Yard Heading Into June

Thanks to continued mild temperatures and the inch and a half of rain we received late last week, the yard is still going strong, lots of new growth and some things still blooming.

Usually this Turks Cap is going into survival mode about now, but it's covered with these little red blooms, and is looking very healthy. A very strange plant, whose blooms never fully open, very similar to my Indian Mallow. Over in Superior, where it's about 10-15 degrees cooler in the summer, these plants get to be over 6 feet tall and very bushy. Mine is maybe three feet tall and spangly, but still alive after three years in a harsher environment than it's used to. It helps that I planted it under the canopy of a mesquite.

I gave these orange jubilees a high and tight yesterday afternoon, took me about an hour and a half to trim them back to what they look like here. The ones on the right side of the walkway are getting bushier, I'm hoping in a year or so they'll catch up with the ones on the left.

The calomondens are finally ready to be picked, and I'll be doing that this weekend. With the mild weather it's started blooming again, so we should have a nice crop this fall as well. This tree is loaded, it must have at least 50 or more mature fruit on it.

Same tree, wider view.



Despite not seeing many blooms on it this spring, our lemon tree is putting out lots of fruit also. These will be in my iced tea come December.



The creeping trumpet vine is getting close to blooming. This is by far my favorite plant in the entire yard. It's constantly putting out new plants from underground runners, which I'm moving to various parts of the yard, and the color of the blooms are incredible.

Another nice surprise with the nice weather, our strawberry guava tree has not only bloomed for the first time, but it's setting fruit. Here is a nice look of a bloom yet to open, and one that has. If you click on this picture for a larger view, you might be able to see the tiny fruit centered in the middle.

And finally, one of my favorite trees in the yard, the Mulga, is blooming again. This is another plant that's constantly doing something, blooming or setting very attractive seed pods that the birds love eating. A very low water tree that's grown to at least ten feet in a barely two years.

Weather Settling Down

Our odd weather is finally settling down. Yesterday afternoon we had another round of storms roll in from the north, and once again it rained just enough at the house to get the ground wet. The storm broke into two, veering east and west of us. The best part was that as it rolled through around 4pm, the temperature dropped to about 65 degrees, and even after it cleared out, it barely made it back to 70 before the sun set. The last few mornings our lows have been in the low 50s, which is unheard of this late in the spring. The paper indicated a few days ago that on average our first 100 degree day arrives on the 1st of May, and today being the 16th we've yet to see that happen. Yet.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 94.

On Sunday it's supposed to be 100.

On Monday it's supposed to be 103.

On Tuesday it's supposed to be 106.

And thankfully that's where it's ending. Temps are supposed to drop back under a 100 after that, and even back into the high 80's around Friday, when we leave with Emily's family for Albuquerque for the Memorial Day weekend (go figure, it cools off and we're leaving). In Albuquerque the highs over the holiday are barely going to make it to 80, with lows around 50 and a chance of rain (it's monsoon season over there).

Below is a picture of the sun setting off the back yard this evening. The remnants of the storm that's been parked over New Mexico is still spinning some clouds over us, and here is what's left of that.

A Rarity - A May Yard Update



As I'm sitting here writing this at 3pm on May 13th, it's 65 degrees outside. We woke up this morning with a random little weather disturbance passing through. We've had so far today three chances of rain, none of which have amounted to much more than barely getting the ground wet, which is about the best you can expect in May or June.

The first wave of clouds came through first thing this morning, we got nothing from that but a little bit of wind. The second wave came through about mid morning when I was in the garage on the treadmill (9:32 mile today, woo hoo!), and that one brought more wind and a little rain.

The most promising chance was about an hour ago, a thunderstorm developed just west of here, but promptly collapsed just short of us, and we got a brief dust storm, lots of wind, and a little bit of spitty rain.



Here's a picture of that last storm from the west. You can see the rain coming out of the clouds.




Here are a couple of pictures of the storm gathering around the house. It was in the 60's until the clouds broke around noon, when the sun came out the temps shot up to around 85, and then this promptly rolled in, cooling it back off.






Here's the rogue little storm just under the E in PHOENIX. The two storms out to the west of the valley around Buckeye and Cave Creek actually dumped about a quarter of an inch a piece in those areas, according to the Maricopa County rainfall web site.





Finally, because I had nothing better to do this afternoon, here's a brief video of the storm collapsing. Off in the distance you can see the dirt getting kicked up from the storm falling apart to the southwest.






Moving right along, I've started accumulating rain barrels for this upcoming monsoon season. I had one wine barrel that I bought from Wal Mart a few years ago that was still in decent shape, and it's pictured here. The top of the other one collapsed, destroying the water tight seal.

Here are a few more shots of the yard, including the jubilee which are still blooming in our mild weather (still no days over 100).

The calomonden tree is loaded with fruit that's ripening.

My columbine from Georgia are still alive and slowly growing along.

Close But No Cigar

Here is our 20% chance of rain for this afternoon. The local paper says this is day 73 in a row without any measurable rain. If nothing happens today, it will more than likely be another 60 days before the next chance comes around. In six years of measuring rain here at the house in May and June, we've netted about .15 inches during that time, cummulative.

The clouds are out there, and they're growing in the east, but they'll never get here.

May Yard Update

Below are a few new things around the yard that are blooming. Our days of nice weather are numbered at this point, it's been in the high 80s and low 90s, but we'll be seeing 100 pretty soon, if I had to guess.

The first two pictures below are of the yellow orchid vine out on the front of the house. It was starting to bloom when we left town a week ago and is continuing to bloom to this day. I have to take the weed whacker to it about once a week to keep the stragglers back.

This flower appeared in the wildflower area while we were gone, looks like a blanket flower to me and is a pleasant surprise, since everything else in that area seems to be winding down (scorpion weed, five spot, primrose and poppies are all near their end).

The coreopsis that's in the same general area survived our being gone, and are continuing to bloom. By my count I have about nine of these that came up, and they hopefully will survive the summer since they're situated nicely between the house and our largest tree.

Even our water thirsty plumbago survived 90+ weather while we were gone for a week, and is now in full bloom.