Each Little World

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. 

Is this really August?

I've been working non-stop in the garden because the weather has been beautiful. Hot, but not enough to note the actual temperatures in my garden journal. What I am tracking is the rain. Sunday afternoon we had measurable rain for the third time in four days.

Amazingly, our rain total for August — as of yesterday — is a glorious 5.31". I can relax and be pretty confident that all the plants I am adding, moving and dividing will survive. I hate to even mention this wonderful weather knowing what so many of you are experiencing elsewhere. But, in truth, I'm looking forward to another week happily spent outdoors.

An almost perfect weekend

I bought this great market basket (note the wooden wheels) in the 1970s when the legendary Dane County Farmers Market began. I lived close enough to the market to walk to it, but far enough that I needed some kind of carryall. It's critical for August produce that weighs more than I can easily carry. These days there are so many excellent farm markets all over town that I haven't been downtown to the big market in years. 

You can see what I mean: cantaloupe and 9 ears of corn were the first things I bought. They went on the bottom and I built on that solid base. The bag holds pastries from Madison Sourdough. The thought of those treats gets me up early on Saturday morning.

Yesterday I got to the market when it opened knowing how hot and humid the weather was already. Last night at 7 p.m. the temperature was still 89°F. (31.66°C.) Weather Bug said it felt like 99°F. (37.22°C.) and I wouldn't argue with that. But I can't really complain given the extreme heat so many others are experiencing. 

Rain was forecast to begin overnight. Lately it seems like we are often in a gap in storm systems and get little or no rain. Not this time. When I went out around 8 a.m., my rain gauge measured 1.94" (4.92 cm.). We're supposed to get a little more rain today and possibly tomorrow. I was stunned at that number and thrilled. 

The temps look cooler for the coming week. So I will be able to weed in prep for our last garden tour on Thursday, even if it's too wet to plant the things that have been waiting for the temps to drop.

Wordless Wednesday

Rain!

After a very dry winter, it rained most of Thursday and right into Friday. Since the ground is still fairly frozen, it was good that it was a gentle rain that caused no problems at our house and garden. As the rain initially started to fall very lightly, it made the dry spots under the furniture look like snowy remnants. 

I woke up Saturday morning to discover the rain had turned into snow at some point during the night.

And turned back to rain, filling the garden with spring greens.

Though our few warm days were lovely, I am much happier to be getting some rain as spring is starting. 

Glad I put out my rain gauge so I could measure the precipitation in my garden: .87" (2.20 cm.) More rain is forecast midweek. 

March. Ugh.

The weather is veering from lamb to lion and back again. Saturday's high was 53°F. ( 11.66°C.), but it brought thunderstorms with heavy rain and wind. Despite the ground being frozen, no water made it into the basement. This morning's temp is 28°F., but feels like 22° according to Weatherbug. 

At this stage of the winter, I am less interested in more snow. We did not get it early in the season when we needed it to protect the garden against the cold. Without checking the record books, this is one of the driest winters I can recall in many years of living in Wisconsin. A walk around the garden Sunday afternoon showed a muddy mess with endless twigs, small branches and locust pods littering the ground. 

i snapped a few wide shots to help me remember what areas held onto the snow longest. Most of the front garden was still snow covered as that's the  north side of the house.

Everything that's not green is under standing water in this shot, including ferns planted last year. How did I not know this spot was so problematic?

Rabbits devoured a dwarf Hemlock planted last fall, two dwarf Oak Leaf Hydrangesas (3 years old) and a 5 year old 'Orange Rocket' Barberry. That's only what I've noticed so far. 

I never went out to look closely at what the city water crew did in December when they had to access the line to do a repair. I was horrified at what a mess they left behind in my Geranium macrorrhizum bed by the street. The blue cap is the water line. They moved the rock marker and filled in the hole with new dirt bit it doesn't look good. Maybe I won't feel as frustrated when the surrounding plants begin to grow in a month. 

On the up side, snowdrops are starting appear. 

Arum itlaicum 'Ghost' just needs the rest of the snow to disappear to start her spring growth spurt. 

I am always curious to see what ferns still look good after snow, ice and freezing temps. This is Dryoteris erythrosora 'Brilliance' aka Autumn Fern. Once this old growth gets removed it takes a long time for this plant to send up its new fronds. You have to mark where this is growing or you will accidentally plant something on top of it. 

