soaphouse's Blog
soaphouse's posts about: rain
Mar 19, 2008 | 1:05 PM PST
Tags: rain , persicaria , lorapedulum , mulch , poppy , poppie , maple , saucer magnolia
We have had quite a few rainy days here lately (great for the drought) and today was no exception. I just love the way the garden looks after a good rain! I was planning on plant shopping this afternoon, but it was raining so hard...my girl and I sang songs and watched the rain from the front porch. So lovely! In between rain showers, I was able to get some nice picts of the garden as of late:
View from the front porch:
Various views of the front of the house as seen from the street:
Looks like the redbud will be in its full glory in no time :)
The lorapedulums are doing great and I love the contrast of the Junipers. The one shrub has a piece of it that grows with the white blooms. I have long debated as to cut it out each season, or leave it be. Sometimes I think it is fun and unexpected, other times I think it looks like a mistake...I can't decide.
Saucer Magnolia survived one of the late freezes and is in its glory! I just love it...when the petals start to fall, it looks a bit like a summer snow.
All the front perennials are starting to come up and I look forward to adding even more this season!
These seedlings were easy to spot in the wet mulch...I think they might be poppies. I threw out a bunch of poppy seeds in this bed (not expecting much)...if they aren't poppies, then they might be a weed, I am not sure:
The Japanese Maples are budding out nicely. They were severely affected by the late freeze last year. Looks like this year will be better:
The creek is doing its thing...and all the moisture should be wonderful for the newly planted Great Gunnera Bulb
Nice view of the back yard today (hubby has promised to have all the veggie bed fences done and installed by april 1st for planting time :)
The persicaria is coming back :)
And finally...a view of the back, from the back ( I enjoyed comparing this picture with the same shot from last summer....its nice to see the progress)
I am so enjoying watching spring unfold! Maybe I will get to my plant shopping in the next couple of days. I have so many things on my list to add to the garden...and our home depot landscape supply just stocked up, so I can't wait to check it out!!!!!!!
Feb 23, 2008 | 4:46 PM PST
Tags: compost , owl , herron , veggie beds , dogs , raised bed , weeding , weeds , rain , drought
(I hope this post goes through ok...with all the weird stuff going on with the site today...)
The last few days we have had a good steady rain. Great for our drought situation! Of course, I have gotten used to doing something in the yard most every afternoon. So, instead...I had some nice cups of coffee on the front porch and watched the rain :)
One morning, when I woke up...I noticed an owl perched on the fence by the creek. We hear owls a lot around here...and my husbad has named the one we hear, Norbert. Maybe this was Norbert showing himself :) . A little later, I also saw some sort of giant bird walking across the creek (might have been a white herron?) I couldn't catch a picture of him though. Here is a little shot of the owl:
It dried up enough today for my hubby to go get some loads of compost for the newly built veggie beds! Hooray!!!
And, in case there was any question as to the necessity of the chicken wire surrounds:
HAH! needless to say...the doggies had a fun day in the garden too!
While my husband was picking up the loads I also took advantage of the wet ground and did my first (of many, I am sure) spring weeding sessions! It felt good to get that done. We got most of the beds full and just need to finish up one bed. Yeah! Gotta love progress!
Jan 31, 2008 | 2:19 PM PST
Tags: steps , paver , ivy , creeping jenny , creek , rain , brush
Over the last couple of days I have gotten some fun things done by the creek! I picked up some creeping jenny plants for the opposite bank side...of course, after planting them, I also drove stakes through the root ball to hold them in. The water usually doesn't come up this high though....
Today, I also decided to try digging in some stairs. I am not sure if they will stay put with a heavy rain and the rushing creek water, but this whole thing is an experiment... I used some pavers that were on our property when we moved in and have just been sitting in a pile. I figure this way, if it doesn't work out...I haven't spent $ on nice pavers and I am only out about an hour of time. If it does hold up....I may change out the pavers over time for nicer ones. I also transplanted some variagated ivy pieces in between the blocks, so hopefully they will grow in nicely. I pinned them down with landscape pins.
