ever inch of the place.
This drowning of most plants finally ended in August, but then we set another record. This new record, reflecting the period from early August into September, was for drought, i.e., the greatest number of days without rain! Can you believe it! By then most of the vegetable plants had simply died. This included most tomatoes, all carrots, beets, beans, peas, squash of all kinds (except for a few spaghetti squash).
Yet in spite of all of the previous water, here came the lilies!!! I never knew how incredible water tolerant their are. They all bloomed robustly.
One ...
after another ...
You would expect as much from the hardy day lilies, as they grow every where that they are planted.
But I was surprised that the more exotic lilies were equally tough.
And others.
There were a few other flower species that did survive to bloom, like the Shasta daisy.
And the lovely yellow coreopsis that I planted years ago, which has colonized the sides of our driveway from the house to the highway.
And one that I don't know the name (help), which I planted this spring, where it enjoyed a full season of growth independent of the endless water.
Even the hydrangeas did well for the first part of the season (below), as the rain off the roof flooded them daily. But by the end of the summer, however, the flowers had gone from white to green and then black with mold. You don't want to see that picture.
So the summer season ended in its typical fashion; the picture of winter's onset gives no evidence of what a disastrous growing season occurred for so many of our plants this summer.
But here again is mother nature selecting the survivors from the rest. I only hope that next year's green window is more user friendly for all the plants, and that my veggies and other edible plants have an easier 'kick at the can' to reach their full potential, so that I can enjoy refilling our freezer and cannery with their solar transformations. Here's hoping.
Incidentally, today (February 22, 2018) it is raining buckets, and has been for 2 days, with a temperature of 15 degrees C (60 F). Lots of water again and its only February. What kind of a sign is that for the new year?? By the way, the dog house that you see floating in the pond at the bottom of the picture is another experiment that I will describe to you when it is complete next summer.
The rain did not intimidate the deer tonight either as they arrived for apples and corn at 6 pm.
Enjoy ...
