I've been whining about our weather all day, like you our temps are nowheres near what they should be. Granted we've been known to have wet Junes but not the low temps we're getting this year. The garden itself is looking pretty lush but so are the weeds. I'm just hoping if it does decide to warm up it does it gradually or my garden will be toast, that's what happened last year when we were hit with that sudden burst of heat. Although it didn't last long there were a lot of crispys in my garden.
I've used a lot of maple wood shavings in my garden being DH is a wood turner I have a never ending supply. The only thing I do is add some nitrogen when digging them in. We don't have clay, more sandy here.
Unless it warms up soon the tomatoes, peppers and cucs I've planted aren't going to amount to anything. The few peas and the lettuce are liking this weather but I'm sure not. Remember when May was warm and so was June, July and August actually verged on hot, September and October turned into two months of Indian Summer Sighhhhh.....
A......

It's coming down in buckets here! A few weeks ago I planted a musa bajoo that I had nursed through the winter in a sunroom, out in a big pot on the patio. It is sitting there looking dejected, one frond raised sadly in the air, wishing it were in Costa Rica.

Its unbelievable for June.I don't know what will survive in my garden.If only I had any indication of this I would have not put things out yet.Really strange ...

Don't dig saturated soil, you'll make it worse. If you can't wait for it to dry on its own you'll have to plant somewhere else - either in drier soil dumped on top of the wet or in a different spot entirely.

I realize now I live on a freak spot of Mars. It is bone dry here. Cool, cloudy sometimes, but certainly not wet. And the wind the last 3 days is dessicating. When the sun comes out it is HOT.

Would you like a houseguest cascadian?

I think you must be in an alternate universe! ;) :O

I ride horses once a week in Oregon City out Redland Rd. and the weather at the barn and the weather at my house are identical.

Dotty, you are most welcome but you'll have to help me water!

Alternative universe -- possibly quite correct; after all, Mars is still in our solar system. Truly there must be a wormhole around our property that puts us wayyyyy out there. I would do just about anything to take all the rain, coolness and cloudcover y'all don't want!

Freak Mars In Alternate Universe

I keep poking my nose out, seeing all the lush weeds and the wet and going back inside. My sages are doing beautifully though, which baffles me, I thought they were sun lovers, but the tricolor is beautifully pinked up and the purple-leafed one behind it is just lush as can be.

And my new peonies have botrytis. :( It's got to be the weather, because they are completely in the open in the sunniest spot I have.

This is really strange weather. Here in my North Seattle gargen, I've received over 2 inches of rain during the last week, and my thermometer is now telling me it's 47 degees outside. If it wan't still somewhat light out, I'd swear it was late November.

My garden is in a state of suspended animation - buds that have been poised to burst into bloom for some time seem to be frozen in indecision.

Is it really less than a month until the 4th of July weekend???

One thing I've noticed though. Once the plants do bloom, they are staying in bloom for a very long time in this cooler weather.
I have so many things still blooming in June that normally would be finished before May is over. Everything seems to be behind schedule this year.

Joy

It's insanely windy here. No rain, a teeny speck of mist, and VERY windy non-stop.

It is very windy here too and it has been raining for hours.

First, the whine: I call it "postal weather," both for the US postal workers' motto of delivering the mail through rain and sleet and hail and snow, AND for the way it makes me feel --- like GOING POSTAL.

Second, the advice: Like bboy says, it wouldn't be prudent to do a lot of digging in saturated soil, as you'll be looking at lumps of concrete when the stuff finally (if ever?!) dries out.

In closing, another petulant whine: Luckily, I didn't plant out any musa bajoos (love your description of the sad little beast, novita!), but my tomatoes are sulking, my basil has turned to goosh and the weeds? Ah, the weeds. Creeping Charley is having a glorious time of it, waving its parsley-like fingers from all corners of the garden, nodding its golden head to the beat of the driving rain.

Damply,

Rain

I gave up on the garden and started painting my kitchen a bright sunny yellow

All I've got to say is: raised beds, raised beds, raised beds. They drain well and warm up quickly.

Greenhouse is even better. I got one last year and my only regret is that is's not bigger ;). I like to come there when rain and cold outside and check on my tomatoes, cukes and so on.

Have you noticed the weird blooming combos? I've never had daylilies beginning to open while some of my iris are still just showing a little bud color. I agree that blooms that don't turn to mush are lasting longer. jwww

Yesterday it became sunny. Mellow sun. Absolutely gorgeous day, not too hot. My land is well-watered and the trees luxuriated in the mellow sun.

Today, sunshine again and one can tell it's going to be hotter. The honeysuckle smells fabulous. Have lots of bright yellow swamp iris blooming now. This year for the first time their prolific seeds are spouting and growing new iris. We saved a few thousand seeds the first year and poked them in the 5 creeklets but nothing has happened. The ones that have sprouted were laying right on the surface, and I poked those other seeds a finger-length into the soil.

