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Rain Makes Watering Seem Obsolete

IMG_1921Watering has not been much of a concern lately. All the rain has kept our gardens too wet to work in. Some of us have been more concerned with erosion caused by runoff. Automated irrigation systems are probably disabled until the rain stops. Soil can drain somewhat between rain, but will not really dry out until the weather gets warm again. Dormant plants do not draw much moisture.

However, as strange as it may seem, there are a few plants that might want to be watered. Potted plants on roofed porches are sheltered from rain, just like houseplants. They will not dry out nearly as quickly as they would during warm summer weather, but they do eventually get dry if not occasionally watered. Hanging pots and small pots containing big plants typically dry out faster.

Plants that were moved onto porches for shelter from frost can be moved out into the rain if that would be easier than watering them. It is very unlikely that they will be damaged by frost this late. Besides, as long as it is raining, the weather can not get cold enough for frost. (In fact, any frost damage that was left through winter can be pruned away now that fresh new growth is developing.)

Small plants in the ground under big eaves might need to be watered as well, if they have not been in the ground long enough to disperse their roots beyond the eaves. Annuals do not last that long. Mature plants might have dispersed their roots well enough to get enough moisture from outside. They might not notice if the soil inside is too dry, as long as the weather is cool and humid.

Houseplants are of course in a league of their own, and as long as they are inside the home, get no water from rain. They might need less watering in winter if the home stays cooler; or they might need slightly more watering if the home heating system reduces humidity. Regardless, some might enjoy going outside to a spot sheltered from the wind, for a brief rinse from a mild rain shower.

Eventually, the weather will get warmer and drier, and automated irrigation systems will need to be reactivated. When that happens, the emitters and sprinklers should be checked for efficient function. While inactive over winter, they can get grungy or clogged with mineral deposits. Plants will not need much water early in the season. Irrigation increases as spring and summer progress.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 10 Comments

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

P80110It is certainly not as cold as it is in other regions at or north of this latitude. Nor is it unusually cold for this time of year. It is not stormy. We got only a few heavy but brief rain showers with a bit of small hail. A slight bit of snow fell only on the Summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains

The problem is that the weather had been so mild earlier, and at times, downright warm. Many plants were coerced into premature bloom. Some started to generate new spring growth. When the weather suddenly became more seasonably cool, many of the flowers and new growth got frosted and ruined.

Fortunately, most of the deciduous fruiting trees seemed to know what they were being set up for, and abstained from bloom. So far, even the early blooming apricots, cherries, almonds prunes and plums are safe. The wild American plums bloomed, but not many of us use their fruit anyway. (I want some – both amber and red – for jelly, but there will be plenty of other fruit.)

Saucer magnolias were just beginning to bloom when the cool weather moved in. Now, some of the big pink flowers are spotting and melting before they open completely. Many of the camellias are succumbing to blight, and falling to the ground shortly after they open.

Weather is always risky, even in mild climates. Actually, our mild climate allows us to grow more of the plants that are sensitive to anomalies of the weather. Perhaps such anomalies would be less of a problem in harsher climates where the weather is naturally more variable. If so, it is probably a fair compromise. The problems with such a mild climate are still less significantly less than the advantages.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 14 Comments

Weather To Die For

B80210KDon’t worry. He is not really deceased. He is just making good use of the lawn. The well foliated trees in the distance are a clue that this pictures was not taken recently, although it illustrates the current weather conditions accurately. We all want to be out in it, whether getting lazy in a local park, walking on the beach, or just staying home and working in the garden.

It seems that almost everyone else is contending with less pleasant weather. The summer in much of Australia had been historically hot. Much of Europe got some nasty storms. Parts of the Southeastern United States of America that get snow only on rare occasion got more than they have in recent memory.

We are certainly used to our share of pleasant weather through winter. We can only see snow in the distance on top of Mount Hamilton. Frost only happens a few times through winter. We often get a few consecutive days at of spring weather. What we are not accustomed to is this sort of duration of pleasant weather.

Many years ago, such a long duration of pleasant weather would have been bad for the orchards of the Santa Clara Valley. It would have prompted them to bloom prematurely, only to get the blossoms and developing fruit knocked off by subsequent rain. Although the orchards are gone, many of us still grow similar fruit trees in our home gardens. Apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums, prunes and almonds are all susceptible to premature bloom.

