Hot and Wet

Finally, a summer weekend.  Friday night we got lots of thunder and lightning, and 2.37 inches of rain!  That is more rain than we've had since June 1st til now.  And then Saturday another .37 inches.  Wow.  I'm being so precise because we have a new rain gauge that purports to measure to the nearest hundredth of an inch.  OK.  Thing is, we have definitely gotten enough rain for the next week.  All around the yard plants are breathing a sigh of relief, and putting on another inch or two of growth.  The Cannas suddenly realized it was time to bloom, and put forth flower stalks that have grown 6 or 7 inches in the last day. 

I took the opportunity to dig up some Hostas that were languishing under the creek overgrowth and moved them out to the new bed beneath the Birch.  Also dug some of the extra Gooseneck Loosetrife and moved it to a more prominent location along the path to the Willow.  Hope that isn't a mistake.  But they look really good there right now, and they are well behaved if checked back now and then with a little Round-Up. 

Last week there was a bat in the deck umbrella when I opened it one day.  I hoped that meant that bats had become inhabitants of this yard.  Tonight, the first hot evening of the year, I sat out on the deck through dusk until dark, and was thrilled to see at least two, maybe more, bats flying through the yard. 

The bare spots in the lawn look like they might recover with the new moisture.  I cut the lawn today, not really because it was in great need, but because I know it will spring into growth this week after the rain and with warm weather.  It's also a good time to pull w eeds, they mainly come out fairly easily.  The resisters will get a dose of WeedBeGone  once the threat of rain is gone, which will likely be after tonight. 

The fish in the pond seem to be almost as excited by the warm wet weather as I am.  I think they might be spawning.  There is certainly a lot of chasing and jumping and hovering and interacting going on. 

This is also the week when the Asiatic Lilies are in full bloom.  The Casa Blanca's at the front walkway are spectacular as usual.  And there are nice Stargazers around the yard also.  Daisies are done, for the most part.  Working on keeping the new Rhododendrons happy, so they survive the winter well.  The grasses we divided this spring are doing very well.  Been taking voice notes on my iPhone about things that need to be done this summer and fall as we prepare for Winter. 

Blooming well now are the coneflowers, the Joe-Pye Weed still good, the Butterfly Weed hanging in, Swamp Milkweed still doing well, and I did see a new larvae of a Monarch today, Sunflowers are really coming on, and the Hydrangeas are beautiful.  I'm disappointed about the performance of the Hydrangeas on the east side of the house - they don't seem to be blooming as well as I expected them to. 

Statewide Clear Skies but...

Driving home from Fort Atkinson today, the skies were mainly clear for as far as we could see. We took the back roads home from Ixonia, where we visited a garden center that may well be worth the 100 mile drive next spring. Called Eberts Greenhouse Village, it was amazing. Acres and acres of plant displays, greenhouses and landscape examples.

Ixonia is just far east enough that when we turned on the GPS to route us home it was sort of a toss up whether to go east to the interstate or west back to Hwy 26. Instead of following blindly, we decided to try to take some interesting back roads, and eventually realized that we would be skirting the Horicon Marsh, and could cut back to Hwy 151 on Hwy 49. We hadn't taken that route for many years, and it brought back memories of times we sat on a hillside with newborn Jed, watching the geese and the beautiful landscape.

Once through the lane of memories, we beat it for home, and noticed that there was a line of thunderheads moving from west to east about as far north as I imagined our house would be. Everywhere else was clear. Wouldn't it be funny, I thought, if the only place in the state it rained was right over our house? Ha, Ha.

We drove about 45 minutes, getting to the exit for home without a drop falling. But it did become clearer and clearer that the clouds were, indeed, just about over our house. As we pulled off on Hwy 00 a few drops fell on the car. By the time we got to the traffic light at Bluemond it was starting to really rain. And three blocks later, as we pulled into the driveway it was pouring so hard we couldn't believe it. Hail, and over half an inch in about 15 minutes.

