Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down!

Well today isn’t exactly Monday, but I use to love that song by the “The Carpenters.” With all the rain we’ve had I couldn’t help but sing that song. The phrase isn’t exactly true for me. As a gardener I welcome the rain, but we’ve had so many rainy days here in Miami since May 1st, that I am really over the rain. Mondays, on the other hand, are always difficult! With tropical storm Debbie spinning around in the Gulf of Mexico we have had an excess of rain over the past few days. Luckily the storm headed north, and many parts of northern Florida that were drought ridden have now had an overabundance of rain as the storm was very slow moving. I went out into the garden to check how everything was handling all the wind and rain from the tropical storm. Yesterday was very windy, and today we are still getting the feeder bands from the storm. Everything in the garden was soggy and weeping downward from the rain. Several of the Mexican Sunflowers were leaning over and I had to stake them up. The Popcorn Senna (Senna Alata), which is a host plant for most Sulphur Butterflies, is totally leaning



over. It is just big enough that I am not able to lift it myself. On the east side of the house there is another species of Senna, Cassia Senna (Senna Mexicana), that went through hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. At that time it was uprooted from the ground. My yardman helped me get it up right, but it always has had a little lean to it. I haven’t taken it out because it is a great host plant for the Yellow Cloudless Sulphurs, all the Senna family are. I have noticed the last few days that the branches of the tree are almost touching the ground. When I was walking around the yard this morning I noticed that the trunk has split in half. Unfortunately, I think it’s time for that tree to come down.

I don’t know what it is about my yard, but I swear that somehow the wind just swirls around my house. The west side is always very susceptible to wind damage. Many years ago we added an addition on our house. I think it is the way the addition sits on the property that makes the wind circulate around the addition and creates a little wind tunnel. It is so frustrating though because it just kills me when one of my plants breaks or is falling over. I think it is called Murphy’s Law! Most of my neighbors are not into gardening. I am not really sure it would be fair to say that they wouldn’t care if a tree or plant would be damaged, but it seems like they never have any damage to their yards. Mine, the wind blows, and down go the plants. WHY??

I think when these things happen to my yard I need to take a step back, and realize that I have no control over Mother Nature. My yard has changed so many times over the years due to storms. I need to just accept this change and move on. That is very difficult as a gardener. Actually I think change is one of the hardest things to accept for most people!