Indian Summer.

what is the springtime-equivalent of indian summer?

a front came through the houston area tuesday night, dropping some much-needed rain and the unseasonably-high temperature. it obviously won't last long, but in the meantime, the respite from a too-early summer is greatly appreciated.

Greetings from NE Arkansas.

after leaving houston with the cats (3) and dogs (2) at 9 p.m. thursday, i arrived at my dad and stepmother's house in batesville, arkansas, at ~12:30 a.m. saturday. what is normally about a ten hour drive (including generous refueling/dogwalking/restroom breaks) took almost 28 hours as we evacuated. but it was the first 120 miles to nacogdoches that took the longest--19 and a half hours. at that point i realized i still had at least seven hours ahead of me, so i took my dad and stepmother up on their offer to meet me in texarkana. from there, my dad drove my equinox full of animals and i slept in my stepmother's vehicle.

i spoke to darin later saturday--he and the house are fine. power was briefly out, but back on by the time i called. minor tree debris scattered about the yard, but nothing too large. the greatest inconvenience was that the cable (and internet) was out until sunday.

the cats and dogs were real troopers for the ride to arkansas. i wasn't too surprised about the dogs because they love going for rides and have gone to arkansas with us before. i can't say the cats enjoyed the trip, but they did stop yowling after the first two hours and from then on only occasionally piped up to remind me of their displeasure. getting them into their carriers for the return trip tomorrow might be a bit challenging.

as i told my sister at around hour 15, "someday i'll be able to laugh when i tell my kids about taking part in the largest mass evacuation in u.s. history. just not today." i'm not sorry to have gone; if i'd waited until we were certain where the hurricane would make landfall it would have been too late to go. and i'm pretty frustrated with the whole "if you aren't in danger of flooding, shelter in place" line (which started shortly after i got on the road). sheltering in place would have been fine if i had an underground concrete bunker. but i have a 65 year old house surrounded by 60+ year old pine trees. if those things come down, they're taking the house too.

lessons i learned: don't leave home without a full tank of gas (thankfully, i had a full tank); get a car charger for the cell phone (my battery didn't run out, but i had to be very frugal); take advantage of every possible bathroom break.

Obligatory Update.

woke up this morning to disturbing hurricane projections. the latest noaa projection has rita heading straight for houston.

the cats, dogs and i are preparing to leave late this afternoon or tonight to head to my dad's in arkansas. darin is (currently) planning to stay to keep an eye on the house, but he'll go to the nearby hospital for shelter during the storm. the dogs travel very well (they love even loooong drives); the cats, not so well although they do typically stop yowling after an hour or two. i'll be sure to have lots of aspirin for myself.

we've moved all possible outdoor projectiles into the garage; the equinox is gassed and ready for departure. the digital camera batteries are charging so i can photograph house and contents for insurance purposes.

Obligatory Hurricane Post.

at present, we're planning to stay put in our house, which is about seven miles northwest of downtown houston. that plan is, of course, subject to change depending on what track hurricane rita takes over the next 24 hours. we aren't worried about flooding; we are worried about wind, particularly tree, damage.

we've stocked up on bottled water and non-perishable food. tomorrow i need to venture out and get more dry cat and dog food.

for good coverage of the hurricane and its effect on houston, check out the houston chronicle's sciguy blog.

One for the Record Books.

it's official--june 2005 was the driest june on record for houston. according to the national weather service, houston had .08 inches of rain at bush intercontinental airport (site of their official measurements for houston). average june rainfall for houston is just under 5.5 inches.

you know it's dry when figs are dehydrating on the tree. (okay, it isn't quite that bad).

Not Sure I Believe This...

but i dumped almost five inches of rain out of the rain gauge this afternoon.

And More Bucketloads.

this is getting repetitive, even to me, but in the interest of accuracy i feel compelled to note that i emptied another two inches of rain from the rain gauge this morning.

the snails continue their onslaught relentlessly. i shudder every time i think of all the mosquitoes that will follow the rain. they're already increasing in number. at least the toads are happy.

oh, and the rain is expected to continue through the weekend.

Overflowing Bucketloads.

at eleven last night i dumped another 1.25 inches of rain out of the rain gauge. and another three-fourths of an inch just now.

if i've kept track correctly, that makes 6.75 inches of rain since tuesday morning. i think this can be best described as "overflowing bucketloads."

