The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at info@sunnysidenursery.net.

As I write this column on June 9, 2010 we have just experienced one of the heaviest downpours I can ever remember. Unofficially we received an inch and a half of rain in less than one hour. Hopefully by the time you read this, we will have had a bit more sunshine and the soils will have dried out. But so far this year it looks like March 26 was spring and June 5 was summer and the rest of the year has been pretty dismal.

I was looking over some of my past columns and on this very same date in 2005, I wrote an article titled: "Are you feeling cranky too?" And then again just two years ago I was whining about June Gloom, so this ain't the first time we have been through this kind of cycle. Of course that doesn't mean we have to like it, but in both of those past articles the recurrent theme was that, despite the depressing weather, Mother Nature soldiers on and usually all it takes to make the world right is a day or two of sunshine. I guess it's pretty much true with us too.

This time of year when the sun shines for 16 hours a day even "scattered sun breaks" can mean a good 8 hours of sun. That's more than plenty to keep things growing and keep us out of the bottle of Prozac. And with that much daylight there is no excuse for not getting things done in the garden. You've got until almost 10 p.m. to mow that lawn, assuming the neighbors don't complain. And if they do, then you can weed and fertilize and plant and mulch instead. Just keep moving forward and, before you know it, you will be all caught up and able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

It is always amazing to me how we can get so discombobulated from the crazy weather and the rest of creation manages to cope just fine. Every year in my parking lot across the street a pair of Killdeers lay 4 eggs, usually in the gravel but sometimes in the dirt, and keep them warm and dry despite torrential downpours, colder than normal temps and hellacious wind storms. Last week I saw the mama with two of the hatchlings doing just fine, as if things had been perfectly normal this spring. And it looks as though the red winged black birds must have had a good mating season too, because the fledglings have been making a ruckus at my feeders and devouring the suet faster than I can replace it. So the avian sector of nature seems to be in good order.

I have a hanging ivy geranium basket outside our breakfast window that has been looking pretty bedraggled. It has lots of brown flowers, which I haven't quite gotten around to cleaning off. But despite my negligence, one day of sunshine was all it took for it to come right back into bloom. And it is the same story with our big 24-inch baskets in the nursery. They are planted with super petunias that can look like a wet dog one day and as perky as all get-out the next. All it takes is a bit of good old sunshine and presto, it's as if it never was raining in the first place.

It's true that some of my beds are so wet that the impatiens are rotting and the cucumbers have vanished, but the chard and spinach and lettuce and carrots and potatoes are going gangbusters. My wife's beans have even germinated, although that is about all they have done. But I guarantee that as soon as the sun comes out, those beans are going to make up for lost time. Two to three weeks from now we are all going to be scratching our heads and exclaiming "What rain?"

It's also true that the first flush of blooms on our roses are probably lost, but there are always more to come. The peonies have flopped despite the wife's best efforts to thwart that from happening and the delphiniums are no longer vertical but something closer to oblique (or is it obtuse? I always get those two confused.). But all these plants are otherwise healthy and, with proper planning, their brief time in the limelight should be quickly upstaged with the next wave of summer blooming perennials and shrubs. In fact, if nothing else, this weather pattern should bring home to all of us the importance of keeping our gardens diversified. Too many eggs in one basket can quickly lead to a disappointing garden when a weather calamity strikes.

So the take-home message is once again one of optimism. Hang in there. Like your portfolio, diversify your garden. Expect some disappointments. Buck up and soldier on. That's what nature does.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached at 425-334-2002 or online at info@sunnysidenursery.net.