Home of the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and other native plants for pollinators

Friday, September 18, 2009

Rain

Golden Aster

We've had a little rain

Salvia nemorosa 'May Night' oops that should read 'Marcus' (ed.) with Cotinus 'Grace'

Well, maybe, more than a little rain!
My rain gauge says over 6 inches fell in less then 24 hours.

The skies opened up and it poured.


My little rain barrel is over flowing.
I think about having a cistern
to collect those thousands of gallons of water that rolled off my roof.
Instead,

Aster tatarian

All that rainwater flowed through my garden,
eroding topsoil and mulch with it and
continued on its journey to the ditches and creeks
and eventually to the Cumberland River.

Lantana

Our little river empties into the Ohio River,
the Ohio into the Mississippi River,
which flows to the Gulf of Mexico.

What a journey.
Ageratina altissima aka White Snakeroot

More rain is forecast...
We won't be gardening for a while.


Gail

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart might desire.” An Irish Blessing

41 comments:

  1. Good morning Gail, your flowers are happy to have the rain and maybe the creeks and rivers too. We share your weather and no matter the conditions, I must go out to work in the garden today for mental health reasons, it has been several days now and I am descending into madness.

    Don

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  2. Rain is ever present here right now too. The flowers are getting a little tired of it too. I except your Irish Blessing Gail. Glad your internet is up and running, have missed you.

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  3. wow, 6 inches in one day....I can just imagine the soil erosion and mulch washed away. Hope the additional rain isn't quite so abundant.

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  4. Gail we are just getting a little of the precious rain right now .. I'm sure it will not be enough to quench the garden's thirst .. so if I could borrow some of yours ? LOL
    Yes .. I can attest to the Irish blessing, having the surname O'Connor from my Scottish maiden name, introduced me to my other ? Celtic side : ) Thank you for the blessing girl !

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  5. What a beautiful blessing, Gail, thanks so much!!! We got that downpour a couple of weeks ago and got to watch our backyard vanish beneath a raging torrent. Yikes!!! I, too, fantasize about cisterns...

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  6. Beautiful flowers, Gail. Snakeroot looks nothing like I imagined! Very delicate flowers, really. I worked at the Home of Frederic Church, the Andy Warhol of the Victorian era. In the old days his house (mansion) had a cistern that collected the water from the roof, to use for the house's running water. He even had a bathroom in his studio addition. The tub was really cute, like a cattle trough almost, the toilet was also adorable, with a little wooden seat cover, LOL! Unfortunately, it wasn't a stop on the tour, becuase of excessive theft of small items, like paintbrushes and pens, etc., Everything behind the ropes was tied down and tied together with monofiliment, so if anyone tired to steal anything it would make a big clatter.

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  7. Another garden hogging up all the rain. I was so hopeful that some of that rain would push up here into the Wabash Valley. It didn't happen. Dry as toast here.

    The golden Aster sure is pretty. I didn't know there was a golden aster.

    Have a wonderful weekend.

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  8. I hope this goes thru, for some reason I keep getting error messages when I try to leave this comment.

    We could sure use that rain here. Haven't had any in more than 3 weeks.

    Love the yellow aster. Beautiful.
    Marnie

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  9. I do wish I could send this rain on to the gardens that need it! We could use a little sunshine right now;) Except for the green leaves it feels like November and it smells like earth worms!

    Have a great weekend.

    gail

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  10. Good morning Gail - oh! lantana makes me always wonder how is that possible to have 3 different colors in one flower?

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  11. I drove through some of that rain on my way home from Tennessee. Here it is as Lisa noted, "dry as toast". But we are supposed to get some rain on Sunday, so maybe by then your rain will stop? Hey, that gives me two good days to garden!

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  12. Some rain is good, 6 inches in one day is not, but I'd rather have that than no rain at all. I'm surprised your Aster tataricus is already blooming, mine is still forming buds.

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  13. This is so funny because I am NOT gardening simply because we've not had this rain! Only 8/10th of an inch throughout this whole week. Urgh! The guys at school could not believe it. But just a bit south of here in Ashland City they've had it. Send some my way? I hope you dry out soon.

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  14. Sounds a bit like us here----either too much or too little. We've also had down pours. I sure hope my veggies don't drown.

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  15. But the blooms look so lovely with those wonderful, silvery drops on them. :) I believe that your lantana--in those gorgeous, almost fluorescent colours--would have to be my favourite flower of all. I absolutely love them!

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  16. I wish we could share some of your rain right now! You have too much, and we have not nearly enough. Not any, actually, for weeks now!

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  17. Gail, if you get a minute please drop by!!

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  18. We had some rain yesterday, though not as much as you. It was very welcome. We just don't have the downpours here that we used to see while living in Iowa. We don't get tornadoes, either, so no complaints. But there's something really fun about watching torrential rain (if you can ignore what it's doing to your garden).

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  19. Pretty drops of crystals on your blooms.

