Hurricane Bill, rain barrel, trellis, fothergilla, veggies, blog followers

I write this just as the tail end of hurricane Bill abates after dousing us with heavy rain this evening.  Just in time, I installed the first of my rain barrels this afternoon (after purchasing them this Spring!), only to watch the downspout drop off and the run-off flood a corner of my garden.  I'll have to re-attach it with a stronger clamp.

As I've mentioned, to hide the rain barrel (it's near the front of the house), I purchased a nice trellis from Skillin's (50% off!) and re-installed it today, fitting it to properly hide the barrel.  I have a few clematis running up it, though they are meager plants and probably won't hide the rain barrel for at least a year.  I do have a Summer Sweet (clethra) nearby, and that covers some of the view of the rain barrel.  It's just beginning to bloom, and smelled lovely as I worked in that area today.

I also put in some lavender that I had started from seed a few weeks back.

The rain has been welcome, as I've resorted to watering this past few weeks.  My new fothergilla (purchased and planted on Father's Day) has been the hardest hit by the August drought, and is showing quite a bit of leaf browning and curling.  I'm hoping the plant survives (it still looks lively in spots), and I've taken care to water it frequently since noticing the leaf curl.

I pulled more carrots today, some of them quite big.  My habit, however, is not to thin the initial seeding, and settle for smaller but more numerous carrots.  Why?  Because my daughter loves baby carrots as a snack.  (The so-called baby carrots you buy in the store are actually milled down from full-size.)

My daikon radish have sprouted and are doing nicely, and my pole beans sure know how to climb, having found my trellis without even me training them in that direction.  I have a number of nicely-sized tomatoes on my plants.  Let's hope they ripen before the first frost.  (No late blight yet.)

I had the pleasure this week of meeting two of my blog followers this week:  Anna, who came by to take some pictures of my daughter in the garden (though Sage wasn't cooperating, and Anna went home without even taking her lens cap off); and "BG" at Skillin's yesterday.  It has been nice to meet you both.