Into Each Life, Some Rain Must Fall....

Or, maybe a lot of rain.

On October 30th, it started raining here about 10:00 p.m.

Softly at first.  Then it began to POUR.

And, it poured and it poured.

By 4:30 a.m., it began to let up.

By then, we had over a FOOT of rain here.

Remember my boast about my new bed?

How it had worked with a three inch rain?

Two of those inches in a hour.

Well...after two inches an hour, for SIX hours,

it wasn't so pretty.

The water came pouring over the brick edging.  It rolled up the cardboard

and the newspaper we'd laid under the mulch.

It washed out gravel and picked up stepping stones, 

and stacked one on top of another.

It sheared off weeds and grass, from under the newspaper and mulch.

It washed debris against our not-so-sturdy new fenced area.

It washed stones from the Rio.

And, crushed granite, .....

....into the Rio.

It built up debris against the house and the fences.

3:00 a.m., Thursday, October 31, 2013

It rushed like this, through the circular drive, for many hours.

And, deposited about 4" of rain IN the garage.

We worked hard to keep it out of the house, 

sweeping it off the front porch as fast as we could.

That worked.

By morning's light, the waters had receded a bit.

But, it had done some damage.

It washed away some of the cart path.

But, the creek had gone down enough to be inside its banks.

Large trees, and a smoker from down the street, deposited on the 10th tee box.

These trees, slammed against a low water crossing bridge, must have contributed

to the water backing up.

We were SO lucky.  The water is out of the garage, with no real damage.

We can restore the mulch and the plants.

But, many of our neighbors had water rushing 

THROUGH THEIR HOUSES!

Carpets are ripped up, and laying in driveways.

Not sure how much wall and furniture damage there is.

But, as far as I know, nobody was hurt.

In other areas of this flood, that wasn't the case.

9:00 a.m. October 31.

People were being smart, and not trying to cross Cypress Creek here.

This was way higher than we had seen before.

So, today I'm grateful we are all OK.

We're looking into flood insurance.

And, we're buying some sand bags.

We had about 20" of rain at Patchwork Garden, in October.

That's plenty, thanks.

Did I mention, we have rain forecast for today?

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

A Little This...A Little That....

It's been a while since I posted here.

We've been here and there, and busy.

Today is overcast...more rain forecast...so I got out and took some photos.

Everything has been really loving our recent rains.

And, we've enjoyed not having to water.

Last time, I showed you our latest project and pointed out this was next.

Well...it's coming along nicely.

Not finished...but coming along.

We'll be putting in some stepping stones on the right side.

Water from the street always ran through here, whenever it rained.

It was washing away soil from tree roots.

So, we put in this cut limestone edging and a trench, to redirect the rain water.

And, it works!

It got it's first test the day we finished it, when we had three inches of rain.

Some 'Color Guard' yucca and cacti will be the basis of the plantings here.

I'm thinking this one will have to be replanted...maybe a bit more mounding for it's roots.

It's pretty flat right now.

It all ties in, with the new side project.

A bridge helps to further protect exposed trees roots.

More work needs to be done.

When is there not?

But, it's all coming along.

The deer have chomped to tops out of the Spanish Bayonet yuccas.

Not to be vindictive....but, I hope it HURT!

This nut sedge is coming up THROUGH thick cardboard and about three inches of mulch.

Nothing stops this stuff.

And, I can clean out the new fenced area again.

The golf course over-seeded with rye grass for winter, and it washed down to here.

I need to build this bed up more.  Maybe that would help.

But, most things are looking pretty good.

Looking over the Drive Bed, toward the Fenced Yard,

you can see things are pretty green.

The opposite view is nice, too.

Going through the gate, you can see how things are filling in.

A lot of this will die back for winter.  But, I hope I've added enough evergreen things

for some winter interest.

We'll have that same scenario, on the other side.

And, along the front fence bed.

The Turk's Cap, at the back of the Fenced Yard, is really putting on a show.

Love those bright red blooms.

On the front porch, I changed out a Holly Fern, for a Foxtail Fern.

The Holly Fern seemed to just need more water 

than I was remembering to give it.

So far, so good with this change.

*********************

On a more personal note...

we have good news, and bad news.

The good news is...

Our daughter has moved back, to be closer to us.

Right around the corner, in fact.

We'll get to see more of them.

The bad news is...

She moved back so we can help, 

while she's going through yet another

medical set back.

Our son-in-law, is headed back to Wyoming to work.

We're hoping he'll find a job down here, VERY soon.

God willing, we'll win these battles.

*********************

So...there's a little of this and that from around here.

Hope all is good in your neck of the woods.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

This and That for Thursday...

Remember the old John Fogerty song....

'110 in the Shade'?

Well...it's not quite that here.

But, close enough.

That old sun is beating down.

Barely any breezes blowing.

But, hey...it's August and it's Texas.

It's expected.

It does seem, the older I get, the harder it is to handle the heat.

With  Mr P's help, we got part of the New Project done.

The mulch is down on this part.  Native grasses are planned for here.

We put wire around part of the old Rock Bed.

I need to clean it out and will plant some of those 

'deer resistant' (ahem) plants, that our deer like to eat.

Ones that require more sun than the Fenced Yard supplies.

This part will be planted with salvias.  Very low water plants.

Can you tell I've neglected this bed?

The part between the large rock and the bucket is new bed.

It'll need some amending.

But, when it's already 80F when you get up in the morning,

projects move pretty slooooowly.

You do a lot more sitting in the shade, than digging in the dirt.

While I was sitting, I noticed this Hyacinth Bean had taken hold in a Live Oak.

Now the Oak is blooming purple.

While you're here, I'll show you one of my new toys.

I put a Coke can on it, to give you some perspective.

It is 'toy-like', right?

The heaviest part is the rechargeable battery.

Not big, but it gets our tiny piece of lawn mowed.

If we don't get some more rain soon, we won't have to worry too much about mowing.

In the mean time, we'll keep putting out water for the wildlife,

dragging hoses around, and staying in the shade.

Hope you have the weather you want, wherever you are.

'Til next time...

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

Speaking of wildlife,

I did a short post, over at my photo blog, about these.