{"id":187956,"date":"2025-10-07T18:10:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/?p=187956"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:19:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:19:45","slug":"soggy-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/soggy-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Soggy times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Helianthus maximiliani reached eight feet, both vertically and horizontally. I’ll need to stake it more strongly next year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Usually during Kansas summers the problem in the garden is not enough water. Once in a while we get a wet summer, though, and this year’s has been the wettest I can remember. We got heavy rain nearly every week, often three or five inches at a time. It’s still happening; it’s only Tuesday, and already this week an inch and three-quarters has fallen. The problem is compounded by topography. I live in one of the flattest areas of one of the flattest states, and there’s very little slope in my yard. Insufficient moisture can be remedied with a hose, but a surplus is not so easily dealt with. Some of the plants in my garden like all the water, as do weeds and mosquitoes. Others don’t. I’ve been experimenting with dryland plants, which often do well out in the prairie, and everything looked happy and vigorous back in June. But the rains never stopped, and I’ve lost a number of species I had high hopes for.<\/p>\n

For those interested in Penstemons: species native to Kansas did fine with all the rain. P. strictus<\/i> and P. barbatus<\/i> also look healthy despite the downpours. I’ll have to wait and see on the others.<\/p>\n

Snapshots from the summer:<\/p>\n

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Silene regia, first year from seed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Tithonia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Clematis seed head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Platycodon “Hakone Blue,” first year from seed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There is a decaying old shed in a neighbor’s adjoining yard. It’s an eyesore, so I planted cardinal climber, Ipomoea sloteri, to hide it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Close-up of I. sloteri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Silphium laciniatum, about eight feet tall. It may not put on as brilliant a show as the sunflowers, but it blooms for a full two months.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The “Darlow’s Enigma” rose has been blooming continuously since the end of May.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Usually during Kansas summers the problem in the garden is not enough water. Once in a while we get a wet summer, though, and this year’s has been the wettest I can remember. We got heavy rain nearly every week, often three or five inches at a time. It’s still happening; it’s only Tuesday, and … Continue reading “Soggy times”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[692,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-botany","category-photo-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xam3-MTy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187956"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188036,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187956\/revisions\/188036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}