Since The Hail

It stayed wet and got cold for four days after the hail. Perfect weather for hail ravaged tomatoes to get the blight. I should probably just go ahead and do a fungicide spray. My soil is surely inoculated with the blight. If not, it is bound to blow in from some where.

The spell of ugly leaves is here for the season. A fat clump of Louisiana Iris waited to bloom until after the hail.

It's down there in the rain though and will have to wait.

The rain did stop now and again.

I ventured out for a closer look at the 'Black Gamecock' that came through a Blackberry Winter and a punishing hail.

The second, smaller set of Darmera leaves got peltata-ed. All my big bold foliage plants will be having an ugly year. One went completely missing this spring.

And the garden grows on.

Thermopsis caroliniana with its compound trifoliate leaves and spiky growth habit fared much better in the hail.

Leaves have been frozen, shattered and are now browsed by a deer spending far too much time in the garden. It had the nerve to squat and piss on my lawn right in front of me. This one even seems to be a bit of an epicure, sampling all kinds of new things not on the regular menu. The spell of ugly leaves is complete.

And the garden blooms on.

This spell will come to an end in time.

Flowers will bloom atop bruised and scratched foliage that cannot mend.

Five days later it has gotten dry enough and warm enough to assess the damage in the roadside vegetable garden without all the shattered green bits still looking fresh. More planting will happen. There will be fine produce of some kind at some point.

Parsnips and verbena bloom on.