Weather Or Not! !

Like a lot of people in this country, we are experiencing some bad weather in southeastern Wisconsin. Since yesterday we've had storm after storm come through. There has been hail, tornadoes, lightening, and flooding.

We live on a hill but there is also a hill behind us and the water has rushed down it and soaked around our house. The basement is covered with a couple inches of water and it just keeps coming! I timed the sump pump and it comes on every 10 seconds! We've always had a leaky basement and have everything down there set up accordingly so nothing is ruined. And there have been other times when we've had some flooding, but I can't ever remember the water coming in so fast and for such a long time. The forecast says after tomorrow there will be better weather so I hope we can start drying out here.

The gardens and containers are doing OK and only look a little battered and I picked out the best looking flowers for this blog! I feel bad for Steve. Before the storms came through, he had worked all morning and afternoon weeding and mulching the Daylily Boarder with hemlock woodchips. Yikes! the Border is on the sloping north end of our property and here is what happened after the downpours:

Tomorrow he'll have to fix this.

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I found some neat mushrooms that popped up right after the rain.

The first ones look like bread dough that's been left out too long. The others I call Brownie mushrooms and are all over the place.

This is a weird conglomeration of shelf mushroom and a slime mold. Doesn't it look like someone threw up ??!

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As I said, I found the best looking flowers to post. Here are some of them:

Double Impatiens and Double Petunias - I started both indoors.

"Baby Duck" Petunias

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Next are various Alliums

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The Peonies have begun to open!

Isn't the last one fantastic! I had to hold it up for the picture since the rain has knocked them down. I'll take a nice bouquet to work tomorrow - I can enjoy them all day then.

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Fancy Poppies that I planted.

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Sweet Sweet Williams ! !

These have just begun to open and don't even look real to me.

Siberian and Tall Bearded Iris (still standing!)

Old fashioned fragrant day lily. These were here when we moved in.

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Beauty Bush and Lady's Mantle

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Once the soil has dried out a bit we've got some things to plant.

Steve bought six Rudbeckias and two of the"Forest Flame" Pieris.

We've never grown Pieris and wondering how they will do here.

When I was at the garden center last week I couldn't resist this Japanese Maple. The one my sister gave me last fall died back to the roots and has a long way to go until it's a "tree" again. But I really liked it so ....

This is called "Garnet" and is very delicate looking.

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Here's a neat thing I ordered. It's called the Tomato Tree. There are holes for 3 full size tomato plants and the bag holds 40 quarts of soil! Steve said it looks really bad and he wanted it somewhere were it isn't seen too much. This spot on the west side of the house is perfect. Even though you see a door there I have to explain that we never use it. It's right off of the living room (don't ask me why but the living room has 3 doors that lead to the outside!) And it's on a solid surface next to the hose. I'll let you know when the tomatoes start to arrive!

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Even though the weather has been damaging , you could practically swim in the basement, and I hear thunder again, this was a very good weekend.

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This is the weather the cuckoo likes,

And so do I;

When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,

And nestlings fly.

Thomas Hardy

"Weathers" - 1922

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Bye for now,

Alyssa