A Green July

It is the end of July and the weather still has not improved as I was hoping. All I can say for this cool and wet summer is that it has been truly green in every sense of the word. Just about everything is beyond green due to so much rain and conservation, being 'green', has required little effort. We are saving so much water; the rain has given us free watering all summer for our lawn and flowers so very little additional watering has been necessary. We are saving so much electricity; the weather has been so cool that we have needed neither air conditioners nor fans thus far. Simply opening the windows allowing for cross-ventilation in our house has been enough to keep us cool.

Though there are some concerns like the trees that are drooping under an overabundance of leaves where the branches are strained and the trunks are seemingly less anchored to the earth given the continuously sodden ground. And the vines are blossoming beyond my control snaking through the trees and threatening to win the battle where before I was able to contain them. Even poison ivy has taken over the perimeter of my yard where previously it had not wandered.

I suppose I must mention that my tomato plants are the scrawniest I have ever seen. The plants look like a few scraggly weeds growing where there should be a tomato patch. I am losing hope that the 12 tomatoes that managed to cling on will develop to true maturity; they simply have not had enough sun. The cucumbers looked at first to be thriving but now appear to be losing the battle toward greatness. Nothing else made it out of the starting gate and now it seems only the basil seems promising, at least those plants are nice and bushy and green.