How much did it rain at your place?

The rain continued today. When it slowed briefly early this afternoon, I ran out to the rain gauge to see what tale it could tell me, but the poor thing had overflowed! It holds five inches, but it was completely full and overflowing so I'm not sure how much it had rained since I emptied it yesterday. At that time, it had 3.3 inches in it. Prior to that, the day before, I had dumped 0.8 inch out of it. So, let's see - that's 4.1 inches plus whatever we got overnight and today (at least 5 inches). Altogether, my best guess is well over ten inches total.

That seems to agree with the totals reported in Tomball and Magnolia and other weather stations in the area. What we know for sure is that it was a heckuva lot of rain! And we're told to expect more tomorrow.

So, how much rain did you get?

What a difference a year makes

What we would have given at this time last year for a day like this! A day when rain falls heavily and steadily for perhaps an hour and then continues more lightly throughout the day. In fact, we have had several days of rain recently and the forecast is for more over the next few days.

The rain has made quite a difference in the garden and in the outlook of the gardener. If we don't get a day of sunshine soon, I'll probably be wishing and hoping for it! Oh, the irony.

According to the USDA's Drought Monitor map, our area is still considered to be in abnormally dry conditions to moderate drought, but I don't think they are talking about my garden which seems to have pretty substantially recovered from the terrible drought of a year ago. It's true, though, that the long-term effects of those awful months may still have not completely worked their way through the ecosystem.

It was nice to wake this morning to the sound of rain on the roof, especially knowing that I didn't have to get out and fight traffic in it. And it is nice to have a day when I don't have to feel guilty about not getting outside and doing my garden chores. Much too wet and soggy, don't you see? Guess I'll just have a bit more tea and read some more chapters of my book. Guilt-free, thanks to the rain.  

This week in the garden - #21

What's growing in the garden this week?

Mushrooms! Recent rains have encouraged many fungi, like this toadstool, to spring up around the yard.

On the milkweed, there are no caterpillars this week, but there are plenty of these colorful milkweed bugs. They feature the same orange and black colors as the Monarch and Queen butterflies.

The blue plumbago is in full and glorious bloom. I find it is hard to capture the true color of the plumbago  with the camera. It always looks washed out, but its blue is actually similar to that of bluebird eggs.

There's no problem capturing the watermelon red of the crape myrtle's blossoms.

I have several Hamelia patens shrubs around the garden. The ones that are in full sun are now in full bloom. The ones that are in partial shade are slower to bloom.

When several leaves got knocked off one of my succulents, I stuck them in this pot to see if they would root. Many of them did and now I have some nice little baby succulents.

I often find that plants have reseeded themselves in my compost bins. This week I discovered this nice volunteer milkweed plant growing there. Soon I'll move it to a bed.

The Stapelia gigantea is beginning to live up to the gigantea part of its name as it overflows its ten-inch pot.

The bright orange blossoms of the 'Pride of Barbados' draw the eye from across the yard.

The 'Darcy Bussell' rose continues to please me with its many blooms.

And the purple 'Ballerina' datura has been a constant bloomer in the garden this week.

In other news of the garden, I pulled out the last of the spring tomato plants today. They had been ravaged by the heat and by the leaf-footed stinkbugs and it was time for them to go.

I also found time this week to sit under my sycamore tree in the sultry afternoons and listen to the music of the mockingbirds and cicadas while I re-read William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! If you care to, you can read my thoughts on the book here.

I hope you found time to enjoy your garden this week. Happy gardening!

Wordless Wednesday: Red, white and blue in the garden

I confess - I love cannas!

A press release from the All-American Selections Board of Directors has announced the first selections of All-American flowers for 2013. The first one brought a smile to my face. It's a canna!

The plant's name is 'South Pacific' and their description of it says that it has "showy, 4” flowers that bloom all summer long in a delicious shade of scarlet." It is a "floriferous bloomer" that  grows up 4-5’ tall, "providing a great grouping of specimen plants or a back-of-the-border focal point. The colorful blooms are produced on a flower spike held above the large leafed statuesque plants.
Home gardeners will love the robust nature and the many flower-laden branches it produces. ‘South Pacific’ boasts 6-7 stems per plant and delivers larger flowers than other seed cannas. The scarlet flowers appear early, bloom consistently all summer and withstand a light frost better than comparisons. As with other cannas, ‘South Pacific’ tolerates wet conditions so it can be used as a pond border or in other similar growing conditions."

