Tag Archives: Rain

Cloudy Sunday

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It’s been raining, which makes wanting to get out in the garden more difficult than if it were sunny. But the daffodils and tulips wait for no woman, and so the weeding has begun.

The potatoes are in as are the beets, the sugar snap peas, and the romaine lettuce seeds. Green lettuce plants are on the deck, hardening off. The asparagus has been fertilized and now we wait for the first luscious shoots.

Toward the end of April, I’ll see how my basement-planted Ophelia eggplant and tomatoes are doing, and think about setting them outdoors.

It’s spring.

Soggy Sunday

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Yesterday, we had mixed precipitation including rain, hail, graupel, ice, and a tiny bit of snow. Not to mention the snow already on the ground.

The cloud in the photo brought us a cold front.

This morning, we have sun but the yard is soggy with about 5 inches of standing water.  Maybe the sun and wind will dry things out, allowing us to prune trees before leaving February behind.

Five years ago, I planted 13 trees not far from the house. Nine are visible in the photo, all getting ready to leaf out. Suckers and lower branches need to be removed before spring. But first, I have to NOT sink to my ankles in the swamp that my yard’s become.

 

Rainy Sunday

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Four inches of rain overnight, and rain predicted for every day next week. Maybe we’ll catch up and leave this drought behind.

Fall color starting to show on this Ruby Slipper hydrangea. In a couple of weeks, the leaves will turn from green to dark red.

Cloudy Sunday

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Here’s a tree that’s doing well despite the lack of rain. It was here when we arrived–almost two decades ago. It looks like and grows like a maple, the leaves turning bright yellow in fall, with roots above the ground and lots of suckers needing to be cut.

We’re promised rain later today, and the radar shows us covered in green. Fingers crossed.

Rain

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We woke to rainy skies this morning, more drizzle than rain. And after a day of promise, the rain gauge shows one-eighth inch. The lawn is still brown, the trees are losing their leaves, but we have storm clouds riding the skies.

Garden Tragedy

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We’ve had such bad luck with gardening this year. April was too cold. June was too hot. And it’s been plain too dry. We’ve gone from moderate to severe drought, although lots of folks west and north of us have had enough rain to keep going.

It was supposed to rain today. It did. At least, the south windows had a few sprinkles.

Watching our lettuces and Cole crops fail, our cucumbers flower sans fruit, our tomatoes turn black, our eggplant surrender to bugs … Need I continue?

Instead of giving everything over to weeds, we covered each garden bed with black trash bags, held down with bricks. No, we didn’t buy the bricks. We’ve been carrying these around since 2000 when we brought them with us from the Overland Park house. As you can see, they’ve come in handy.

The trash bags will keep the weeds from sprouting and, with the beds covered long enough, may even retard weed germination for the next gardening season. If the drought continues, we’ll just leave things covered.

If the drought continues … let’s hope this isn’t a sign of climate change. We could have floods as easily if the pendulum swing is wild enough. And which is worse?