Rain is welcome

A rainy weekend in March is always welcome.  We rely on spring rains (of whatever sort) to get us through droughty periods in early and mid-summer.  Thankfully, this rain comes after a much warmer than normal spell, and helps rehydrate soils.

Clemson is the red dot!

This front was wide and brought rain almost all day, close to an inch, I think, judging by the pot saucer near the mudroom door.  And more rain is expected overnight and tomorrow.

We're still facing abnormally dry conditions, moving towards drought.  The arrow marks roughly where we are in the Piedmont of South Carolina.

Droughty conditions and watering again

We don't like to water much;  we've designed our landscapes (yikes, it's now plural) to be largely self-reliant on rainfall, but a very long spell (weeks and weeks, maybe a month or more without any rain), and pushing 90°F temperatures through the end of September has even hardy natives looking wan, not to mention those from moister sites and higher elevations.

So I'm dragging the hose around, my gardening companion has gone to the mountains this weekend to water newly planted trees and shrubs in our landscape there  (he also has vegetable harvesting duties, and watering the raised beds, too).   So, we're hoping for some decent rain with the cold front that's coming in tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've managed to tidy up the perennial beds, get them ready for needed renovation, change out some containers, and plant to edit the front meadow tomorrow morning (it needs it, big time). There's a group of folks coming after a Osher Lifelong Learning Gardening for Nature program in mid-October, which somehow has become the program where 'we visit your garden.'

I like to encourage people to create gardens that welcome them home  -- ours does that, but we've gotten used to the mulch pile next to the garage (hmm), so it does create a bit of mild anxiety.  But I'm a teacher, and sharing the process is what learning is about.

Gardens are always changing, and even though we love our natural landscape, there are always shrubs to manage, and trees that don't flourish, etc. And we're ready to do the next round of editing and planting.

My vegetable beds in the Piedmont are doing well, with lots of nice fall greens (mustards, arugula, lettuce, and kale) in spite of a herbivore that keeps eating the leaves of my red cabbage and broccoli plants.

harvested garlic in early summer

I'm looking forward to planting garlic, as soon as we get some rain, and it cools off a bit more.

I caught sight of a large Eastern Cottontail rabbit this evening as I was watering, and thought, hmm.  I was blaming woodchucks creeping up from their forest den behind the brush pile, or squirrels, led to herbivory by dry weather.  Who knows?  All are possibilities.  But I'm glad enough to share a bit, at this point, although it's getting tiresome.

Fall equinox

I'm doing a Harvest Moon walk tomorrow evening, which should be nice.  And, it's always good to celebrate the first day of fall.

It's warm enough still (too warm, actually) that the nocturnal symphony (crickets, cicadas, tree frogs, and their ilk)  is still in full swing, although muted by droughty weather.

And, we need rain.  Planting (of shrubs, perennials or fall vegetables) requires lots of watering to properly get a planting place ready.  Even in the mountains, I've had to frequently drench my raised beds to keep up moisture levels.

Recharging aquifers

It's been raining all weekend -- lots.

This is a good thing, since even though our reservoirs (for drinking water and power generation) have been full since early last fall, recharging aquifers takes a lot more moisture, especially following the profound drought of the last decade (more or less). Hopefully, these winter rains will fully recharge groundwater supplies.

My gardening companion conveyed a colleague's report from winter break of low aquifers in Florida, depleted of much groundwater to attempt to save citrus crops from freezing (by applying a coat of protective ice). Concerns about sinkholes rerouted traffic, and folks who had dry wells were compensated.

The abundant rain this winter is good for native landscapes as well as our gardens.

But, it was a good weekend to stay inside.