Rainy days and Mondays

Rain was predicted for this past weekend, so I spent last week trying to get as much done in the garden as possible. I was digging, dividing, discarding, moving and planting as much as I could before it got too hot each day to keep working. I managed to get every plant that was a recent purchase or a swap from a friend in the ground by Friday.

Despite the weather forecast — even looking at the map — I was doubtful we'd ever get any rain. It looked like another one of those long narrow storms that was going to slide right by us. 

Not this time. It started raining around 9 p.m. Saturday night. It came down just heavy enough to make it to the ground through the foliage on our numerous trees. It was lovely to fall asleep with the windows open listening to the steady beat of rain.

I went out to check the rain gauge Sunday morning to discover we'd received 1.35" of rain in the last twelve hours. I was, of course, thrilled as I don't want to go directly into winter from a dry season like last year.

But that wasn't the last of the wet weather: It was still raining. Sunday afternoon the rain started to come down more heavily. Luckily our basement was still dry when we went to bed, having read about flooding in Chicago from the same storm system. We were trapped in a system that was swirling around us rather than moving away. It was now worrisome falling asleep to another night of rain.

When I got up this morning the temperature was 54°F. It's currently breezy with gray skies but no rain falling. We are in a big break in the storm system, but it looks like we will possibly get more rain at some point today. My gauge this morning showed another 2.10" between Sunday morning and this morning.

I am almost embarrassed to mention this amount of rain knowing how many of you are in the midst of long term drought. But I have to be happy, not just for me but for all my gardening friends and area farmers. It has been hot enough and dry enough that few of us are going to complain about three days of rain. 

Comments

[Kris P]

You more than deserved that rain, Linda, and I'm happy that you got all those plants in the ground beforehand. The remnants of Hurricane Kay in the Pacific reached us when I'd just about given up hope. It hit the San Diego area hard but, after spitting at us for a few hours, we got several more hours with slow, steady rain. We racked up 0.6/inch, which isn't bad for us. Our "water year" starts October 1st but we probably won't get any "normal" rain until November at earliest.

[danger garden]

Yay! Glad your planting spree was rewarded. We got rain last night too, .03"! Just enough to make a mess of the dust on my car...

[Beth@PlantPostings]

My rain gauge was at 4.5 inches this morning; the official amount was about 4 inches (according to
https://www.iweathernet.com/total-rainfall-map-24-hours-to-72-hours). Some areas northeast of Elkhorn got more than 10 inches! It's so unusual for this time of year, especially. I'm certainly not complaining about the rain we got, but it seems like we've had about the right amount this summer. It has been hot, but over here in McFarland we've had just enough rain. The days ahead look great. Happy late summer/early autumn gardening!

[Linda Brazill]

BETH - I think the hot weather made it difficult to realize we were getting enough rain until you looked at the numbers.

[Elizabeth]

We got rain too! I went out on the patio to watch it and just grinned! Got wet, too.
The sound of it! The smell of it! Wonderful. It came courtesy of the hurricane; not a big bad wolf hurricane, but a little itty bitty baby one. It rained off and on over the weekend, but mostly on Saturday. It was glorious. Big splooshy drops of wet. And, even better than anything else, it brought the fire that was coming alarmingly close to heel. It went from 5% contained and spreading, to 45% contained and contracting, and now its about 75% contained. Yes, this was a very good weekend.

[Linda Brazill]

ELIZABETH — ​Glad your rain had such a positive effect.