Here I am in Seattle at the end of August — a month noted for being dry and sunny in Seattle. From about July 5th until early September you can usually rely on having warm lovely weather here. This year? Well, as my brother-in-law warned me years ago when I asked him what the weather is like in Seattle, “Expect it to be different every year.” Its been anything from blazing hot mid-90s to mostly cool, cloudy and rainy. Actually, we’ve logged just under 3″ of rain in August; normal is less than an inch.

Now, do I complain? Well, sure I do; I want some real summer dang it! My tomatoes and eggplants are sad without heat. Fortunately, they did set some fruit. Now to get them to ripen. My cucumbers never did much. I had a hard time getting seeds to germinate during our cool summer.  Now they’re setting flowers and not doing much fruiting. I visited a client yesterday whose garden is struggling from a fresh hatch of adult root weevils. Surprise! They’re weather motivated more than season-motivated. And, since right now feels like Spring, their emergence wasn’t a terribly big surprise — however annoying it is. It is amazing that I’ve got corn this year & corn galore. And, leafy greens are happily plugging along. Still, what about some summer? I’d love a few more days of summer sunshine before the sun starts setting at 3pm all winter. (Yeah, I exaggerated, but if you’ve ever survived a Seattle winter, you know how it feels.)

But, I do remind myself to be grateful for the summer rains. Weeding is easier (but of course weed germination is going to do a spring repeat pdq, too)  My water bill is going to plummet. My plants are thrilled with water out of the sky rather than the spigot. My 15 square feet of doggie lawn never went dormant this year despite being a dog toilet. And, I just don’t have to contend with water rationing.

My gardening cousin in Richmond, VA wrote to me earlier this week saying that her husband’s prized lawn was going brown and the city was imposing alternate day watering rationing. Boy, that sounds like the west coast of my childhood, not the east coast of my childhod!

So, do I wish the rain away? Well, honestly, during this last week of August I do. I wish it would go visit my cousin and return just a little later this fall when a fire in the fireplace, soup on the stove and polar fleece make just a bit more sense. I suppose I should be careful what I wish for, but is there anything wrong with dreaming of ideal weather? I don’t think so….now to dig out my polar fleece to keep warm in my client’s August garden.