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Showing posts with label Rain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rain. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2013

AND THEN THE RAINS CAME

Some must wonder at how Texans just can't stop talking about it when they have rain. We had plenty of rain on Wednesday. Enough to wash the garden away.


This time around we got good warning about how much we might be getting. How glad I am that I decided to pick a spray of the hybrid musk rose Felicia to bring into the house. I always cut this rose back hard in the spring and this year she has grown with long arching stems laden with powder-puff pink, fragrant blooms. Next year I have plans to let her grow as a pillar rose and provide support for her lovely tresses.


In the late afternoon, before the rains came, when I walked out through the front gate I detected the unmistakeable fragrance of another fall bloomer, the white, fragrant mistflower, Ageratina havanensis.



The deer have been nibbling away at the branches resulting in this very late bloom. As an understory bush it produces open airy branches loaded with puff ball blooms. I added two more plants this year positioning them near the oak trees and hopefully not in the deer pathway.
And then came the rains. Throughout the night the rain came down. When it falls on our Edwards plateau land it finds its way though sink holes into voids in the limestone. Then it must find a way out.


On the side of the hill by the road it found a place. It has been gushing out of here all day. It's on its way down to Barton Creek and into the Colorado.

Monday, October 14, 2013

NO GARDENING TODAY

A day without gardening is like a day without....sunshine. Neither of those today as a strong rain system hovers over Central Texas. It did bring us much needed rain yesterday, in fact too much for many, as creeks overflowed, houses flooded and ACL was cancelled. My rain gauge flowed over at 6" so I have no idea exactly how much we had but we estimate from a filled bucket it was closer to 9" About 3 miles away they had 12" Today brought another inch.


This is Barton Creek at the bridge on Lost Creek Blvd a mile from our house. Before they built the bridge this flooded roadway was the only way across. We used to call these fords in England. As a child it was always so exciting to cross a ford. In Texas crossings like this are a death trap when we get heavy rains. Lives are lost.


We have never seen this before. Along our road water was pouring out of the ground at the base of the cutting, in two places. I had often wondered if animals lived in these holes in the rock. If they did then they probably got the ride of their life. It is typical of this terrain to have sink holes into which water flows during heavy rains. It found a way out here. But that was yesterday. It is still raining today and I did a couple of garden related things.


The first was to frame and hang this little print of a clasping coneflower, Dracopsis amplexicaulis. At the Wildflower Center last week, in the volunteer room, they were giving away folders of prints given to them by a local bank. I am sure you know how it is when it comes to framing prints. It costs a fortune, but then I am not really fussy about the frames and 50c with the mat certainly was too good to pass up. I have four prints so I will be on the lookout for 3 more!

The second job was to bring the cactus and succulents under shelter. More rain is forecast for tomorrow and I fear for their wellbeing.



And these two little chaps will be very happy that their plant is being taken under cover. This one looks distinctly under the weather.