2021 proved to be a record breaking year wherever one garden . While nurseryman are infamous about kvetch about the weather 2021 proved to be sinful across much of the major planet . normally I brush off short brushes with irregular conditions – after all , I live and garden in New England – but last year proved to be notable in many ways .
Without going into bully item , for us , June brought record - break rut as it did across much of the US and along with it , drouth , which stay from the previous class . My sweet pea plants seemed to suffer right from the get-go , but since I had a feature article clause being planned for Fine Gardening magazine , hundreds of plants were set out in goodish rows in hope of an epic photoshoot after in early July .
In recent May our heat moving ridge began , and while a few day near 90 ° atomic number 9 are n’t unusual by early June , sequential days near or over 100 ° F was unheard of . In an attempt to keep the pea plants cool I placed sprinklers in the beds to cool the plants down during the hottest part of the day . Sweet peas prefer temperature that are both consistent and cool to avoid bud drop and while I expect bud drop-off ( yellowing bud that drop is normal in the first few weeks of June when nights are typically cool and day temps high ) , this time I could see that it was go to be different . Just as old gardening book advised ( but I had never see before ) the water system from the sprinklers essentially cooked the new emerging foliage which looked as if I had dip then in boiling water . Any buds course dropped off as well .
By the time my date for the big photoshoot came about the weather had switch to another criminal record breaking cool and wet full point , but the plants never find . A few 12 blooms get early in tardy June , but by July the conditions changed for what seemed like a welcome wet period with cool temperatures , but there can be too much of a good thing . By the third calendar week of July we had 24″ of pelting and one cheery sidereal day . Typically this would be ideal sweet pea plant weather , but it was too later . The plants never produced any more flower bed . I ’ve been raising unfermented peas since the former eighties and this has never happened before . Out come the pea plant plant life and in went dahlias that I had been keeping in Mary Jane until then .
By mid - summer it was clearly a record - breaking twelvemonth in many slipway . The never - terminate rain stimulate another problem that I had never seen before – denitrification . The deficiency of oxygen in the constantly doughy soil made nitrogen unavailable to many plants . Additional fertility had to be added , but again , it was too late for most plant . Hundreds of cosmos , zinnias and other annuals that might be considered muggins - proof that were sow in June and set out as level-headed , robust young plants in July all stop rise , and finally just rotted . Tomatoes in conatainers never set fruit – out of 36 plants we had only a handful of love apple , although , the hot atmospheric condition in June did n’t aid as tomato wo n’t set yield if temps are over 96 ° F. What fruit did set , seemed to succumb to blossom end rot .
There were plenty of winnings though , so it was n’t all bad news in 2021 . Other than tomatoes , other container plant enjoyed the stiff weather ( hey , I really was n’t complaining given what California and the Dame Rebecca West was dealing with this year ) . rainwater every other day meant that I had to fertilise passel more , but I barely had to water anything .
intelligibly I have n’t been posting much in the past year , mostly this was due to transferring what is an already content - rich web log from Blogger to a new WordPress platform , and me learn how to navigate an solely new system . I think that I finally have it all here , and while I am still learn all of the bells and whistles ( ugh- SO many bells and pennywhistle now ! ) , I think I can begin to run with posting . It ’s just hard ascertain a new cognitive operation after the older one became innate for me . SO please deliver with me .
In the next post I will cover some of my favorite wins from last year ( yes , there were plenty ) , and while none of them will feature squash or tomato plant , get ready for some new and exciting flowers that I never bed be as well as some great container plant that maybe you’re able to use this yr .
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