January Rains

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Category: Weather and Environment

Published on Thursday, 19 January 2012 20:14

Written by Pretty World

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Strange weather! That's getting to be a recurring theme, isn't it?

Earlier this week we had a few nice days with temperatures in the mid fifties. We also had an unexpected January gully washer. The rains only lasted about a half hour but the downpour brought us 2 inches of rain onto already soggy ground (that same ground that hasn't dried out properly all year.)

If we hadn't done the creek restoration work this past spring we would have had a repeat of the flash flood. But with our new creek we had no damage – just photo and video opportunities.

Here's a video look at the flowing creek:

The Weather Isn't Making This Easy!

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Category: Weather and Environment

Published on Sunday, 24 July 2011 20:07

Written by Pretty World

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The weather this year is continuing to make gardening difficult. It's also doing its best to make everything else difficult too! I've spent the past hour or so getting ready to start writing this update, then seeing the radar change and hearing thunder and racing to power off the computer to protect it from power surges.

We are currently in a weather pattern that is giving us brutally hot temperatures. Even early mornings and early evening work periods are super hot and humid. Everything takes longer to do than normal and leaves us hot, sweaty and tired out afterwards. Extra care must be taken to ensure that we don't heat stress our dogs, goats or cow.

During the highest heat of the day, as we try to settle into indoor work for a while, the radar suddenly shows fierce pop-up thunderstorms even though the forecast a few hours earlier looked like we might get a day off from the rains. Lately the storms have been accompanied by tremendous amounts of lightning. The electricity flickers on and off and we need to make sure that any electrical equipment in the house that can be damaged by power surges is shut off.

The pop up thunder storms don't necessarily mean that we'll get rain. In areas like the Appalachian Ohio hill region, summer weather systems are strongly affected by terrain, forest coverage, ground temperatures, and ground moisture levels. These factors can vary a lot over surprisingly small distances. Things like which hillsides get how much direct sunshine at which times of day make a big difference. So does which direction the winds were blowing and did they blow over rich, moisture retentive soil or over fast drying clay, rocks and coal. It's very common to have drenching rains in one area and a quarter mile away there isn't a single rain drop.

We also don't have any large bodies of water in region and that means that weather conditions change very quickly. We don't get the temperature stabilizing/balancing effects that you'd get from having a Great Lake or ocean nearby.

This year has given us particularly volatile weather so far. Right now we've got extreme heat, much higher rain levels than normal, and much stronger, frequent, and violent thunderstorms. I really don't know how you get work done when the weather is this crazy. Between fixing weather damaged stuff, racing to get essential chores done before heat/lightning/flooding rains or whatever interrupts your work, dealing with plant stress and disease, and shutting off the computer every time the lightning starts up again there just isn't much time to get caught up on stuff - let alone get ahead on a few things.

The forecast for the next 10 days looks like more brutally hot weather except for the times that it's pouring down rain. Oh dear - the weeds are going to love this.

Snippets From A Rainy Sunday

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Category: Weather and Environment

Published on Sunday, 26 June 2011 23:43

Written by Pretty World

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We are continuing with record levels of precipitation this year and had another inch of rain today. Since last Fall it has been rare for us to have three dry days in a row. The current pattern is heavy rains every other day, mixed with periods of daily heavy rains.

It's nice not having to water, but the plants really need some sunshine and a break from soggy growing conditions. Plants aren't comfortable with constant soggy ground any more than people would be comfortable having to wear soggy shoes and socks every day. There is going to be a lot of catch up work to do once we finally get a break from the rains and have a few good drying days.

But it's Sunday today and instead of worrying about the weather is was nice to go out and stroll through the garden, looking at the pretty aspects and for the moment ignoring the weeds and early signs of plant stress and disease. The raindrops on the various flowers were acting like miniature garden gazing balls.

The katydid nymphs were on the daylilies again today. This one figured out how to use his daylily petal as a giant umbrella.

Sections of the garden paths are starting to get quite weedy. It's really not practical to try to hoe weeds out of the damp soil - especially when there's another heavy rain coming in a few hours later. I guess this is going to be a good year for the perennials to root in deeply, and unfortunately it's going to be a tough year for weeding.

This baby bunny likes having some weeds to hide in. Rabbit mothers often tuck their young in a safe corner of the garden. The babies might look like they've been abandoned but Mom Bunny will return to check as needed. In order to keep from attracting predators, Mrs. Bunny will usually stay away from her little ones during the daytime and tend to them more frequently after nightfall.

Our rainy Sunday turned out to be a good time to do some computer work and try out some art techniques I've been thinking about lately. Today I settled into an afternoon playing with my favorite pattern making software, Genetica - by Spiral Graphics.

I call this design Metallic Cereal because it looks a little like something you might find in your breakfast bowl.

Of course, I had to make a pattern from some of my garden flowers too! I call this one Echinaceas Everywhere and it is the first entry in the new Flowers Everywhere section of my Pretty World store.

You can see a lot more of my art patterns in the Just Plain Cool Patterns section at Pretty World. Can you tell which patterns include elements from the garden? Here's a hint: there are more garden based patterns than synthetic patterns in that section!

Columbines, Irises And Wet Spring Weather

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Category: Weather and Environment

Published on Tuesday, 03 May 2011 23:16

Written by Pretty World

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Wow, have we been getting a lot of rain! This year's April showers are continuing into May. May flowers are starting to bloom but many of the plants are tall and leggy this year due to the high moisture levels and overcast days. I'll need give the Summer and Fall bloomers a light pruning soon so that they can bush up sufficiently to support their flower heads.

I've been watching the weather forecasts in hopes of we'll get a dry, sunny week soon. I'd like to trim the plants as we get some brighter and dryer growing conditions. Trimming them under the current conditions is just going to get me more lanky, weedy, floppy growth instead of the strong stems and solid, bushy plants I'm hoping for. Unfortunately the weather in our region could stay very wet for weeks to come.

Well this is just ridiculous. As I finished typing that last paragraph, Mother Nature (always in the mood for a good joke) parted the clouds and bright sunshine is now lighting up the garden. It has been days since we've seen the sun. How in the world did she time things so that the sun came out while I was whining about the rain?