Cait's Garden

I haven’t been posting to this blog at my usual rate this year. That is because a season’s worth of blooms are whooshing by in the blink of an eye, giving me scant opportunity to enjoy the usual parade of blooms in my summer garden. I admit to finding this phenomenon alarming. Thanks to the record warmth of the winter and spring and an official drought in Illinois, my late June garden is looking like mid-August. In the panoramic shot below you can see the bizarre results. We have coneflowers, lilies, balloon flowers, and bee balm already blooming. The Joe Pye Weed and the liatris are on the cusp of blooming (unheard of in June), and the butterfly bush has had flowers for weeks already. The vegetable garden hidden behind these flowers is growing slightly behind its usual rate, having been planted only a month ago and not enjoying the drought and the heat. It makes me wonder what will happen in August. Will most of the flowers be spent? Will they rebloom? Will my garden look like a battle zone? Only time will tell.