Posts Tagged ‘too wet’
Late Frosts
I am not a fan of below-freezing temperatures in May. If all we had to fret over were a handful of landscape flowers near the house that we could cover with a blanket, maybe I would feel more accepting of this little quirk of nature. My problem is that we have acres of trees with fragile new leaf buds that far exceed our ability to cover.
The other morning I steered Delilah to the labyrinth so I could pay a visit to the transplanted maple tree that is in its third or fourth spring since being relocated. The leaves didn’t look overjoyed with the briskness of the morning air, but they appeared to have dodged the freeze point.
I stood beneath to radiate my body temperature and warm the air around the branches. I talked to the leaves and blew warm breath all around them.
Cyndie’s new plantings weren’t all so lucky. She had just planted in the inverted stump the day before. Didn’t last long.
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The hanging plants seem okay, though.
I don’t know how much stress our unusually dry conditions for this time of year might be adding, but I wouldn’t think it helps any.
We seem to swing all too quickly from too wet to too dry conditions. Much as I complain when it gets overly muddy, I would be greatly pleased to get a serious soaking right now.
As long as it doesn’t happen during the hours when the temperature is dipping below freezing in the mornings.
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More Same
The end of June has arrived, and halfway through the year, we are getting blossoms on a tree here that smells like lilacs and reminds me a lot more of May than July. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record (it’s probably too late for that) but it is still too wet here to do much of anything we have in mind to do.
Yesterday, the work crew that is going to build our hay shed, tried a second time to get the corner posts installed. They are as anxious to get it done as we are to have it done, but I was surprised to see them here, since it did rain enough in the pre-dawn hours to give us a pretty good soaking.
Things have improved a little bit, and that is probably why they tried, because you don’t know unless you test it. The driveway loop firmed up enough to support the skid loader, so that work we did on it, by hand, appears to have paid off nicely.
When they started drilling a post hole, the first 20-plus inches down was dry and they were encouraged. That’s a lot better than it was the last time they tried. Unfortunately, that’s only about half the depth they are trying to reach. Beyond that, it turned to a thick pea soup consistency. Or maybe, cake batter. When they put a measuring tape down the hole, to check the depth, it just kept going, past the depth the hole had been drilled!
That’s not a very good foundation for the corner posts…
We’ll be waiting a while longer before proceeding with this project.
Relative Something 