It's Been That Kind of Summer...Rain, Wellies, and Mosquitos

Whether you call them Wellingtons, wellies, galoshes, rain boots, rubber boots, gum boots.... these have been a valuable accessory this summer.  Of course, these aren't the fashionable ones you might see around, and they have been quite a fashion trend of late, but they do serve their purpose.  Indeed, it's been a wet one.  While eastern Canada has been scorching hot, the prairie provinces have been cooler and wetter than usual.  What about mosquitos, you might ask?  Yes, indeed, there is a surplus of them. Compared to Winnipeg, which is known to have a large population of mosquitos every summer, we have had, in Edmonton, 70 times the number in our traps that Winnipeg has had!!!!  The city has sprayed twice the fields and areas where water pools, and still they persist worse than ever.  What do you do to keep the mosquitos away?  I know someone who sprays her yard with malathion!!  Would you?  

Summer, Where Art Thou?

Raindrops on roses, on my head and nose, overflowing underpasses, flooded basements.  Where is Summer?

Summer is typically characterized by those long hot hazy crazy days when we languish by the lake or in the shade with a cool drink in hand.  Not this summer though.  I gaze out the window to see minute droplets of rain water resting like beads of condensation on the leaves of the peonies.  The flowers themselves, long spent in the insistent rain and winds.

Even the Morden Blush roses have succumbed with browned borders on each flower petal.  Basements flood, not mine but many others, overpasses flooded, the sump pump tirelessly fulfills its duty.  Sigh.  It is so reminiscent of last summer, the summer that forgot to come.

On the good side, the birch and willows are thriving in all the moisture!!

Landscape Fabric Has its Uses

Last month was it.  The upright junipers rate of decline had increased and it was time to do something.  Out they came.  Once removed it was evident what the problem was.  Years ago, in an effort to save on weeding, we laid landscape fabric throughout the flower/shrub beds.  But I did not have the knowledge then that I do now. 

While this was fine at first, and still is in some beds, the junipers and most recently a burning bush, succumbed to overly wet soils.  We have had a lot of rain of late and the fabric holds in the moisture so much so that the roots are unable to access oxygen.  Root rot ensues and there you have it.  Extremely unhappy plants!  And unhappy plant owners too, I might add.

So, knowledge in hand, I must make some adjustments to the beds.  Move some plants.  And never, never, never use landscape fabric around junipers or anything that prefers a drier, well-drained soil.  Lesson learned.