We really could use some wintry weather about now. Rain here with snow in the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada would be the best. Otherwise, cool weather to delay bloom of fruit trees until after the rain would be the second best option.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 9 Comments

Rain Is Necessary But Messy

10914Water is no more scarce in California than it has been in recorded history. The problem with it is that it is a limited resource that must be shared amongst too many people. Likewise, rainstorms are no more torrential than they have ever been. Floods, erosion and wind are only more destructive now because there is so much more infrastructure that can be damaged than ever before.

Rain and wind are perfectly natural. Furthermore, it is natural for the weather to knock down limbs or entire trees. It only seems unnatural when these limbs or trees fall on houses, cars or anything else that gets in their way. Plants actually enjoy rainy weather much more than we do. Some like to be rinsed of dust and debris left from former infestations of mites, aphid, scale or sooty mold.

What plants do not like about rain is erosion. It is bad enough that so many plants in refined gardens are deprived of their own litter to insulate the surface of the soil. It is even worse if the bare soil gets eroded away from fine feeder roots at the surface of the soil. This is something that the rest of us would agree on. We do not want gullies carved into slopes, or drains clogged with mud.

Trees, shrubs and some stout perennials with aggressive roots are useful where the potential for major erosion is a concern, but might not do much for annoying surface erosion. Sprawling and spreading plants that form dense networks of low branches and surface roots are more effective. They soften the splatter of rain, slow the flow of drainage, and catch much of any dislodged silt.

Groundcover plants like ivy, gazania and iceplant are probably the best option for controlling surface erosion. Dense and low shrubbery that spreads over the ground and holds its own debris probably work just as well. These include low junipers, trailing rosemary and dwarf coyote brush. Larger shrubbery can help if it can drag its lowest limbs on the ground, and no one rakes below it.

Mulching limits erosion while new plants grow. Although new mulch needs to be added annually as old mulch decomposes, less will be necessary as plants grow and cover more area. Mulch is also effective where no plants are desired. For large areas, especially where plants are not expected to fill in, landscape cloth below ornamental bark inhibits weeds. However, coarse bark slowly shifts downhill, so replaces one kind of erosion with another, and will eventually need to be raked back uphill.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 4 Comments

The Molting Of The Chrysler

P80108+The old Chrysler looks different this time of year. Like dogs, cats, horses and deciduous plants, it adapted to the weather.

That tan canvas structure above the cab is known as a ‘roof’. It was there all along, but folded up behind the back seat. It was merely unfolded over the top of the cab. The ‘roof’ comes in handy this time of year, not only for keeping warmth within the cab, but also for keeping things out of the cab. Allow me to elaborate.

You may nave noticed that the Chrysler is wet. This is a direct result of mysterious droplets of moisture that fall from the sky. We discussed them earlier. They are known ‘rain’, and are falling from the sky presently. The ‘roof’ keeps the ‘rain’ out of the cab. Otherwise, the cab and everything in it would be as wet as the ‘roof’ is now.

The yellow, orange and reddish brown things strewn about are sweetgum leaves. You may not recognize them now because they are not green. They change color when the weather gets cool this time of year, and then get dislodged by meteorological events such as wind and the presently observed ‘rain’. The ‘roof’ excludes them from within the cab of the car.

The two devices at the bottom of the windshield are another adaptation to ‘rain’ known simply as ‘windshield wipers’. When in operation, they pivot from where they are affixed just below the windshield to literally wipe the the wet ‘rain’ away. They are a rather ingenious invention, since ‘rain’ on the windshield tends to inhibit visibility.

Just as a thick coat on a dog or horse can predict an unusually cool winter, the molting of the Chrysler is directly related to the weather. Although it can not predict ‘rain’ as early as dogs and horses can predict cold weather, it quite reliably happens immediately prior to ‘rain’. It is a good sign for the garden.

The ‘rain’ that falls immediately after the molting is composed of water, which is very important and useful to gardens and forests after such a long dry summer. As we discussed earlier, some of the water gets into the aquifer where it is stored for later use in and around our homes. We are very fortunate to have a Chrysler who is so proficient at predicting the delivery of the water that we need so much of.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 18 Comments

‘Rain’

P80103+Like something from an old fashioned science fiction movie, this anomaly appeared in a roadway overnight. There are several more in other roadways and elsewhere about town. They are quite wet. In fact, they are composed almost completely of water. What is even weirder is that the water that they are composed of actually fell mysteriously from the sky overnight as many countless droplets all over town! Many of these droplets migrated into low spots such as this one to form what we now see in this picture.