Not too shabby for an hour's worth of work and free materials! I finished just in time for the forcasted rain, so these pictures might be the only thing left of this by morning :0
I also spent some time getting more brush to the curb...I will do more of that tomorrow
Oct 23, 2007 | 2:53 PM PST
Tags: rain , woodchips , mulch , divide , transplant , drought
Well, its been raining here for 2 days straight!!! I can hardly believe it!!! Its is so wonderful and now I have a glimmer of hope that my fall veggie seeds might grow after all!!! Can't wait to see the garden as the days progress! I know it will give me lots to do and I am so glad! Hopefully I can do some more dividing and transplanting. I am also planning on ordering up some more of the free woodchips from the city for the back yard.
Jul 26, 2007 | 6:22 PM PST
Tags: compost , bed , dogs , rain , hail , dirty
My lovely hubby went to go get more of the city compost today for my new bed. This is a process that he is not very fond of and getting him to do it usually involves some sort of begging and bribery. I can' t say that I blame him as it is a very messy and stinky job. To prove his point he had me take this pict for all the world to see how dirty he gets:
As you can see...the dogs don't seem to mind so much getting dirty:
We got this unloaded just in time for an afternoon hail storm! It was mostly rain, but there was pea sized hail mixed in and SO great to watch from the front porch!
A nice good drink for my newly planted goodies from yesterday! Hopefully, I will start planting up the new bed this weekend!
Jul 19, 2007 | 4:08 PM PST
Tags: rain , flood , water , rapids , creek , before , after , dogs
We have been in a drought all summer and I have had to stay up on watering and do it during the restricted time allotment. But, since last week we have been getting some consistent afternoon showers. A lot of them are even major thunderstorms that are great to watch from the front porch. Its just fabulous! The only thing is that it makes everything grow really fast...including the weeds, so I am really having to stay on top of that!!
Most of you have read my entries about the creek clean out project and I have mentioned how we are on a flood plane and our backyard changes a lot in a heavy downpour. We had one today, so here are some picts:
- Before Rain:
- After Rain:
- Before:
- After:
- More Rain...
- Look at those rapids!
- Remnants of the flood:
- The veggie beds are raised and made out of cedar posts and metal that is cemented in the ground.
- When I plant behind the creek, I will have to plant when no rain is forcasted so that the plants don't wash away! And I will have to plant items that have big root systems.
- I can't put too much effort into mulching or grass growing because it would all get washed away!
- I have taken note of where water lingers after the rains and planted things that are tolerant of this.
- Since I have been cleaning out the creek, after each heavy rain, I have to go pull trash out that has gotten caught on branches while rushing by
- And, one of the most important things I learned today...the rottie and chihuahua really like rolling in the puddles...don't let them out after the big rain! LOL!!!
Jul 11, 2007 | 9:40 AM PST
Tags: porch , rain , rainy day
We haven't had a good rain here in my neck of the woods in months. Good new is that since yesterday, it has been raining on and off and we have even gotten some really hard downpours!!! Its just fabulous and it has forced me to spenc a lot of time sitting on the porch watching the garden in stead of out working in it...Here are some picts I took yesterday in between showers while stting on my front porch :)
Funny...things don't even look wet, thats how bad we need rain, just sucked it all up!
Ok, now its wet...taken 5 minutes ago:
M
y little girl...swinging in the rain :)
Jun 25, 2007 | 1:26 PM PST
Tags: mums , rain , weeding , creek , path
OH. MY. GOSH!!!!
Its Raining! We haven't had rain in FOREVER!!!!!
At first I was kinda annoyed because I was in the middle of weeding, but after a nano second, I thanked the heavens and moved inside for the virtual gardening world.
I've been working on those pesky little summer weeds in the back....my next BIG project is to clear the overgrowth behind our back fence. There is a creek back there somewhere and god only know what else...
Already
starting to think about my garden in the fall too. THink I might plant some brightly colored mums along the back path. Also want to plant a bunch of bulbs. Fun, Fun!
