27 October 1997. TENNESSEE. CLIMATE

I am in Tennessee, USA, zone 5: In the Spring it rained and rained and rained. We set a record for the number of consecutive days of rain. Things started growing and looking green but then started getting various fungus and rot because we couldn't get any sunshine. Just a day or two would have helped. But even when it wasn't raining, there would be a cloud-cover, it seemed. Finally, it stopped raining, and I mean it stopped. I have never had to water anything in my garden for the years I have had it. I have mostly perennials and it always before rained about once a week. After the rain stopped, the sun shined....and shined...and bore down on us for months. I think these two events greatly weakened my plants. I am hoping we do not have these conditions next year or I will start to see plants die. Also, we had such a plague of Japanese beetles that many of my flowering plants and roses were eaten up all summer. I don't know whether to blame that on El Nino or not..-- Joseph Rizzo <Riz1@ix.netcom.com> via Newsgroups: rec.gardens