I found out by watching the local Long Island news that they are calling the storm here a microburst, whatever that means. More trees down in the Park that I could see from here. There were people injured and taken to the hospital because the old historic 80 year old gazbo here blew down and collasped in the storm. People were trying to take shelter there.

I'll stop whining about the drought as we finally had rain (storms) on Sunday and again yesterday. But between the heat and drought, and my negligence due to the heat, the damage is already done for this year. A few things are still pretty, especially my crepe myrtle. I took this before the storm got here yesterday.



The blossoms are huge


Karen

Oh Rita ,glad you survived ,I was watching the weather,that stuff was building as it crossed us.Yes micro bursts,thats what we had a few weeks ago,and or straight line winds ,both cause horrible dammage..

ON A WONDERFUL....ITS RAINING AND HAS BEEN FOR ALLMOST 5 HOURS NOW....
It has not rained like this since MAY,only drops...Our eastern most part of the county is in extreme drought,this wont help those crops much,but in surrounding areas will help a LOT...Looks like this is a huge slow moving rain....It will soak a lot of those who need the rain

Crispy grass....



allmost forgot about these 2...I`ll move them into the lily bed this fall,and all other stray`s I have..have to do round ups every now and then..
Volunteer Sunflower NOID

photo doesnot do the color justice here
I love this alysum,are there different varities ? this one is soo mound like ?? but it got hit with frost too and cut back ???

So happy for you Tamara! On radar, it doesn't look as if southern Indiana will get much, but I hope they finally get some rain.

Karen

Karen, beautiful crepe myrtle. Tamara, love that sunflower.

Hurray, hurray for rain!

Ha, picked some more Yard Long Beans today and that means I finially have enough to stir fry some for dinner. Planning a steak with a side dish of stir fried beans. Yummy! I have some green tomatoes fell off one of the plants from yesterdays bad weather so I can have fried green tomatoes also.

Rita, so sorry to hear about the storm damage in your area.

Yep, we finally got rain...and I missed it!!! I was planning on dancing in it but we were out of state when it happened. When we pulled in to our place today we noticed that our yard and gardens had that jungle-look going full force. I guess I'll be weeding soon. It's been so dry this summer that I nearly forgot what high humidity was like...now, I'm remembering... ugh...

My six year-old son and I rode our first real roller coaster (with Dad, who's ridden them all) while we were away...of course, the one we chose for our first happened to be one of the "Fearsome Five", with a 95 degree first drop!

The veggie garden survived our absence.
I'm rather glad I got a late start on it this year, since the plants were a lot smaller and required less water to keep them going until the rain finally showed up.

Great pictures, Y'all!

I finially pulled up the dried out vines of the spring peas and then I planted some of the peas for the fall crop. Planted Green Arrow garden peas, Swiss Giant Snow Peas and Sugar Star Sugar Snap Peas. I should plant the rest but I am tired after spending much of the day cleaning up the garden after yesterdays storm. Lots of twigs and branches everywhere.

I still have Norli, Super Sugar Snap, Mammouth Melting, and Cascadia Peas to plant. I seem to have two packs of Mamouth Melting, one said Snap Peas and the other said Snow Peas so I am confused. Better not plant those two together.

chelle, glad you finially got some rain and that your veggie garden survived without you for a while.

Oh yum, yum, yum. The Long Beans were SOOO good. I lightly sauteed them in some olive oil with chopped garlic. Added some dried onion flakes and a few red pepper flakes. Sweet and tender and I LOVE the flavor. If you ask me these are much better than string beans. Had the fried green tomatoes also and of course the steak.

Newyorkrita said: ... If you ask me these are much better than string beans.

OH rita ...sounds YUMMY...Lucky girl...I`ll have ripe maters soon...

Its soo cool here this morning I have a fleece on...

i was wondering where in the world is Chelle...did you go to Cedar Point....? I love that place

I dont know how to act not having to WATER
these petunias are pale pink and white..soo pretty..Hope you can see the color
zinnas...

Lovely areas, Tam. I had some of those light pink petunias last year...love 'em!
They really look great with those darker pink and white striped ones next to them.

Yes, we decided on Cedar Point this summer...it was certainly an experience! K and I watched a POV video of our first coaster ride when we got home; we decided we still preferred it with our eyes closed!


Today's catch-up mowing is going to be interesting...the rain has finally prompted an explosion of baby toads, the little cuties are everywhere!

Tamara, lovely flowers, especially the zinnias. I just love zinnias.

Here is a yard long bean I took a picture of so to show the size. It is about 18 inches. They do grow much, much larger but you don't want to eat them at that stage as they are aweful. But great, sweet and tender picked young as they are supposed to be.


Of course we can't not have the usual tomato picture. Here are some more tomatoes I picked with the bean and measuring tape to show size. They are (left to right) Whopper, Superfantastic, Sungolds, 2 Early Girl and some 4TH OF July.


Here is a closeup of the WHOPPER with the SUPERFANTASTIC. Biggest tomatoes I have gotten this year.

Here is a picture I took of the poor tomato plants by the porch yesterday after the storm. They were really flattened up top but are already picking up. I cut off any broken branches and they will be just fine.



The old tomato garden was really leaning so I had to push them back upright and fix things.


And here are some Yard longs shortly after picking. You can see that they are 18 inches and over.

Things are pretty dry here,many plants are not blooming.The deck is doing great.
http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4...

very nice, but I bet a lot of work to start.

Rita's Tomato's was doing really well today. I picked lots and lots. Had to pick all the Sungolds and about half were cracked from all the rain. I ate them anyway! But I have never had so many tomatoes yet this season as I got today. I have plenty for myself including ones starting to split from the massive rains. I will eat those up today. And I was already able to give some tomatoes to two different neighbors so that was good.

Yesterday it rained all day so I got nothing done in the garden but today it is just beautiful, I got back working on my planting peas projects. First I tore out all the Spanish Mucica pole beans as I need the space for peas. Wouldn't have torn out beans for peas but I tried these beans for the first time this year and hated them. From now on will stick to Blue Lake Pole Beans which I am also growning.

Anyway, planted SUPER SUGAR SNAP and MAMMOTH MELTING SUGAR where those beans used to be. Then I planted NORLI peas in another spot. I still have CASCASIA SNAP and MAMMOUTH MELTING SNOW PEAS that are not planted yet and I don't have any engery left to do them today.

I no longer have a problem with extra tomatoes. While my neighbors have generally been happy to help me out with them, we can all only eat so many. Well, new neighbors moved in who are vegetarian, and like to cook but don't garden... problem solved. Extra tomatoes go over, red sauce comes back! Pretty cool! Also just took my bumper crop of 4th of Julys and Joseph's earliest (about the same size) and dried them for some yummy snacks! I could eat the equivalent of 25 tomatoes in about 15 minutes that way... but I'd better restrain myself!

I have never tried to dry tomatoes but I think that they would be good that way. Sauce coming back for tomatoes sounds great.