And More.

at three this afternoon i dumped another 1.25 inches of rain out of the rain gauge. that was the overnight / morning / mid-day accumulation.

and it is still raining.

More Bucketloads.

another 2.25 inches of rain since mid-afternoon. and it's raining again.

Bucketloads of Rain.

that is what the meteorologists are telling us to expect for the next few days.

since mid-morning we have had about 1.25 inches here. we're currently experiencing a lull of only light showers.

"bucketloads" describes this year's rainfall quite accurately. according to the harris county interactive rainfall map, our neighborhood has had just over 5.75 inches of rain in the last 30 days and more than 29.5 inches this year. in other words, bucketloads. a few buckets over the average, in fact.

Slow Month.

once again, i've been neglecting the blog most egregiously. this time i'll blame the weather. the first half of february has, in fact, been cold, gray and damp. but yesterday and today have been absolutely beautiful and i'm getting motivated to actually go outside and do things.

zanthan gardens has also found the weather to be on the dreary side.

update: for some beautiful pictures of what snow looks like in austin, texas, look at the daily muse's february 14th posting.

Rain.

the last few days have been grey and rainy. according to my rain gauge we had three and a half inches. no wonder the yard is so squishy.

now it's less grey, but much colder.

Sad Lettuce.

it certainly could have been worse.

here at garden spot the only casualty of monday's rain was the black-seeded simpson lettuce. (and a few bell peppers prematurely dropped, but it's not like there aren't plenty.)

the lettuce was well and truly mashed into the soil. the leaves are shredded; what isn't shredded is bruised and yucky looking. this picture actually shows the few plants that fared best; the green smudges on the far left are what most of my lettuce crop looks like.

if it doesn't recover (but i think it will) i have plenty of seeds still, so i'll just start over.

Blue Skies.

after monday's flooding, tuesday was a fabulously beautiful day.

as the picture shows, everything was looking green a day later. as a matter of fact, once the rain stopped the backyard drained very quickly. yay for french drains.

these last two days there has been a spate of discussion on the neighborhood mailing list re: drainage improvements (a topic hotly discussed throughout houston / harris county). one question that came up on the list was whether curbs and gutters would improve our drainage.

presently, we have no sidewalks and open ditches (someone referred to them as "swales" which is a better description). it was pointed out that the larger lots we have (relative to many close-in neighborhoods), together with deed restrictions requiring generous building setbacks from the street and all other lot sides, and even the open ditches / swales provide more green space which equals more water soaking into the ground. and any water that soaks into the ground is that much water that doesn't end up in someone's house*.

it certainly sounds reasonable to me.

unfortunately, as long as other areas upstream pave everything over and divert their excess water downstream, the floodwaters go up. so the downstream folks look for a way to move more water farther downstream, and it goes on and on...

* no one in houston has a basement / cellar; since we're so close to sea level and do have large amounts of rain on a regular basis, a basement would be nothing more than an underground swimming pool.

Island Bed.

the island bed has become a true island. for reference, there are two layers of stone around the bed. so we have 6" - 8" of standing water in the backyard.

lest anyone worry, our house is pier and beam (gives us an additional 2 - 3 feet of clearance) and the backyard does slope off; water is not near the house.

click thumbnail for larger image.

Whining About the Weather.

yes, i know most folks are bored by weather-related posts. but this is a gardening blog so weather is a very relevant topic.

current conditions: very wet, with more wet expected (~3" and counting). yard goes "squish, squish" when we venture out, but no standing water. a very good thing considering houston's utter lack of elevation and chronically poor drainage.

alas, my lovely baby lettuce has been mashed by all the rain and become one with the dirt.

Wacky Weather.

it's november in houston and the weather -- as is typical here -- varies wildly from week to week and even from one day to the next.

case in point, yesterday's high temperature was 85F [1] and the low was 68F. the forecast high for today is 66F (but it's currently 70F) and the expected low tonight is 45F!

it has also been a very dry november for us.

don't get me wrong -- i'm not really complaining! i'll take our houston weather over new england's any time. no offense to those who live there; i just don't like cold weather and long winters.

[1] apparently the 85F tied houston's record high for november 12.