Just past the above ferns, the sedges are looking lovely: Carexes pennsylvania and radiata. 

Across the path Polystichum makinoi  actually has its fronds standing upright!

Every year as the ratty snow along the curb starts to melt, I look there to see the first signs of spring. Most years, those signs are empty beer bottles or cigarette packs. This year's souvenir is a COVID mask. Perhaps a driver tossed it from his car window pleased to see the numbers are going down. Somehow I don't think it's the last one I'll find out there. 

Look what happened overnight. See what I mean about lions and lambs. I guess I won't be picking any of those snowdrops as soon as I'd thought. 

Leafy behavior

The fallen leaves from Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' are such a beautiful mix of colors that I don't always rush to rake them up. 

That's how I discovered that they must have some kind of coating on the back of the leaf causing the moisture from recent snow showers to bead up on them. The same thing did not happen on the front of the leaves or on any other fallen leaves. 

In the back garden, the same behavior was exhibited on the underside of the Paperbark maple leaves on the deck.

I haven't a clue what it means. Do you?

Pond re-design: Back to the beginning

Once the Upper Pool was turned into a gravel garden, Mark could seriously begin work on deconstructing the big pond. It was a complex project that was made easier by the fact that Mark designed the pond himself and was an integral part of the construction team. Here is a brief description of how the pond was built, which will make it easier to understand how Mark took it apart this summer. 

. . . 

Mark did numerous drawings for himself and also to explain to me how everything would work when we originally built the pond. The first two images picture the slope behind the pond with the rocks, pond wall and "shelves" for water plants. (Double click to enlarge images).

This is the view from above with the pond wall, boulders, the shallow pebble beach (at the bottom of the drawing) and the shelves where we set potted water plants like lilies. 

In order for the John Deere trackhoe to make it into the back garden, Mark took down a 40-year-old Arborvitae tree. Its matching partner is still growing at the other end of our house. This was a huge project in itself and much more work than I think Mark anticipated. 

The equipment just fit between our house and our neighbor's fence to the left. 

Here we are at the end of the first day standing in the rough hole which will become the pond. We were so freaked at the mess and so nervous about the whole project we went out to dinner so we didn't have to look at this view. I told Mark if we decided we'd made a big mistake, it was only a hole in the ground and we could always fill it back up. Obviously that's exactly what we're doing — 24 years later!

Large boulders have been set on the hill and the retaining wall has been started. The cement blocks are being used to built the pond retaining wall. The big pile of them are at the foot of what will be the stream to the upper pool. The wheelbarrow is standing on the first "shelf" layer. 

It was a very rainy summer which kept putting us behind schedule waiting for the pond to dry out. 

We sodded the hills to control erosion during the rainstorms and put down wood chips on the path between them. At this point, the pond has been lined with two different colors of old carpet to protect the rubber liner from being punctured by tree roots. 

The pond was double-lined with EPDM roofing rubber. Mark talked to an engineer at the production company to be sure it was fish safe. The roll of rubber weighed over 500 pounds and took 14 friends, relatives and neighbors to lift it and spread it in place. 

Setting the big rocks inside the pond.

An early photo of the finished pond and early plantings. 

A view from a year or two ago before I started replanting the hills with native Carex pennsylvanica to replace the weedy dying grass that had been shaded out over the years. 

We eventually gave up on having fish as they drew raccoons to the pond and the raccoons, in turn, tended to mess with the potted water plants. 

The real losers in our redesign project are Fred and Ethel. They — or their progeny — have come to the pond every spring since 1998. They usually were gone by the 4th of July, but they were an annual treat for us. We loved their antics in and out of the water. When they arrived on March 21st this year, we told them about our plans, but I don't think they believed we were serious.

We're very happy with our big change in the garden, but we will miss this duo. 

Wordless Wednesday

A nice hit of rain

Woke to a gently falling rain this morning that made it a pleasure to have Saturday coffee at home. We usually meet our friends at our local coffee shop, but all the news about the COVID variants made us wary of coffee indoors, anywhere but here. 

We got .41" of rain and are hoping for a bit more this afternoon.