    Don't you just love the patterns of the rain run-off? It is truly amazing how all the systems run together and work together.
    I have my eye on one of those underground pumps that capture all the rain water and then it can be used for everything in your garden.Ahhh... the wish list is long.

    Mr. Meems and I were rained out this week at the beach up in North Florida. A rain system that wouldn't quit. I hope yours gives you a break in between downpours. Otherwise... lots of blogging I suppose.
    Meems @ Hoe and Shovel

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  20. We Irish sure know how to give a blessing! Lovely post, Kim

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  21. It's been raining buckets here as well and earthworms and mulch are unfortunately floating down the driveway. It's not so bad when it's a normal rain but sometimes it's just way too hard. Your flowers look like they're enjoying the rain though. I'll bet October will be dry for us so I'm thankful still!

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  22. That is a *lot* of rain!

    It's funny you mention the Mississipi, I often think of our ocean sounds since Hurricanes Fran and Floyd.

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  23. Gail,

    Your flowers look refreshed and happy with all that rain! It is hard to see all your compost and mulch floating away--they don't call it "The Muddy Mississip" for nothing! I wish I had a rain retention tank like they use at my favorite nursery here; The Natural Gardener.

    I am always charmed by Lanata. Such a tough plant, but filled with tiny delicate bouquets of flowers.

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  24. How can a lantana be so magical? That is a ton of rain. We had a bunch but it didn't come all at once.

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  25. Hi, Gail - I guess rain will benefit your garden, although too much of it at the same time is not what we wish for,, is it? Although that seems to be the case here too, nowadays. Heatwaves, followed bu rainperiods....
    Katarina

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  26. After looking at these lovely photos, Gail, I have a song going through my head--"Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head..." :) I hope not too much of your garden soil made its way all the way to the Gulf. Could you send a little bit our way? But just a little:)

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  27. Very cool to think of my friends on the Gulf Coast possibly swimming in the water that rolled off your roof! Your lucky flowers!

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  28. When it rains I like to plant something. It is really making the things transplanted earlier happy. I must go sprinkle a few more seeds.

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  29. I am rained out too. I know that it's better than drought, but still...Pretty pictures!

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  30. Wow, 6 inches in a day is quite a lot. I hope you didn't lose much topsoil. Do you have a basement? We get rain in ours, but not every time it rains. It's hard to figure out why it does some times and not others.

    I hope you are having some better weather soon so you can get back out in your garden. Our weather has been wonderful the last week, but last Sunday, I tripped on Heid's front yard leash while holding our grandson, and landed hard on one knee. It is still hurting, so I'm trying to stay off of it as much as I can. I'm sitting in the front yard with the computer in my lap right now. Oh, the things that can keep us from gardening! (We did do some watering and a little deadheading this morning.)

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  31. I've definitely had enough of rain for now! We just got back from Chattanooga where it rained every day on us at some point. I haven't been back in the garden yet, I'm sure many strange and unusual fungi await...

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  32. Lucky you to get all that rain! So far in the month of September, we have 2/100's of an inch! But then again, each day is more golden, sunny and perfect than the one before, so I'm not complaining. It just means that I continue to drag the hose around the yard as I have all summer.

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  33. We could sure use some rain here. It's dry as a tumbleweed blowing in the desert here! I was trying to spade out a circle around shrubs I want to transplant and couldn't (it's clay). Rain is predicted Sunday night, so we'll see...

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  34. Love that Irish Blessing Gail but for some odd reason the neccesity of having a rainbarrel for a purrfect life was carelessly overlooked. ;-)

    Go get a cistern, I don't think you will regret it.

    BTW Here we are experiencing a bit of a drought or what passes for a drought anyway. ;-)

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  35. Guess that we are so used to the rain in the UK that we don't think about it any more! But the flowers do look lovely once they're wet.

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  36. Luv the Irish Blessing at the end of your post. Too much rain, not enough rain....never the perfect amount of rain. Enjoyed visualizing your rainwater traveling from your garden all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

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  37. Gail, as you can see I am way behind in my reading of favorite blogs. It seems as though this years weather is either feast or famine-such an odd year to try to get our gardnes to grow. But your flowers are still looking lovely and hopefully youhave enough ground water now to get you through the dry spells.

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  38. Hey there my friends~~I so appreciate your visiting! It has continued to rain...That cistern would be perfect!
    I wish I could send all your water hungry gardens some of it!

    Gail

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  39. A cup of tea and the patter of rain will make the day complete. Loving your rain soaked blooms. Enjoy!

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  40. rainy days are something i enjoy...inbetween the rain fall i managed to cut some of the ever growing grass and plant some pansies.

    i love your rainy photos...they are thoughtful and full of feeling.

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  41. Wow, and I thought the 2 1/2 inches in our rain gauge over the weekend was a lot. Terrific to get that much after a dry August and early September.

    Lisa

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"Insects are the little things that run the world." Dr. E O Wilson