Near as I can tell, there wasn't another rainstorm around except for that one.

More Rain. What a Year

So, last night we got another inch and three quarters, maybe two inches depending on which rain gauge you want to believe. There is a puddle under the willow, and many plants are leaning over. It came over the course of an hour or so overnight, along with plenty of wind and lightning. That's almost 4 inches in the last 3 days and now, this afternoon, another storm approaches and they say there will be severe storms overnight. I hate to complain - we are not getting the worst of it. South of here it is much worse. And so far it is doing mainly good things for the yard and gardens.

But now it is raining again, enough to be significant in just a few minutes.

I don't want to count on it, but....

But this year has been amazing with regard to the amount and timing of rain. Just when I start to think it is a little dry, it rains. And rains well. Yesterday I felt gypped. I left for work in the early morning as usual and it was setting up to be a hot and sunny day. At work, I spent the day, as usual, in the dark and moldy basement. I hardly knew what was happening in the real world. People said it was raining, and I could walk out an see that it was. And back in the network services "data center" as I was discussing the latest big project, the power blinked briefly, indicating to me and our network administrator that our investment in UPS devices for our servers was worthwhile. And I did take a look out through the atrium a couple of times, and noted that there was real rain falling. But that is the total awareness I had of the rain.

Then I got home, and it was beautifully sunny and warm and the road and driveway were dry, but I looked at he raingauge in the front yard and found that almost two inches of rain had fallen there. The roadside ditch was full of debris that had been washed out of the culvert. And all of the other rain gauges were showing over an inch - from 1 and 1/2 to over 2 inches, depending on location. I have no certainty of exactly how much fell, but it was enough to be significant, and enough to make all the plants happy for sure. And I didn't see it happen. <sigh>

Blooming for the first time since the last post: Cannas, Summersweet. We had the first tomato from the garden over a week ago, and now they are coming in strong. Gaga's favorite, Jetstar, produced a beautiful, large, ripe specimen for tonight's dinner. Ah..... The peppers are coming on, I have more cucumbers that I know what to do with, broccoli is abundant. The potato plants are beginning to decline a little bit, but it is too soon to dig them up. I'm not sure about the onions this year. They seemed to get blown down early and I hope they are still growing. The raspberries are about done. We had about 10 pints all together over the season I'd estimate. Today at the farmer's market downtown, raspberries were going for $4.50 a pint. I think we paid about 6 or 7 dollars for the plants we have - and we get 40 or 50 dollars worth of fruit a year from them. A good investment.

Rain Rain Go Away!

Enough is enough already. We had an inch of rain last Wednesday, another inch or so on Saturday, and tonight another 3/4 inches fell in about 1/2 hour. That is enough for now. I realize we are lucky. For the last several years we've had drought at this time of year. And it is nice not to have to water things around the yard. But it is amazing to see how high the creek is for July, and how soft the ground is, and how well the weeds are growing.

After the brief downfall this evening I took the opportunity to do a rough weeding of the vegetable garden. Got pretty muddy, but also was able to pull up some of the really big ones that seem to have grown up overnight. There are a couple of weeds that are dogging me in the gardens this year. One called Sowthistle just won't give up. And then there is the constant nagging presence of oxalis, of which is it said: "bloom once, weed for seven". I try so hard to keep any plants from blooming and setting seed. But one or more inevitably manages to make it to maturity and sets seeds that will emerge for years to come.

Rain!

Whoo Hoo! Two and a half inches and counting, with no severe weather. So far it's perfect. It can stop now, but if it goes another inch it will be ok. The wind over the last several days really took its toll, and dried things out severely. But they are re-saturated now for sure. The creek is up to the top of its banks, and there is a secondary channel through the yard. This is really good to settle things in.

Even the cats are happy with the soft earth. Kate has found a cushion of dying leaves of early squills that she really loves to sleep in. They will only last a couple more weeks at most, but for now it is heavenly.