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An hour in my Wellesley garden after 9″ of rain

August 1, 2021 by Deborah Brown 2 Comments

Wellesley got a whopping 9″ of rain in July, which was altogether too much wet weather for most of my heat-loving summer-blooming perennials and shrubs. The gentle ferns didn’t like it either, and the new rhododendron registered bitter complaints about wet feet. Even the crimson barberry shrub, considered an invasive species by the plants police, and normally indestructible in my yard, suffered.

The lawn, however, looks like it’s made a deal with the devil. I see no hint of the late-July  dormancy that usually affects wide swathes of my suburban sprawl. All I see is grass with the look of early-spring youth, the kind of vibrancy that can’t be achieved in mid-summer without some sort of soul exchange. Hey, we all want to be young again, grass, but didn’t anyone ever warn you about dabbling in the dark arts? It appears that in exchange for youth, my lawn agreed to give up a pound of flesh—about 10% of the lawn is gone forever, turned by pounding rains and weeks-long puddling into a mud slick that will need reseeding in the fall. So the lawn makes the deal with the devil, and I have to fix the mess. Just another day in the garden.

Wellesley garden, hibiscus
The hardy hibiscus thrives in the garage border. The lawn looks mostly amazing, an unusual mid-summer situation, given I never water it. Look closely at the patch to the right of the giant pine tree. That brown area in front of the Daylily Border that Never Blooms is former lawn that literally drowned during the July rains.

Other plants thrived with all the rain. The inkberry, a once half-dead find years ago from the Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility, hasn’t minded the wet one bit. In fact it’s thrown up impressive new growth and then asked for a good pruning, but we haven’t been able to schedule an appointment. The last time I was in that part of the yard, the rain had weighed down the shrub’s thin branches. I couldn’t get a true read on how best to trim, so my visiting salon services had to wait. The next time I was passing through with the clippers I still couldn’t prune. At that time, the inkberry was covered with the most darling teeny-tiny white flowers which were being worked over by the most darling teeny-tiny bees. The inkberry and I agreed that pollinators come before primping. I’ll be back another time, inkberry, and we’ll get that haircut taken care of, promise.

Wellesley garden, barberry
The greenery at the top is a privet shrub that volunteered. They do that, and are considered invasive in some areas. The sad, brown, dead-looking thing below the greenery is a barberry. When not practically drowned by 9″ of rain the barberry leaves are maroon and look nice against the green of the privet, so I keep it around. This forlorn, crunchy-leaved sight convinced me the barberry was dead, so I set to with the clippers, but…

 

Wellesley garden, barberry
…just one clip revealed this  bright green interior. Looks like the barberry is poised for a comeback. Any plant that can go through what the barberry has gone through and remain green within deserves the spot it claimed years ago in my garden. Except knotweed. But that’s another story.

The hardy hibiscus I got last year from Wilson’s Farm in Lexington couldn’t be happier with the rain. All it asks for is well-drained soil kept evenly moist, and a sunny spot. I explained to the newcomer that “evenly moist” is certainly not one of the services provided in my Wellesley garden. The hibiscus rose to the challenge and and from season one produced dozens of buds, which popped open, one by one, to salad-plate sized flowers. A single hibiscus flower blooms for only one glorious day, but then passes the torch to the next bud, which carries on the showy tradition, and so on and so on through summer. The hibiscus with its flashy ways has become a family favorite, and I may find room for another somewhere in the garden.

Buzzing about 9″ of rain

There’s a bumper crop of mosquitoes out there in the yard. They break right through the DEET I spray all over myself, and treat me like dinner. The tarp that covers my mulch pile had standing water in parts, which is as good as starting a mosquito farm. So there I was, part of the problem. Must make way through cloud of insects. Must lift tarp and spill out water. Must save neighborhood (from my own mistakes). Done. “Curse you, super-gardener,” wailed the foiled mosquito larvae.

After my hour in the garden—time mostly spent playing with mosquitoes—I head inside sporting a couple of itchy welts on my arms. The mosquito bites bring back the long summer nights of my childhood playing Ghost in the Graveyard with the neighborhood kids. There wasn’t a bug repellent in the land that could have stayed on that sweaty band of troublemakers. Only a gardener can romanticize mosquito bites of the past. The mosquito bites of today are damned dangerous, what with West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis. I’ll try to be more careful out there. But first, it’s gotta stop raining.

MORE:

Beyond Wellesley: this South Natick garden brings on the drama

Autumn in Mrs. Swellesley’s Wellesley garden

Beyond Wellesley: The Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill tour


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Filed Under: Gardens, Outdoors

Comments

  1. Sarah Bates says

    August 2, 2021 at 5:40 am

    Deb – so fun to read your updates about the garden – I moved from Wellesley to Sherborn 4 years ago and have been working on a pretty large garden as a self-taught total amateur ever since – a labor of love to say the least. This has been a tough summer for sure – and that barberry is gonna make a comeback! Have you considered writing a spin-off blog just about gardening???

    Reply
  2. Kaitlin says

    August 8, 2021 at 10:29 am

    I enjoyed your article!

    Reply

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