Drippy, Dreary Month.

september has been a very damp month so far. according to the harris county interactive rainfall map we've had 5.35 inches of rain this month.

Battered and Bedraggled.

late last week (thursday?) a very violent line of thunderstorms moved through the houston area and dumped ~2 inches of rain on our house. the flowers on the poor oxblood lilies did not fare well. they were too pitiful for me to even take pictures.

then, to add insult to injury, when i looked at them yesterday i saw that one of the stems had been snapped in two and left lying on the ground. i suspect squirrels because there was evidence of squirrel digging activity in the mulch around the lilies. i hope the stem tasted awful.

oh well, they were lovely while they lasted. now, hopefully, they'll put up some leaves and get to work making offsets so i can have a better show someday.

Rain Relief.

according to the interactive rain maps from the harris county oem flood alert system our neighborhood has had 3.5 inches of much-needed rain in the last five days.

it has, in my opinion, been "good rain" in the sense that it has been slow and steady. but we've had enough now and could stand a few days reprieve. not that we'll get it.

Afternoon Thunderstorm.

i've been ignoring the meteorologists lately since they kept teasing me with the "chance of thunderstorms" that fail to materialize. at least they haven't been materializing in my vicinity.

this afternoon i noticed our grass was once again getting that crispy feel to it. lawn grass really shouldn't crackle when you walk across it. i was close to breaking down and asking darin to drag out the hose and set up the sprinkler when i heard the rumble of distant thunder.

naturally, i expected it to once again bypass our neighborhood, but i held off on the sprinkler request just in case.

after much grumbling and spitting, the rainclouds finally arrived at our house and dumped a goodly amount of rain over the course of about an hour.

Dog Days.

it's hot, it's humid, it's the height of summer in houston. even the dogs don't want to be outside.

to make matters worse, i seem to have become a mosquito magnet. once upon a time, mosquitoes ignored me, preferring to munch on the people around me. apparently i've become sweeter in my middle age. or something like that.

hurricane claudette was kind to us. we got a bit of rain on tuesday and a few more showers wednesday (rain in july is almost always a good thing). a couple of my bell and banana pepper plants were slightly beaten down, but they'll recover. the serrano peppers and the tomatoes were completely unaffected and continue to grow pretty much like weeds. at least they're producing lots of edibles.

More Weather.

we've had showers with occasionally heavier rain and gusty wind since early this morning. it's just barely sprinkling now. happy to be on the higher side of houston.

Watching the Weather.

we've gone from expecting no impact from tropical storm claudette to expecting a rather closer encounter.

sky was clear and blue all day today, but the clouds have now started moving in and as i type this it is noticably darker outside than it was 30 minutes ago.

Here Comes the Rain. Again.

after thunder and lightning and rain much of yesterday (and a few brief power outages), today started off with sunny blue skies.

but now the clouds have moved in, the wind has picked up and the temperature has dropped. my first look out the window seemed to indicate huge raindrops had just started falling, but closer inspection revealed those huge drops were actually crepe myrtle blossoms. the front bed is now covered in pale pink (or maybe it's lavender) crepe myrtle blossoms.

given that houston is down almost ten inches for rainfall this year, i don't mind too much.

Rain.

thunder and lightning woke me in the wee hours of the morning. i looked at the clock but it didn't yet read "time to get up" so i don't remember what time it was. i'm not much of a morning person and even less of a pre-dawn person. judging from the water-logged condition of our newspaper the rain must have started after the paper was delivered [1], i.e. after 6 a.m.

i do remember lying in bed, listening to the storm and trying to remember whether i had any small, vulnerable seedlings outside that i should go rescue. my sleep-muddled mind was having trouble sorting things out, but i did decide that if there were any seedlings they had probably been pounded into the soil already [2] and i wasn't willing to stumble around in the dark and rain and mud to tie up the tomatoes [3].

i don't have a proper rain gauge, but based on the water accumulated in empty pots i think we had about an inch here. neighborhoods not far from us got two inches.

[1] our delivery person is very good about throwing the paper onto the higher (drier) part of the yard rather than the lower (wetter) part of the driveway if it's raining or threatening to rain.

[2] there aren't any seedlings; i was worrying needlessly.

[3] the tomatoes survived the storm unscathed without additional support / protection. the peppers are fine, too.