Live and learn -- they must want to be on the surface and need just the exact conditions to sprout. I had been hoping my creeklets which run all through the property would sport huge tufts of these swamp iris. This fall I will gather the seeds and sprinkle them on the surfaces of the creeklets.

This long cool spring has been a Godsend for my baby trees that don't do as well in full sun yet. I'll be frantic all summer to keep things moist enough to save all my plants. But next summer it will be 3 years since planting and hopefully I won't have to fear the sun this much. Of course I've added a bunch of trees since the 1st batch Dec05 since so many perished because of the sun and the disastrous mole damage. But I know which ones those are and can hose-water their wells with special attention and still not have to worry so much about the entire yard. It's only 1/4 acre and the 1-level house is 2300 sqft so it's not impossible, just a lot of work.

I tried to get irrigation in when first started but all the plumbers said since there's a fire hydrant here the codes are too strict and nobody would do it. So I drag hoses around a lot!

Hello Cascadians, I've been on GardenWeb for many years but haven't posted much in the last couple of years as have been busy with bringing an 1874 farmhouse and garden back to life. Popped into NW gardening forum for a few minutes while I had my coffee and noticed that you are planting yellow iris. If you have Iris pseudacorus, it was recently added to Oregon's noxious weed list. While it is lovely in late spring, it displaces native plants and reduces the carrying capacity of wetlands. I hope you will reconsider your efforts to create a large colony of this problem plant.

Yep, it's Yellow Flag, and was native to this swamp. I'm trying to get it to grow in my 5 creeklets that I dug to drain the swamp in winter. The iris won't be able to spread to any neighboring yards because they've decimated their land and put down weed barrier cloth etc -- barren and sterile surroundings. They're all lazy and don't want to do any yard work and put down plastic with gravel on top. They should all move to Arizona. Now all that extra water dumps into my yard along with the entire watershed and underground springs and ppl's pump systems etc.

I value these iris because they're pretty and aid in erosion control and swamp management -- 2 big problems in my yard. HarleyLady thanks for your info -- I knew it but it won't be able to invade around here. Planted lots of willow varieties also to get those roots to slurp up the water. Alas, not enough water in summer. If only it was more balanced!

Interesting if the iris takes in the future to see if it or the swamp marigold wins in the duke-out.

"An infestation of yellow flag iris demonstrates a dual impact on both human interests and native environments. This plant displaces native plants including sedges and rushes. This can reduce the carrying-capacity of wetlands for waterfowl and disrupt other ecological relationships. Flow in waterways including irrigation canals and flood control ditches can be severely restricted. Removal is expensive, and control of heavily infested areas can be cost-prohibitive. Once established, it is an aggressive invader in wet habitats. It invades riparian, open water features and irrigation ditches"

Here is a link that might be useful: ODA Plant Division, Noxious Weed Control Yellow flag iris

Try as I might I can't get it to invade my irrigation ditches yet. Mostly just erosion control grass in them, and some swamp marigold. And willows still too young for their roots to bind and slurp completely. Would like to slow the water down. Put in big rock slabs vertically every couple feet as dams because the velocity of the water previously was so fast it actually created white water crests, waves and foam. So desirous of water now that in the winter when all tree wells pool into puddles, the creeklets are overflowing and the whole thing turns into a lake I'm overjoyed, and then sad to see it drain away within a day or two.

The summers have made me appreciate every single drop of water as a miracle.

Cascadian, you said it won't spread to any neighboring yards. However, birds and other wildlife carry seeds far and wide and are not very discriminating in where they "plant" them. Please give some thought and consideration to the impact on the environment outside of your yard or immediate neighborhood.

I don't think there's any natural land left for miles and miles and miles. The only patch of land not bludgeoned into nothingness is the old dump which is about to be turned into a major shopping center. Concrete and asphalt. No chance of seeding anything, especially a plant that needs water and time to establish. Soon my yard will be the only speck of green for miles and miles. Very sad.

Cascadians, I like the yellow iris also. It has beautiful flowers and its rhizomes stablize stream banks. At a place I worked many years ago, we had to do some construction work along a stream. The State made us replant the yellow iris that we had to remove in the contruction site. I brought up the fact that yellow iris was not native, but the state employee said it was a great wildlife plant, providing food and homes for wildlife, much more so than sedges and rushes. Plus it stablized the bank faster, improving water quality.
The real threat to wetlands isn't the iris, it is human population growth. So much of the wetlands are being converted to parking lots, housing developments, roads, and other human impacts caused by the rapid growth in the PNW. The iris fills a niche that native plants can't fill because of the constant disturbance of man's activities. Arthur Lee Jacobson points this fact out in his book, Trees of Seattle, that many native plant activist are ignorant of the fact that man's activities have caused habitat that is unsuitable for native plants. So enjoy your iris!

