My Blog List

Friday, April 6, 2012

NERVOUS IN TEXAS


Is anyone else getting worried about what kind of summer we are going to have? Could it possibly be worse than last summer? Most would think we were having summer already. The mercury hit 90° yesterday and another week in the 80s is promised. That and no rain.
The weather man tricked me into cleaning the driveway earlier this week. I wasn't about to let it rain on all those live oak leaves and flowers. But it was the caterpillar poop that really had me worried.


The oak leaf rollers seem to arrive without my even noticing this year. Within the space of a week the old leaves fell the new leaves came and with it the oak leaf rollers. Once or twice I walked in the house and felt that tickle on my neck!


But they were there and so was their poop. This is some of the poop I collected from the driveway. Only a gardener would collect it up and use it under her roses.
I'm glad the job was done, even though that rain never came.

16 comments:

  1. I'm not so worried as long as it keeps raining!
    Houston finally got back to 'white' on the U.S. Drought Monitor and out of the drought for the first time in a year.
    I'm doing research on China's three furnaces (cities unbearably hot and humid) along the Yangtze River. Guess what? We are hotter and Houston is probably as humid. My Chinese friend is moving back to one of these cities because she doesn't want to go through another Houston summer and wants to live somewhere cooler?! Yipes! David

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  2. Yes, I'm worried too. Feelings of optimism last week are replaced this week with anxiety. Seems I heard yesterday that the 90 degree day was a month earlier than last year! I don't think I've seen that perspective of your garden. Like the others, it's pretty. I'm looking forward to my first go-go at your place! Happy Easter!

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  3. Not worried...just resigned (sigh).

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  4. Yes, I worry. I keep having this debate in my head about how the predictions of drought continuing all winter in the same degree of severity that we had last summer were off. Like everyone else, I was greatly relieved for the rains we have had thus far, but we seemed to have skipped spring and have gone right to summer. Or is it that we skipped winter, had spring instead, and now summer where spring should be? We missed the last rains, too, out here West of Austin. The storms split just before they get here and went North and South of us on their way East, an unfortunate common occurrence. Yes, I am worried ...

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  5. I certainly hope for your sake it's not as bad! Here in NC, the drought seems to be over, thankfully. We've been having lots of rain and some cooler weather. Wishing some your way!

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  6. Yes...this early heat is a worry. And, we had to water here yesterday. All the new growth coming up during the rains, is wilting with the heat and lack of recent rains.

    Let's hope we don't sink back into what we had last summer.

    I keep saying I'm going to crash a Go-Go. When is this one?

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  7. That's really hot!
    I can't imagine...here we have about 50 º (10 º Celsius)
    Although the winter was very dry, finally, came the rain these days ... I hope you have some water too.

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  8. It is a concern and I plan and plant based on what happened last year. It's easy to be overly optimistic based on the winter rains, but I remember the losses last summer and replacements are more drought tolerant.

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  9. Although it is possible that we could have a worse summer than we did last year, last summer would be hard to beat. Actually, our spring here in South Texas seems like it has been on the mild side (for us). It does seem that things look a bit more ominous for Central Texas as your temperatures and rainfall over the past couple of years appear to be mimicking ours in South Texas.

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  10. I love that view of your garden too - the steps, I mean, not the poop! London is a bit of a nightmare at the moment - we have a hosepipe ban, so I had to telescope lots of gardening chores in order to fill ponds, clean paving and water in new arrivals before it kicked in on Thursday. I'm praying for a wet summer!

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  11. "They" say it isn't going to be as hot this summer. Then again, this same "they" said we would have a dry winter and spring. So who knows?

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  12. So, the wet period is petering out, only leaving humidity and warmth? I guess that's when sculpture plants will dominate and the softening plants fade back until the next wet time...I bet your garden will be fine!

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  13. I don't blame you for being worried - after what we (here in Texas) went through last summer!! I keep thinking that last year was just a once-in-30-years thing. Up here in North Texas we have had a lot more rain than we got this time last year. Maybe that is a good sign. Hope you get some it.
    I finally got a copy of the April Southern Living - it was a great spread of your place. I enjoyed the article and pictures!

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  14. I always worry, although we have had some fairly decent rains so far this year in the Houston area. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that this year isn't as brutal as last year.

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  15. Jenny, I'm right there with you. I've been thinking the same thing. The lovely winter rains we had lulled me into thinking that our weather might go back to "normal", and we might really have spring. But 90 degrees in March cured me of that fantasy quickly. I'm not sure I or my garden can live thru another summer like last year, so let's hope we are wrong.

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  16. We were supposed to have a continuing drought. I was SOO happy to hear it was raining in Texas. I planted over 200 trees and took care of another 150 or so that others planted while volunteering at Anahuac NWR. The rains have saved them for now but they need at least another summer of normal or above normal rain. Last summer I was hauling 2- 4 loads - 120 ga/load - of water to them and barely kept them alive.

    So I hope we have a better year than last year.

    I'm in the Oregon High Dessert and can see only the barest peaks from Spring. Not our boisterous girl at all. We are still getting snow. But today was in the high 50's and I found the first wild flowers so there is hope.

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