Rain, glorious rain!

The month of September was very dry here in New England. But with the change of month came a change in the weather. The first two days of October gave us more rain than the whole month of September. And the plants rejoiced!

This is Mexican feather grass. It just barely (usually) survives my winters but that makes this a perfect place to grow it - it doesn't get a chance to spread aggressively like it can in warmer climates.

Young Mexican feather grass. It does reseed but the seedlings do not usually get large enough to survive the next winter.

A fall planted pansy. This will survive the winter and will provide nice, early spring blooms next year.

Culinary sage. The leaves have small hairs that trap the water, causing it to form droplets.

And, of course, every spider wed in the garden is outlined. I'm really pleased to see a lot of webs this fall. When we moved in, 5 1/2 years ago, this property had a total chem lawn and the first year I did not see a grasshopper or spider (and barely any bees). Now my yard is full of life. Just the way I like it.

It's The End

It's The End.

No, not of the world.  That was Tuesday.

No, not of the vegetable garden.  That was a week or so ago.

It's the end.

Of the Water Year, that is.

I measure and report rainfall for a national organization called CoCoRaHS (the community collaborative rain, hail and snow network).  This is the where forecasters, weather reporters, climatologists and meteorologist go to find detailed information about small scale rainfall patterns (these can be used for things like drought monitoring, calibrating radar estimates of rainfall and who knows what all else).

This data used to be collected by the National Weather Service before budget cuts.

One of the perks is that at the end of the year I get a report that contains all of the data.

Here's my 2011 rainfall by month graph.  August was a wet month!  Well, we had one day with over three inches of rain and that pushed us out of the normal range.

This is great.  I had been recording rainfall in my garden journal.  And then I got neglectful of that information.  [And then I got neglectful about the everything else in the journal]  But NOW someone else has pulled the data together and I can use it to get an idea of why certain plants did well and others didn't.  Or that's the theory anyway.

The bad part about participating in CoCoRaHS - I also have to measure snowfall all winter.

Bleh.

Wonderful Monday

It's a wonderful Monday.  After a very wet late winter the summer has been dry, with most of the rain falling in the southern part of the state, not here on The Edge.  But this week!  It rained yesterday, it's raining today, and it should rain tomorrow.  Nice, slow, steady rain.  A gardener's version of a wet dream.

Panicum virgatum collapsed over my front door tomatoes (I plant sweet grape tomatoes by the door for snacking while in the garden)

The rain has wet the "fur" on my Lamb's Ears Silver Carpet (Stachys byzantina)

The Amsonia Halfway to Arkansas is dotted with raindrops.

And a volunteer plant.  Well, fungus.  I'm still happy to see this.