People in other climates where these mysterious droplets are not so rare might be familiar with this sort of phenomenon. The droplets of water are known as ‘rain’. They precipitate out of the atmosphere as it cools and can not contain as much water vapor as it did when it was warmer. As the droplets migrate into low spots in roadways and anywhere else, they accumulate into these collective herds of droplets known as ‘puddles’. Many of the droplets continue to migrate as huge herds known as ‘creeks’, and even bigger creeks known as ‘rivers’. Some of these creeks and rivers migrate into really big puddles known as ‘ponds’, and even bigger ponds known as ‘lakes’. Sadly, not all of the droplets can be accommodated in ponds and lakes, so many continue to migrate out into the ‘ocean’, which is that really big pond full of salty water to the west that we are all familiar with.

Hopefully, some of these droplets of rain will stay around for a while and provide water for the plants in our gardens and forests. Ideally, some will burrow into the ground and stay for a very long time, and maybe even migrate into the aquifer to hibernate. In our climate, particularly after such a long and dry summer and autumn, these strange droplets of rain are very welcome to stay as long as they want to.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 3 Comments

Even Houseplants Can Appreciate Rain

P71116Everyone is from somewhere. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be from California. Most of the various plants in our gardens, even if grown locally, are descendants of plants that were collected from all over the world. Most houseplants are from tropical regions. They perform well as houseplants primarily because they tolerate the sort of partial shade that they would get as understory plants in dense tropical forests.

Along with this advantage of tolerance to shade, tropical houseplants come with other disadvantages, such as an intolerance to frost. So, they are able to live inside the home, but are unable to live very long outside where winters are cool. Even areas of Southern California that do not get frosty can get cool enough to make many tropical houseplants uncomfortable. Consequently, they are confined to their homes.

That might seem to be acceptable to those who not think like plants do. Really, do houseplants even want to go outside? Maybe not. However, shelter from frost and cool weather also shelters them from other weather, such as wind and rain. Without wind and rain, any dust that collects on the foliage stays there. Mealybug and scale insects can proliferate and produce sticky honeydew, which also will not rinse away.

This is why some of us like to occasionally put our houseplants in a cool shower to rinse them off. It eliminates much of the dust, and clears out the stomata (respiratory pores). It does not kill mealybug or scale, but sets them back a bit, and rinses off the honeydew. Showering is also a good way to soak and rinse toxins from the soil. Only African violets, gloxinias and a few plants with fuzzy foliage should not be showered.

The only thing that works better than showering is rain. (Remember that wet stuff that starts to fall from the sky this time of year?) Rain is gentler, lasts longer than a shower, and is located outside where the mess of wet houseplants is not so bothersome. The only disadvantages of rain are that it can be cold, and is often accompanied by wind. A slight breeze would help agitate dirty foliage and dislodge dust, but strong gusts can knock houseplants over, and damage large leaves that are not adapted to any wind. Plants should be sheltered from both wind and direct sun exposure that might happen if the plants are not brought in before clouds clear after the rain.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 18 Comments

Rain!

P71020Something really crazy happened last night. From out of nowhere, a profusion of drops of water started to fall from the sky! It continued to fall for a while, and got everything wet. Soil that had been dry and dusty became rather muddy. As crazy as it sounds, it is not impossible, and actually happened repeatedly last autumn, winter, and into spring. In fact, it was so abundant that the San Lorenzo River filled with all this strange sky water, and flooded worse than it had since the flood of 1982! People in other less arid climates are more familiar with this sort of thing. It is actually no mystery. It is known simply as ‘rain’.

‘Rain’ is like free water. Really, we do not need to pay for it! It falls from the sky, and waters the garden so we don’t need to. It might be the only water that areas outside of the garden get. Some plants out there have been waiting for it since it stopped falling from the sky last spring. Rain that does not soak into the ground drains into creeks and rivers, which flow into reservoirs that store it for later use. (Local reservoirs don’t really save it for later use directly, but use it to recharge groundwater; but that is another story.)

Another advantage of rain is that it tends to get things wet, which makes them less combustible. This is rather useful when forests nearby are burning. The Bear Fire near Boulder Creek is not quite extinguished. In fact, it is not yet contained. This rain should help with that. It probably will not do much for what is already burning, but should slow the already stagnating progression of the fire.