Thanks Issafish for that reality testimony. I'd never plant anything I thought had a chance to be invasive anywhere else. The fact is, this whole area is very rapidly being developed to the total exclusion and destruction of anything natural. All the single-family lots that used to have a tree or two have been or are being subdivided and infill built, no landscaping, just concrete, asphalt, plastic and gravel or barkdust. Tragic -- this area was extremely fertile land. And it's a major watershed and the water is not being allowed to get into the earth anymore at all.

I keep thinking the housing bust will slow down the development but so far it hasn't. So now there's a bunch of new McMansions sitting vacant with aging 'For Sale' signs.

Near the confluence of the Willamette and Clackamas Rivers and one block from Abernathy Creek which is under the streets here. This area slated to be developed by the biggest development in Oregon's history very soon. ** sigh ** no plant has a chance. They're even about to tear up 205 and 213 to make these major arterials bigger and feed into the huge shopping center they're starting.

The invasive pest is man.

"Like cat-tails, yellow iris colonizes into large numbers, forming very dense monotypic stands, outcompeting other plants"

"first reported in California in 1957, where in one river it excluded all other plants including Typha"

"So long as it is sold and transplanted without regard, Iris pseudacorus will continue to spread into the wild areas of the U.S."

Here is a link that might be useful: Iris pseudacorus - Invasive Aquatic Plants of the United States

Cascadian - I grew up playing in Abernethy Creek at the foot of 15th Street. I think that's where my brothers got the crawdads that they brought home now and then. We were sure that someday in our exploration around the creek we would find the graves of the Indians who were hanged for the Whitman Massacre. Never did, of course; nor has anyone else.

Like many here, I'm a fan of native plants, and not of yellow flag iris.

But, it's true, we've changed the environment so much that native plants don't necessarily stand a chance anymore. But I would still try, myself, to not plant something known to be invasive, and to modify my little corner to allow native plants to hold on, and to garden with natives as much as possible while still having a few choice horticultural plants.

I work with a bunch of extremist native plant enthusiasts. They hate gardeners. I talk about some plant that's introduced, and they dismiss it as, Oh that's not native. I think to myself, well neither are YOU.

But to keep my job I don't say it out loud!

Kneewalker, your past experience sounds so normal and natural. Can a person still do that there? We're on the old Oregon Trail, or off it by a few feet, don't know exactly, have to go to the exhibit to see for sure. However, this was such a swamp nobody settled this spot.

I've planted lots and lots of native trees here. But not only natives because I love lots of different kinds of trees. Aiming for maximum jungle beauty here, and green, green green green green. Did go to a few native nurseries 1st thing when bought house and bought whatever they had that might tolerate swampy conditions. Every tree except alders; the alders were too brown too early in the season. One little tree sold to us as a sitka spruce is actually a white spruce, but is doing well even though we planted it in a really wet spot.

If these yellow flag iris would colonize our creeklets it would really help our water flow problem. Of course they've suddenly sprouted like gangbusters just where I thought they couldn't, on a raised bed in partial sun that has to be watered every day in summer. Thinking since all those seeds didn't do anything, this winter, January when most dormant, will dig up a lot of super crowded iris and plunk them down into the creeklets with a little 4-way-blend topsoil over them. And take the thousands of new fall seeds and throw them on the top of the ground in the creeklets. Somehow or other I'd like to visually see our creeklets which wander and thread throughout the yard stuffed with the waving fronds of these iris. It would mark the water so ppl wouldn't accidentally fall into the creeks. When the grass comes up they aren't visible.

Of course if we didn't have ppl wander in through the gates and traipse around to gape we wouldn't have to worry about unwary folks falling into the water, LOL We and our yard guy know where the creeklets are.

Spruceman posted a study showing that Giant Sequoias and then Norway Spruce do really well here. I've only planted 2 Norways because by the time I read that had already planted 17 Giant Sequoias plus lots of coast redwoods, dawn redwoods, sweetgums, deodars and other potentially enormous trees so just not enough room. Planted lots of thuja plicatas, Western Red Cedars, one of my favorite trees.

There's not enough natural land left to worry about invasives. There's not enough rainfall accumulation anymore to get new trees established the way it used to be. The summers are hotter and longer and the sun more ferocious.

If anything becomes invasive it will be something more drought-tolerant from warmer climes that is able to establish any foothold here -- and not even then. Man values his bulldozers and scraped scorched earth more than living plants. The natural world is decimated. The carrying capacity of the earth can no longer keep up with rapacious man's destruction.

Just take a plane ride over this whole area and look. What was once verdant thick riparian green is now brown. Compare with old aerial photos. Devastated.