Sizzling Raging Wilt-down
Wow! Alaskans are hard-pressed to handle multiple days with high 70 or low 80 degree weather, but that is exactly what happened over Memorial weekend. Saturday I filled all my pots with hardened-off annuals, they were lavishly watered with fertilizer, gently placed in potting soil and looked fabulous. Finally I could enjoy a touch of color in my dried-out brown dirt yard. During the sizzling hot evening I sat in the shade admiring my flower pots and hanging baskets. A job well-done, I thought to myself.
With our almost constant daylight the sun and the heat lasted well past bedtime. My habit during this warm spell was to open all the windows so that the house would cool in the evening. Around midnight I woke to the rattling of window blinds, and the sound of paper blowing off my desk and skittering along the hard surface floor. The wind was raging, not howling, but raging. I quickly closed the windows and gathered up the paperwork, but with windows closed it was still too hot to sleep. So I opened a few windows that were carefully positioned not to be in the path of the direct wind, weighted down the loose papers and went back to bed.
In the morning, wind still strong, I was greeted by devastation as I inspected my newly planted pots. The tender leaves and blooms were withered and dried-looking with scrawny stems stretched and reaching, moulded by the direction of the wind. The gale didn’t pass until mid-day, then the heat became oppressive again. I went to bed that night discouraged with my feeble efforts to landscape.
The next day was calm, but still warm. I spent awhile re-arranging the branches of the battered plants and watered each one liberally. It was like a miracle to watch, slowly during the day each leaf and stem came back to life as flower petals lost their droop and perked up one by one. By evening every plant looked strong and healthy again, and I found myself once more in total awe of nature.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska Artist