Hot and Dry.

it has been unseasonably hot and dry for most of the month of may so i haven't been doing much outside. we did have a bit of rain here monday night -- enough that seven rain lily buds have appeared and should bloom in another day or two.

my two cherry tomato plants are thriving. both plants are a couple of feet in diameter and the 'sweet million' is taller than me. in the last ten days or so i've started harvesting a (smallish) handful of cherry tomatoes every other day.

the first-planted serrano pepper is covered with a couple dozen small peppers; we've also got a couple of bell peppers ripening and a couple of very long, very odd-looking banana peppers. sadly, although the poblano is growing nicely, it isn't setting any peppers. we had the same problem with the poblano we tried last year.

the purple basil (bought 4" plant, separated in two before planting) and the green basil (grown from seed -- yay, me!) is looking / smelling wonderful. all plants are now six - eight inches tall and bushing out. i had fresh basil and cherry tomatoes on my pasta the other day.

Heat Hiatus.

it's already disgustingly hot and humid and it's only the beginning of may. i haven't been doing much outside lately, although yesterday morning it was nice enough out that i finally finished planting my pepper plants. i can deal with these conditions, just not so early in the summer. instead, i've been working on various indoor projects.

the gardenia flowers have come and gone. the heat finished off the blooms very quickly. the lilies are done; i need to dig up the ones i'm going to relocate soon.

i pulled out all the sugar snap peas a few days ago -- powdery mildew got to be too much for them, no doubt their decline was hastened by the heat and humidity.

on the other hand, the lantana is thriving and the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen.

other stuff also happening in the garden, but i need to finish stripping the kitchen wallpaper.

Combating the Cold.

i've managed to preserve my three remaining pentas by covering them with cardboard boxes the last few nights.

we were supposed to have overnight temperatures in the low 20s earlier this week (i think it actually only got as cold as upper 20s), so i went ahead and cut the flower scape from the crinum. it's now in the kitchen windowsill and continues to progress -- it may go ahead and bloom after all. or maybe not; it's still several days from opening.

i also put extra mulch in the raised veggie/herb bed and everything there still looks good. even the baby peas.

four of the five erlicheer narcissus have flower buds (one of them has two buds).

Bye, Bye, Pentas.

arrgh. i was overly confident. most of the pentas (pentas lanceolata) have perished in the cold. to be honest, it didn't even occur to me that i should try to protect them even though i knew in the back of my brain that they are "tender" perennials. hopefully, some of them will come back from the roots. i've been so happy with these plants that i'll definitely buy more in a few months, regardless of the recovery rate.

as it turns out, the ixora are hardier than the pentas. to look at them, you'd never know there was frost on the ground this morning.

how cold was it? i'm not sure, but it's about 32F now, so i would guess the overnight low was in the upper 20s. that's pretty nippy by houston standards.

as for the some of the other plants:

• all but one of the mexican firebush (hamelia patens) got zapped, although i am fairly confident they will recover from the roots as they did last year
  
• the red salvia is done for, although the mealy blue salvia next to it looks decent; the pineapple sage looks fine
  
• the giant caesar lettuce looks pretty bad (i'm surprised by this as i thought lettuce was frost-tolerant), but the black-seeded simpson lettuce looks fine
  
• the rosemary, sweet lavender, greek oregano and parsley are unscathed
  
• the cilantro and the remaining pea vine look a little tattered, but should be okay
  
• the mexican heather (cuphea hyssopifolia) is looking scraggly, but i know from last year that it will also return from the roots

i don't worry about bulbs, shrubs, trees. it would have to get much colder for them to suffer.

i took the picture below earlier this morning. note that the very dead penta is flanked by two still-living pentas, one of which is actually blooming.

Winter is Here.

despite beautiful fall weather all last week, i was feeling a bit under the weather, hence the lack of posts. this week, i'm feeling much more like myself, but the weather has taken a turn for the cold. and no, i don't care how much colder it is everywhere else, this counts as winter weather in houston. i've lived in parts of the country that experience "real" winter and i do not like it for more than a couple of days. this is why i live in houston. when i want to experience winter, we go visit family members in those cold parts of the country, or we take a ski trip.

speaking of last week, the weather really was perfect fall weather. cloudless blue sky, comfortable temperatures during the afternoon, cooling off to crisp sweater weather after sunset. the trees were even changing color and looking like proper fall trees - all too often, the leaves in houston just go from green to brown with no nice colors in between. this is one of the (very) few things i miss about living in a region with four real seasons.

now the forecasters say we're in for a few days of dreary, damp, cold weather. bleah, and i was looking forward to having five days to play in the garden.