Yes, I know that growers and organizations that support growers do occasionally engage in a bit of hyperbole, but just look at that picture! Isn't that gorgeous? And isn't it something that you would like to have in your garden?

Well, maybe not. Some gardeners are seriously prejudiced against cannas as well as a lot of other "old fashioned" plants that are "too easy" and "not a challenge." Some object to the canna's big, bold, brassy flowers that scream "Look at me!" They prefer a bit of subtlety and reticence in their plants.

There's something to be said for subtlety, of course, and I can understand the need of accomplished gardeners to move on to something that challenges them. To each his/her own. It takes all kinds of gardeners to make a world of gardens.

But as for me, I continue to have a soft spot for the old-fashioned, tried and true, easy plants like cannas. Or crape myrtles. Or daylilies. Or crinums. Or...any one of a dozen or more other old faithfuls. And 'South Pacific' looks like a real winner to me, one I would be happy to add to my garden, because when it comes to be battle between the canna-haters and the canna-lovers, I'll take my stand with the lovers.  
 

July

July means...

The 'Pride of Barbados' is just beginning to open its first blooms.

The sunflowers from the packet of mixed seeds that I planted earlier this year are beginning to show their smiling faces.

And the purple echinacea - actually, this particular variety is more rosy than purple - is just beginning to hit its stride.

The burgundy okra is almost too pretty to eat!

The spider lilies out by the little fish pond are beginning to bloom.

And in the spicebush, yet another generation of Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars is munching its way through the remaining leaves on the plant.

July means that summer is well and truly here and it's time to ease back a bit on garden labors and take time to enjoy garden treasures.

This week in the garden - #20

Finally! A productive week in the garden! In spite of the oppressive heat this week, I spent most of it in the garden doing much-needed weeding and pruning, trying to get everything back into some semblance of order. As I've documented in several posts in recent weeks, for one reason or another, things had really gotten out of hand here and I was beginning to get quite desperate about it. But after spending several days ferociously uprooting the weeds that had threatened to overwhelm me and pruning back all those limbs that were headed where they didn't need to go (Well, some of them anyway.) I feel renewed and rejuvenated! I think there may be hope for my garden.

In spite of my neglect, the garden is actually doing quite well. So far, there has been enough rain this summer to keep things going, with very little resorting to the sprinklers and hoses. In fact we received another nice shower just this afternoon.

  A raindrop from this afternoon's shower trembles on the tip of an almond verbena blossom.

 The 'Ellen Bosanquet' crinums continue to bloom profusely.

And in another part of the garden the angel's trumpets are playing their sweet music.

Moreover, the critters of the garden are flourishing. Everywhere I worked this week, I kept encountering tiny, newly-hatched green anoles, a well as many adults. The Mediterranean geckos still patrol the ceilings of the porches at night, looking for insects drawn to the lights, and once the sun goes down each day, the frogs begin their chorus. It is a truly amazing sound to step into the backyard at night and hear those hundreds, maybe thousands, of frogs around the neighborhood singing their songs.

Butterfly numbers and diversity are back almost to where they were before we endured the long, long drought of last year and the year before. I see caterpillars of many kinds as I make my rounds of the garden each day.

In addition to the butterflies, I often encounter interesting moths around the garden. I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about moths as I would like to be and so I often cannot identify what I see, but sometimes a picture will help.

As I stepped onto the back porch/patio after working in the garden yesterday afternoon, I happened to look up at the light fixture and this was what I saw - a huge moth. It was about three inches long and if its wings had been opened, I estimated that its wingspread would have been at least four inches. I grabbed my camera and took a series of pictures.

Here's the critter from a slightly different angle. With his wings folded, he was very cryptically colored and blended into the background. If I hadn't just happened to look up, I would never have noticed him.

I checked my pictures against my field guide later and I think this is the Waved Sphinx Moth (Ceratomia undulosa). There are lots of sphinx moths around, of many varieties, and it is often hard for an inexpert observer like myself to correctly identify them. If you know this guy and believe my identification is incorrect, please let me know.


And  so, I end this week, for the first time in awhile, satisfied with my efforts in the garden. It is a good feeling. A few more weeks like this and I may not have to hang my head in shame every time I see my fellow gardeners!