Design

After a decade of drought, I guess I really should be grateful for the abundance of moisture that's recharged aquifers, and led to an official 'end of drought' pronouncement. But it's been so wet, cold, icy, and dark (at least for wimpy Southern gardeners like me), I'm looking for all the signs of spring that I can find. I can't get out and DO anything in my beds; they're way too wet and it's been icy or pouring for every weekend for weeks. We haven't been able to go up to build new beds in the mountains, either, because of snow and ice. OK, I'll get a grip on reality; much of the temperate world is much colder (and snowier) than here. But I want to plant peas, and lettuces, and spinach, and early greens.... I guess I just need to be patient (and grateful for the normally mild weather that we have), and think about all of you that have much more severe gardening climates to face and who cope quite nicely. Best, An impatient Southeastern US ga...

It poured all of last night and today. It was a soaking and puddling rain, the sort that overflows gutters on not-so-well engineered streets, and overwhelms the storm sewers. Plenty of red 'mud' was flowing from bare or lightly vegetated areas, hardly a good reflection on any anti-erosion efforts. It wasn't a day for my gardening companion to move more leaves (he's determined to get the pile delivered by the city distributed before we leave for winter traveling). Nor was it a day to harvest lettuce, cilantro, or French sorrel, all of which still look good. But it was a day to think about projects to come, gardens to plants, and encouraging other gardeners.

It poured yesterday. Lots of rain. Our small bog will be happy, as will the sedum garden. It looked like a tropical rain forest.

Gardeners and naturalists are almost as keen as farmers following the weather. Where I live, garden, and pay attention to the natural world, we're in the center of quite a severe drought. We normally get fairly even rain throughout the year, but not for the past ten years or so, except for one year (the year the front meadow looked especially fabulous, with moisture-loving Joe-Pye weed and huge Blazing Stars ( Liatris spp.) And the last two summers have been truly exceptional (note the current rating for the dark red area- ugh). I've marked where I live with the arrow! But Tropical Storm Fay is bringing some decent rain, even to us in Upstate South Carolina. I'm sorry for the flooding in Florida, but we'll be thankful for the downpours that are predicted for the next few days.

Finally, a stray thunderstorm rained on our garden. The wind whipped the trees alarmingly and then the rain pelted down for 15 to 20 minutes. It was only about a quarter of an inch, but since we've barely had an inch over 2 1/2 months (our 'normal' is 4 inches/month), this is significant. After the rain, the light was wonderful, the plants perked up, and the clouds were tinged with color.

It's seeming pretty wet now, but I feel like any amount of rain now is drops in the bank, hedging against the heat and dry spells to come. The long-term projections have eased for the Southeast -- we're in the 'improving' category in the U.S. Drought Monitor charts, much better than the 'continuing drought' category, but we're certainly not out of the woods yet -- we're running a 3 inch deficit this year already, after a 20 inch deficit last year. The impact on natural communities is hard to detect, but is evident none the less. We'll see weakened mature trees senesce, and less tolerant understory trees die too, after the stress of last summer's heat and drought. Interestingly, some plants are remarkably abundant this spring. Both color forms of V iola sororia are everywhere -- in lawns, along roadsides, in ditches, etc. - providing a lovely blue haze from a distance. I don't mind them; they're attractive and a nice reminder of spring.

We were lucky at the end of August -- lots of folks around us didn't get the welcome relief of the heavy thunderstorms that added over 2 inches of rain to our garden. The state drought response team has just raised drought levels to severe in SC - here in the Upstate (roughly the expanse in SC between Atlanta and Charlotte, NC), it's particularly bad. Our garden is a low-water use garden (except for the pampered vegetables and the much less pampered container plants), although they do make do with hand-watering and don't have soaker hoses that run for hours on them. A neighboring county is calling for water conservation, and only watering lawns (!) before 5 am. In my opinion, it's a bit much to water lawns at all, but we're not lawn people. We have brown patches that have developed in our Zoysia lawn areas. But we're still monitoring plants that have been planted in the last few years, and watering them regularly. Anything that's been planted in the la...

The recent rains are really encouraging. And, the temperatures look halfway moderate through the week as well, so hopefully I'll be able to sow some flats of mesclun this weekend, a nd some of the greens as well. I noticed one of the radicchio plants (the female squirrel's favorite ) is starting to bolt. So much for thinking I might get some lovely red leaves this fall. But I think I'll sow some more. I'd better check to make sure I have some that form the lovely red heads in the spring.