May 16th Update

Yesterday, the weathermen, er, weatherPEOPLE, were all freaking out and saying that we were going to have massive storms, hail, flooding, the end of times! I don't know if the problem is that our stations cover such a wide viewing area, or if our weather people are just not good at their jobs (I am reminded by the horrible predicting...and not predicting...of snow this past winter), but when you are a gardener, you rely on relatively accurate weather predictions. If the weather calls for rain, I'm not wasting tap water on my plants.

So, I worked eight hours on Saturday, and kept hearing the weatherman on the radio predicting scattered, isolated storms. Having worked in radio, I know that the weather predictions for the weekend are taped sometime on Friday, so the taped weather prediction couldn't see the not-a-cloud-in-the-bright-blue-sky weather that happened all of Saturday afternoon. I guess the storms, if there were any, were very scattered, and isolated to areas outside of our county.

I picked up the kids from the babysitter and we decided to play in the yard for awhile. At about seven, there were a couple of rumbles of thunder, four drops of rain....aaaand that's about it. I was kind of annoyed, since I've got plants in the clay that gets scary after a day or two of 90 degree heat with no rain. (I think there were reports of hail two counties away. So technically, they were right, but maybe they don't realize that most of their audience lives close to the city.)

This morning, it was kind of dreary looking outside. We have a 1st birthday party to go to at a playground today, and the little one's mom said we'd be partying rain or shine. (My fifth birthday party was at a park, and I distinctly remember pretend 'fishing' with a stick off the edge of the pavilion, where the water was puddling up. Such is an outdoor birthday in Florida in the afternoon on any given day.) I was hoping, for her sake, since this is her first child, and your first child's first birthday is a big deal to you as a mom, that it wouldn't rain. On the other hand, I was hoping that rain would fall at some point, so my plants would be happy.

We just got about an hour's worth of a good, steady rainfall. We'll bring a few old towels to the playground, to mop off the slides for the kids, but all will be well in party land, and all is well in garden land as well. Here's some proof -

Tomatoes are still going strong.

Tamina (two different plants)





The unknown first tomato...


...now has some company higher up on the plant.



Lida


Campari



Tommy Toes, making the first appearance on my blog.


Cucumbers, with their new mulch.


Remember that double dug "bed" for my squash? Here's what they look like now that they've been mulched.


Peppers

Orange Bell is growing a few flowers!!