Well watered June gardens

The first week of June has left our gardens well-watered with 3-4 inches of rain.  TPP had to remove water from the lily pond and will probably have to do so again today because of the 2.75 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. This is some 200-300% more rain than average. Fortunately the real heavy weather with high winds and hail passed just south of us. Can't remember when the low spots in our yard have been flooded so frequently. In late August and September it will probably be a drought. Too bad there's no way to store it all. Our rain barrel capacity is just 100 gallons. These weather fronts have our local conditions flip-flopping wildly, first aseasonally cool, cats-on-the-bed & blanket cool, now hot and steamy, a near 30F change in daily high temperature in one day. If you don't like the weather in the upper Midwest just wait a few minutes and it will change. Fortunately our neighborhood sits on a bit of a rise so no worries about damaging floods. People living on flood plains were watching out. All the rain has made weeds grow like crazy, and the only thing evening out the scales is that they are easy to pull when the ground is soft. The soft ground did assist with the removal of some wayward shrubs, spirea and a couple of old privets. TPP found a 6 foot tall pokeweed growing in a border garden; they easily get bigger, but not this early in the season. Welcome to summer.

About to have some winter

So far the winter of 2012-2013 has been pretty much a no show except for some cold temps, but nothing terribly cold.  it has been quite windy, so it's seemed colder.  Basically it's been a brown winter with only 3 inches of snow; no need to even shovel except wanting to keep the sidewalks clear of ice.  Now a big storm seems to be bearing right down on us promising more snow than we've had all winter so far.  From the perspective of precipitation, the area needs the moisture in whatever form it comes.  Even though the temperature has not dropped below 0 F (-18 C), our plants have been subjected to the worst of it having been deprived of an insulating cover of snow.  Guess we'll see what's hardy and what's not hardy at those temperatures.  None of this even begins to compare to the massive, unbelievably massive, snowfalls of my youth in the snow belt, lake effect snow belt, of upstate NY.  Yes, TPP's personal record was a 104" (264 cm) snow fall in 48 hours.  Hard to imagine isn't it?  So this storm is nothing really, but it comes during a particularly dry winter.  If we get a lot of snow, we'll have to see how the Norwegian forest cat, an indoor marshmallow pet, handles it just for fun.  Let's check the radar.  Storm front is about 80 miles SW on a direct bearing for us, so in about 3 hours we'll see how it goes.  No worries about driving when you're on foot; just worries abour drivers unused to winter conditions. 

Crazy weather

Here in the upper midwest, if you don't like the weather just wait a day and it'll change.  Fortunately the predicted ice storm failed to fully freeze leaving the predictors' record of failure for major weather events intact.  Yesterday the high temperature was 64F and new record for January 29th by 3 degrees.  Thunderstorms swept through the region giving us about an inch of badly needed precipitation.  This mid-winter thaw came immediately after the coldest week of the winter.  This morning the temperature was still in the 50s but the low tonight is predicted to be about 28F, and the low tomorrow around 2 F, a change of 62 degrees in a bit over 48 hours.  As for my snowdrops in flower, this is not good news because as tough as they are single digit freezing temperatures may be too much for them.  Lots of bulbs are pushing up, and if covered with a layer of snow they would be fine, but sticking up bereft of any insulation some leaf tips will get damaged.  The lily pond is now quite full and while almost completely frozen over previously, most of the ice has melted.  Whoosh.  The sound of battling fronts, warm, moist ones from the southwest and brutally cold dry ones from the northwest, some of that imported Great White North weather.  So what's our border policy on letting in this foreign weather? 

It never rains on field trips

One of the Phactor's cardinal rules is that it doesn't rain on field trips. OK maybe once in a while it rains on field trips when teaching rain forest ecology, but then rain is expected. On one memorable field trip, after 4 hot, dry days at the start of a rain forest field trip, one of my charges said, "Where's the rain? Thought this was a rain forest." Late that afternoon a deluge moved in and provided about 36 solid hours of heavy rain. OK then, it's really rain forest, so no whining (actually that's #1 rule on field trips). More than anything this is an attempt to teach students the power of positive thinking, and the futility of getting annoyed at something you cannot control. A little dampness never hurt anyone. However, at the moment my next field trip is 31 minutes away and some sort of precipitation is pounding on my office window. While it probably is rain now, in a mere half hour it will by definition not be raining. Useful rule that.

Gunga Din where are you?

Quite the opposite of Mary's situation, late summer in the upper midwestern USA means hot and dry, and at the best of times August and September are near droughts. Since all the rain is falling elsewhere, with which we agree is unfair, it's time to watch after your plants. Those of us who can't help ourselves, plant exotics that are not well adapted to the rigors of our climate, and you either baby the baby, or watch it whither and die. It takes 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) of rain a week to keep things like a well-mulched kitchen garden going in the summer heat, but that is not enough for a deep soaking, so deeper rooted plants begin to suffer. Last week some storms provided a scant 1/2 inch, and last night's storms not only interrupted a patio dinner, but dumped a whopping 1/4 inch of rain if we were lucky, and that's it for two weeks, and probably unless some more materializes today, all for the rest of this week, so no wonder lots of plants are suffering. If you have newly planted trees or shrubs, meaning plants in the ground for 3 years or less, keep them well watered and that takes more time and water than most people think. The Phactor is hounding our neighbors, not the ones who ripped out everything and planted grass, but the others who planted dozens of new things, a major non-grass landscaping effort that includes several very nice trees of some size, to keep watering, but they just don't water enough. Everyone thinks they can water, but after watching the superficial watering, you sometimes have to dig just below the surface and show them it remains bone dry down there; they always appear surprized. This is why drip irrigation works so well if you can just turn it on, go get a cold drink and forget about your water bills for the next four to five hours or so. Afterall if you spent some pretty good cash on a 2 meter tall golden dawn redwood, what's a few bucks more to keep it alive? Now there is one exception: grassy lawns. Let them bloody well dry out! Yes, they turn brown with the added benefit of needing no mowing, but that's what grass is meant to do in the heat of summer. It goes dormant. And yet the grass mono-culture morons keep dumping on the water. But that's life in the 'burbs.