Thought we were at 7.99, but misread the screen.
Awwww! Still, this over 50% of our "normal" yearly rainfall (October 1 - Sept. 30)Drying out, though more rain is forecast for Tuesday. What to do in a wet, quiescent garden?
--Turn the Christmas tree into mulch:
--Scrub and wash the patio chairs, using rain water.
--Clean up some Aloe clumps. Aloe brevifolia as an edger on the front slope seems to work. I'll get some more healthy brevifolia rosettes going, to add more edging
I dug up some clumps of brevifolia and 'Rooikappie' from around the garden, separated and cleaned up each rosette, and have pots of soil ready for re-rooting them. Experience has taught this method is the best way to return an Aloe rosette to vigorous good health. It's a messy process.
The cut ends get a couple of days to heal over before planting:The perplexing multi-stemmed Aloe buhrii presented an educational opportunity. The plant's stem branched into four rosettes rather than offset. Could it be divided? I wrangled with the plant and cut it apart with loppers.
One rosette had no stem I could access. No central stem meant nothing to root.
All leaves, no stem (but day-glo sap!):
The other three buhrii rosettes had stems. They can re-root:
--Throw buckets of collected rainwater on the driest parts of the garden. The back Ligustrum hedge got quite a bit--it was stressed over August and September.
--Pot up some volunteer Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) and oak (Quercus agrifolia) seedings--maybe I can find them homes.
We've had an unusual number of cloudy or mostly cloudy days between rainy ones. Lately, Friday was the lone day of brilliant sunshine. Metrosideros 'Springfire' a hotbed of hummingbird, warbler, and bee activity.
Rain turned what roses I didn't pick and bring indoors into blobs of fuzzy grey goo. In the meantime, Aloe flowers. 'Hercules' and A. vanbalenii already open.
'Moonglow' about to.
New stems continue to appear (marlothii, cryptopoda in the past two days).
Enjoying January more than I expected to, because it's rained. A couple seed catalogs came in the mail, but I've not had time to really look through them. B&N are less thrilled about the rain, but they always find ways to be cheerful.
How's your January shaping up?
The Aloe flowers are beautiful! I'm so glad you guys have received so much needed rain. It does make a huge difference, doesn't it? We've had so few droughts, but having experienced them just a bit, I know how wonderful a good, soaking rain can be. January here is much warmer than "normal," and for an extended period of time. Yay.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your more mild than usual January! There are some issues up north with fallen trees and power outages, but so far most of us are just thrilled to get some significant rain. Yes it does make a huge difference--not only for the plants--the streets are so clean after being so dusty for so long.
DeleteYou've been so busy! Impressive, really. I haven't done anything in the garden since this rain business started, other than looking for aloe flowers, which are taking their sweet time this year.
ReplyDeleteThe Aloes seem a little late here, too--but the quality looks like it will be good. Hope no more fallen trees for you--news mentioned how many trees were falling in Sacramento and surrounding counties.
DeleteOkay, that lessens the difference between my rain count and yours. My total currently stands at 7.01". Like you, I've been distributing the rain I collected in trugs from my rain chain as my barrels are full and I expect I can refill the trugs if I choose to on Tuesday. I spent much of the day pruning and tidying things up, which consisted of deadheading soggy blooms and cutting back and pulling out a lot of alyssum. I could easily spend another week on pruning alone. We had a sunny and fairly warm Saturday morning with blue skies, which provided a pleasant break before the rain returns.
ReplyDeleteCool, you got some good rain too. Yes, tried to get emptied today what I could so more can collect. Going to enjoy it while it lasts because it may not. It is good exercise lugging the buckets around, and alyssum pulling going on here, too.
DeleteHope you are able to capture some of this rain for down the road. It seems like none of us are having what we used to think of as our "normal" weather anymore. I don't have any snow cover in January and it is just warm enough to be dangerous to my garden at this time of year. Ugh. Going out to look for discarded Xmas trees to cut up for branches to mulch exposed plants.
ReplyDeleteActually January is often our rainiest month--or at least it used to be. So this is more like "normal" use to be.
DeleteNo snow for you--yikes! That sounds abnormal indeed for your part of the country. Hopefully no thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze--I've read that is brutal for plants. Best wishes your garden will be okay.
Depends on the rose, of course. My mutabilis and Cecile Brunner are about to take over half the yard. Fresh new flowers daily. Hard to get out of my chair and do anything outside. Aren' t you cold? Have you seen your latest gas bill? I'm sure glad nothing in the garden depends on natural gas!
ReplyDeleteThat's great--Cecile has the most wonderful sweet fragrance. Just yummy!
DeleteI've been wearing my layers outside and indoors--not really very cold. The house seems to stay quite warm--which is bad in summer but good this time of year. We rarely run the heat--the dogs seem to generate enough to keep a room pretty comfortable. Two-Dog Night?
I actually got to wander around outside yesterday when the sun actually showed itself for a couple of hours before the current storm moved in. It's going to be a rough weed year -Based on the forecast for the month it sounds like it will be February before the soil will dry out enough to pull any of them ! It's worth it though-I'll trade a few extra weeding sessions for this welcome rain.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. Weeds a small price to pay for keeping the good plants alive! :^)
DeleteGlad your January is so exciting. Enjoy the rain. The aloe is awesome and I like the 'Mooglow' a lot.
ReplyDeleteAfter 3 years of drought, more than one rain event in a month is pretty exciting!
DeleteSorry, my bad a typo on Aloe 'Moonglow'.
I love the idea of using Aloe brevifolia as an edger.
ReplyDeleteChavli
It's very tough and holds up to long stretches (months) of dry heat very well.
DeleteIt's tantalising. We need rain, again. Today we got just enough, on his hike, to force them to go home early. At home not even a sprinkle!
ReplyDeleteThe plants on your hike, though, they must have been happy. Already drying out here--I hope we get more before winter is gone. Hope you get some, too!
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