Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Rain!

Entry updated 7/23/07
Rain! We received 1.8" of rain late afternoon/early evening yesterday. Yippee - except that it POURED and from uphill neighbors and the upslope of the front of our own yard, run-off happened! Ran a river... right through the SW part of the yard! And it happened again this past week... 2" through the night and early morning.

We received another .7" this morning. And it looks like there will be rain again tonight! (And it happened again... 2" through the night and early morning.) Both nights' downpours were preceeded by high winds, and hail the first night (not always a good sign).

I have a goal of eventually creating a "dry bed" on the south side of our house... which would facilitate the run-off, and look very nice at other times. At least everything looks wonderful out there. And I've been able to discontinue watering for a few days.

Here's a photo of my "Madonna" day lily being nibbled by a kinda-cute little green insect. I was just told that it's a katydid nymph. He's down in the center. Click on the photo if you want to get closer. A tribe of these fellows, all of different sizes, made themselves at home on another bloom, practically denuding the petals of their color. (See the tiny spot where this fellow has been working?)
This is a Blackberry Lily. I first noticed it blooming yesterday. Out back, in the shade . . . hmmm, where's my lemonaide?

2 comments:

Andrea Dellit said...

hey, can you send us some! We are 9 inches underwatered and in a mild drought! By the way, my peony didn't make it--any ideas...it was in partial shade...does it need 100% sun??? I can send you a picture of what it looks like keeled over...I will leave it in the ground and it might come back up like the other one did this year...Or should I dig it up and move it now? Help, Aunt Kath!

Shady Gardener said...

Andi, I think I'd leave it where it is for now. If you're experiencing heat and drought, that would be hard on a very healthy plant to make a move, much less one that seems to be in distress! I'd wait until next Spring to see if it comes back. If it does, before it grows very large, you could move it then. They do like full sun, but they can tolerate shade. It could be the drought. (I moved a hibiscus not long ago, and it looks quite dead. I'm waiting until Spring.)