Rain, Again.

i know october / november is the "rainy" season in houston, but this is too much. it's been raining intermittently since yesterday afternoon. i think we've had close to two inches of rain in the last 24 hours. more rain forecast through tuesday.

please send sun.

Blue Sky!

the rain has finally cleared out. at one point last night (around 8 or 9 p.m.) we had standing water four to six inches deep in the backyard. i measured it. thank goodness for pier and beam construction. despite the depth of water in the backyard, it never reached the deck (or house). by the time i got up this morning, the water had receded.

Still Raining.

supposedly, it will stop sometime tomorrow. i'll believe it when my yard stops squishing.

Houston Forecast: Rain.

squish, squish.

Rain, Rain, More Rain.

it's been raining intermittently since saturday and the forecasts say more is still to come. i think we've gotten at least three inches so far. the backyard is mushy, but no standing water. and my poor compost piles are cold, cold, cold.

at least the crinums and rain lilies are enjoying the rain. two of the "garage" crinums have sent up flower scapes in the last couple of days and should bloom next week. all of the "rescued" rain lilies have put out lots of new growth and i have my fingers crossed that they'll bloom soon, too.

speaking of the crinums, i planted the two surviving crinum "babies" under the cherry laurel a month or two ago and they seem to be adapting well (i.e. lots of new growth). in the meantime, many more crinum offsets have sprouted and need to be dug (escaping from beds into the yard / growing through doorstep) and relocated or given away.

Saturday Showers.

it's been raining on-and-off all day. which is good because the plants were getting a bit dry but bad because i haven't been able to do much outside work for the last week and a half or so. tomorrow will hopefully be drier.

Brrrrr.

it's been unseasonably cool here in houston for the last few days. temp was 50ish when i got up this morning.

however, my lone surviving rose seems to be greatly enjoying the cool spell and has put on a spurt of growth.

the lettuce is getting quite leafy and doesn't appear to have been disturbed (yet) by pests. i do think i should have sowed the seeds a little bit deeper; the roots just seem to be barely in the soil.

the two parsley plants i bought and planted a few weeks ago have nearly doubled in size; i think we'll be using some of that this evening. the oregano has also grown quite a bit and is probably ready to be trimmed.

the basil by the back door went into full bloom while we were out of town.

Cold Weather Coming.

good thing i didn't get impatient and try to put any seedlings out over the weekend. we're expecting record lows (20s) tonight and tomorrow night.

Cats vs. Seedlings. no (noticeable) losses to hungry cats yet, but they have sat on a few seedlings. and for some reason one of the cats is barfing more than usual. we haven't witnessed any seedling snacking, so it could be entirely coincidental, or not - two barf incidents have occurred in close proximity to the seedling trays...

The Fun Never Ends...

last night i potted up more tomatoes, spinach, thyme and savory. i now have 40-odd little pots, each with four or more seedlings.

it's still too soon to put anything outside - the rain yesterday afternoon/evening would have smooshed any poor seedlings unfortunate enough to be out. and we're supposed to have a cold front come through next week. i just have to remember to be patient.

this weekend i hope we'll finish clearing out the jungle. it was more work-intensive than i expected last weekend, but darin has volunteered to help finish the job.

i haven't even started my lettuce seeds. that may be a problem, since lettuce is apparently a cool weather plant. okay, maybe it isn't such a problem. i have 1000+ seeds so even if i toast a few in the houston heat, i can always try again next season.

Weekend Update.

i was feeling a bit under the weather all weekend and was completely unproductive. which is a shame since saturday's weather was perfect for being outside.

Rain & Seeds.

it's been a drippy, dreary, cold sort of day. but it is, after all, february. and this is houston, so it shouldn't last long.

the herb seeds are germinating. as of this morning, 10 or so basil and a comparable number of chive seeds were showing teeny, tiny sprouts. whee!