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Frogs and Summer

© Howard Deutch

Today the temperature is predicted to exceed yesterday's 92º F (33º Centigrade for the rest of the world).  Watering some of the tender drooping plants is required to compensate for having had less than three inches of rain in the last three months. The lawn is mostly dormant and  brown. Years ago I stopped watering it in the summer and now let nature take its course. Late last year I applied winter fertilizer to the front lawn and it is still green to a large extent. I think I will repeat this over a larger area at the end of this year as it seems to have been beneficial. I avoid fertilizing the lawn in the spring as there is more than enough to mow without encouraging it. Although the widely held best time for fertilizing a lawn in the northeast U.S.A. is the beginning of September, it usually grows fast enough by itself at that time. My experiment with only a late application of so-called winter fertilizer, as a sample of one, was a winner.

Gardening under the present conditions of heat and drought is not that great a pleasure. I also wilt under the hot sun.  Even the hummingbirds seem to be drinking more than usual. The level in their feeder is dropping more rapidly than normal. Our village gets its water from one of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario. This lake is a tad less great. It is at its lowest level in decades. I do not know about the rest of the globe, but our part of it is too warm. I hate to consider what July and August will bring. If only I could go dormant like most of the grass does in this weather and awaken to the cool rain of fall.. The northeast is not usually like this. Our last two winters were milder than usual and with below average snowfalls. Oh where are the blizzards of yesteryear? I can barely remember the snow drifts that were higher than my head. This was when I had reached my full height, not as a little kid. When our children were young, the drifts towered over them.

A neighbor recently put in a small pond, starting with the hole in the ground where a tree stood until last fall's wild storm. For a while there were many tadpoles in this pond until the fish dined on them. Now, only the frogs and fish are cool.

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