August Glory

 I know it has been a few months since I have updated this blog.  Simply said, my focus as been elsewhere.

This has been a summer with abundant rain, so much that our neighbor had a landslide on the opposite side of the ravine.  The soil was saturated with water. 

Because of all the rain, everything has grown tall and wide, with many leaves spreading out across the path of the labyrinth.  There also has been a bumper crop of weeds and crabgrass needing to be regularly pulled out.

Yet, even with the rain, two types of Siberian Iris, which love water, have died back substantially.  It is possible that some moles have moved underneath them and taken to nibbling the roots.

Critters have taken their toll.  The deer ate off all of the buds from the Lily of the Nile.  The remaining Black-eyed Susan plants have been eaten to the ground, I suspect by a ground hog.  It is frustrating, and I am tired of the continual onslaught.  Plants that seem to be safe from one pest get eaten by another.  I have had success with several new Veronica plants, which have been left alone by all of the animals, and bloomed through the summer.

What has been most interesting is the dwarf smoke bush.  For several years it has stayed 3 feet high, but with all of the water this summer it put up multiple new stems that are blooming now.  It is quite dramatic, and fun.  Even though they will need to be pruned back in November, each will sucker out several new branches in the spring. 

I wish I had known in the spring that it would be such a wet year.  I would have planted many things in places on the side of the ravine that are impossible to water.  I might have been able to establish plants to help hold the soil and avoid earth slides.  It is one of the ongoing concerns about living on a site with such wonderful views over the Chesapeake Bay.