Two Days After It Was Supposed To Rain A Lot



Our local rain was disappointing:  we got perhaps two tenths of an inch, at most.  The wait continues.  The garden is a lot of bare branches these days.
In the meantime, finishing up rose pruning, a much less arduous task than in past years.  The 'Sombreuil' over the front door is coming out.  I'll replace it with the unhappy potted 'Iceberg' on the east balcony, which will surely be happier in the ground. 
I'm constantly checking the dreadful Asclepias by the front door, waiting for the large Monarch caterpillar to cocoon so I can pull out the Asclepias.  This morning there two, not one, large caterpillars, chomping away at what they could.  Not big enough yet, guys?
 It was a frigid 41F this morning on the patio, but we'll have highs near 80 by the end of the week.  I'll have to turn the irrigation system back on, but we've saved so much the past nine months, we're still well over 60% savings. 
I remind myself that properly situated Camellias need less water even than Agaves--these two in an ignored part of the garden get no irrigation at all--and here they are, blooming.  
 One...
 ...and the other.
 They are both small because I cut them to the ground in preparation for removing them several years back, and then never got around to the removal.  They grew back.  Good thing.  

The State Water Resources Board report for December is in.  Our district missed its 36% mandatory savings by 2.6%  Tsk, tsk.  That's what's going on here today, two days after it was supposed to rain a lot, but didn't.  Back to work.

Comments

  1. Same story here: 39.9F last night (coldest so far), 0.27 inch from latest storm; not enough water saved for the city as a whole. Camellias blooming well, aloe sick. It is so disappointing.

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    1. I wanted to hope somebody got a good rain, even if here didn't. :(

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  2. It sounds better if you measure in millimeters -- unless you're very familiar with metric measurements and know that 5mm isn't very much. :( Caterpillars are on their fifth (final) instar, so should be just about ready to spin.

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    1. fifth instar?!? Okay, I'll look that up...Okay, gotcha.

      I worry about them. It's been cold (40s) at night, and the milkweed is such an aphid-ridden mess. Doesn't seem good enough for them. Well, here's hoping. There's plenty of bare rose canes nearby to hang from.

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  3. I wonder if we can believe their predictions that rain will be coming later? So far, they seem to be wrong a lot.

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    1. The next chance for a sagging jet stream is Feb 13-26th. I remember the last big El Nino everything (17 inches of rain) came in March...still trying to be positive, here.

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  4. These caterpillars look so interesting.... If it was possible I should send you some rain from my garden, the ground is waterlogged.

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  5. The rain looked so promising at the start on Sunday but that darn wind just picked up and blew it out of here. Trivial as it was, it was enough to mostly top off my rain tanks, though, so I'll be working some more on my upper arm strength hauling water around. My water district performed worse than yours but we still have a good savings balance too, fortunately.

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    1. Happy your tanks got filled. That is something!

      My neighbors who let their lawn die for summer have been watering daily and had a chemical truck out that sprayed something horribly smelly, and greened up their dead lawn in no kidding three days. All to look nice for Super Bowl Party.

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  6. Shoo, little rain clouds...go south, go south.

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  7. Hi, I'm going to be adding Dymondia to my landscape. How many plants did you put in and how long did it take to fill out? Thank you

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    1. Hi Nora, my experience is that if the pieces are too small, they die if it is too hot (> 75F) A patch about 3" x 3" is highly likely to survive. Important to loosen the soil and not walk on the plants as long as possible so they are very well established. Compacting the soil seems to kill off the roots. I put the patches about 1 foot apart. Also very important to weed and make sure there's no surviving grass in the area. Hope that gives you an idea...

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