What happened to the heat?

So I have loaded tomato bushes and tons of flowers still on them and no heat!!!!!!!!!! Everything has been weird this year. It has been cooler, wetter and more humid than any Utah summer that I have spent in Utah! It is crazy.

Here are some observations from our yard.

Mom and Dad were right of course, the lilac just needed a friend and some shade. I moved one of the pots of basil out there and it perked right up. The wind killed the basil on Sunday. So much for that.

The sunflowers that I planted really early have still no blooms and are small. The ones Daniel and I planted almost the end of june are about four feet tall and opening up. I think it is because the other ones get no house protection from wind, which has been bad this year. I also think they get too much water because the ground over there never dries out between the lawn sprinklers and the flower bed sprinklers. Any other ideas about why the early sunflowers are sad? Maybe I planted them too deep?

My square foot garden was good but not like super fantastic this year. But I think we did pretty good for our first garden out of pots. Next year will be even better, the tomatoes will be planted differently for sure. I am still glad we did it.

My cosmos are beautiful and just starting to really bloom. we had one that was like a really awesome dark pink. It was really cool and Daniel loves to show people the yard.

The butterfly bushes are now twice the size and they look awesome. They are not over two feet tall and are about three feet wide. They have attracted lots of pollinators our way.

The trees are all doing good and we didn't lose one in the wind on Sunday which was nice. One of our ash trees is a hornet hangout and it is not doing as well. It's leaves are brownish and the new leaves take a long time to uncurl. Not sure what to think about it. The other ash tree is really pretty and doing well. The pine trees and other trees are all doing good so we are glad.

I have heard that if it can last for one year, than it will probably stick around. So is the planting news in the area. It will be interesting to see what happens in the yard through next year.

I have read a few phenomenal books and wanted to write them down before I forget. One is "Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West" by Marcia Tatroe. I loved this book because it helped me not hate our rocks. The other one was "Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture" by Toby Hemenway. This book was just amazing. It wasn't fanatical but a very realistic way to approach your yard. Permaculture is a functioning garden/landscape that both wildlife and humans enjoy. It has been very helpful in provided good ideas about catching rain water, planting for your area, and bringing nature to life and work in your yard. Jason has agreed to let me put some of the less extreme ideas to work in our yard. Anyone have a tractor we can borrow?

Utah has announced/legalized the ability to put two one hundred gallon rain barrels in our yard. Or anyone's yard in Utah. This will be our first step in letting nature help us in our yard. We are still debating about chickens.