“How Does Your Garden Grow?”

~ Elizabeth

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I snapped this picture the morning before the power went out in the Tropical Storm/ Hurricane. I had intended to write about our yard, and was settling in to do so when we got a tornado alert on our phones and scurried to the basement. As you know, the next days were spent in the dark without connectivity. This time even our cell service, which worked during the blizzard which knocked out electricity, failed to work. Some towers must have gone down along with the trees. As a follow up to yesterday’s remarks on Eversource, which I am renaming Neversource, much of the state remains without power. They anticipate that 99% of people will have it by next Tuesday, a full week after we lost it.

We may have been quietly confined at home during this pandemic, but outdoors things have flourished. We have never had such abundance of zinneas. Similarly, the cardinal flowers are in full bloom. The blueberry plants, surrounded by a better netting, have produced better than ever. Last night my husband came into the house with at least 50 tomatoes from the garden, just the first of many. He may have gone a little wild with seed catalogs!

Birds have been prolific too. One pair of robins fledged three broods from a single nest. Nuthatches, wrens, mourning doves, sparrows, blue jays, carolina wrens and tufted titmice have been busy reproducing too. From the sounds we hear it appears a hawk has nested near by, since we hear her screeching as she drives away crows and blue jays.

I am comforted by nature’s resilience right now. People may not have a clue about how to function, but the birds and flowers are doing very well.

36 thoughts on ““How Does Your Garden Grow?””

  1. How did your garden survive the hurricane? We don’t get hurricanes here (often) but the Fens are a flat and very windy part of the UK and our taller plants suffer, and the ramblers – not to mention the pond plants (and the garden furniture often ends up in the dyke).

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  4. Your yard is beautiful. Or was. Did the hurricane do much damage? I remember seeing the sides of houses plastered with green leaves after one of our hurricanes on Long Island. We noticed that the birds were silent for hours after the storm was over.

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  7. Our flowers have bloomed well this year, especially the zinnias. The birds have changed, and we were a bit worried. Few cardinals, and crows have moved in which means we don’t see the hawks. They’re like the bad boys in the neighborhood. We never had them before this year. I completely understand why farmers want to shoot the crows. Hubby even asked if we still had the old BB gun. The goldfinches finally showed up today. Whew! That was a delight. Nature knows far more than we do.

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  13. Seeing the return of so many plants and animals because of reduced pollution has been the main positive of the pandemic lockdown. I wish life didn’t have to completely reurn to ‘normal’, so it could all remain so natural.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  14. I think many of us are finding solace in nature; your garden looks beautiful, Elizabeth. I hope there hasn’t been too much damage. What a year this has been – one challenge following the next in such rapid succession. I’m glad you are safe.

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  16. Delightful garden & post Elizabeth! Do you make Tomato Relish from your supply of tomatoes?
    We were without power for a week a few years ago after a huge storm that caused widespread flooding. It was upsetting as everything in our fridge & freezers that we couldn’t eat within that time had to be buried!
    Blessings,
    Jennifer

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