We’re all – plants and gardeners – breathing a sigh of relief after our rain. It was a good soaking of anywhere from 2.5 – 5 inches depending on who you talk to. My bucket had about 4″ in it but I’m not sure rain gauges caught as much. (Some of the rain definitely fell sideways.) However much we got, we needed it and it must have put a dent in our drought. My fingers are crossed that we’ll start getting more rain at regular intervals, during the night and never on weekends…

The tulips did take a beating like I thought they might but I think they’re still quite beautiful, even broken. Nature is a drama queen after all, tragically lovely most of the time.

The rain came in the nick of time for planting, if not for the tulips. We just finished transplanting – raise your hand if, like me, you were madly dashing around your garden trying to get the last things divided and moved before the skies opened – and have just received our biggest order of perennials and annuals. The annuals will rest inside the greenhouse for a few weeks more until we can be sure we’re past our last frost date (I feel so badly for the people who got snow with this storm. How diabolical is it to go from 80 degree summer weather back to winter in the span of a week?) but we’ll start planting the perennials this week. Going into moist soil, they’ll have a much better chance of taking off quickly and thriving without us having to baby them along like we have the transplants.

Did you get the rain you needed? (Did you get SNOW?) Did you finish transplanting in time or will you do more now?