Addicted To Hoes

All things outdoors

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Still June

The old yard is still surviving, anxiously awaiting some monsoon rains. The quarter of an inch that we were blessed with a few days ago helped matters. Here are a few things in the yard still blooming, despite the heat.

The creeping trumpet vine is in full bloom at the moment, enjoying the partial shade on the north side of the house.





Despite not watering them, I still have a few sunflowers clinging onto life.





I still have four roses clinging onto life. I moved the two worse looking ones into pots, and almost left them to bake in the sun this afternoon. One was blooming, the other barely has any signs of life.




That leaves two that are still in the ground, one against the house that gets shade in the morning and filtered shade in the afternoon.


And this one, my lone survivor from last year.
Of the four, three of them have bloomed this summer, although the blooms have been pretty small (heat related, I'm sure).


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Something Miraculous

A crazy thing happened this afternoon. It actually rained.

Not only did it rain, but we got a whopping two tenths of an inch. For those of you that live places where, well, it rains, that probably doesn't sound like much. But consider that over the past five years cumulatively I've seen less rain than that in our rain gauge, and it's a fairly big deal.

Unfortunately, since this rain wasn't fore casted, my rain barrels were sitting under my newly installed gutters, but I hadn't tightened the spigots, and most of the water rain right through them and out onto the ground. One of the barrels was actually blown off it's stand and was laying sideways on the flagstone (real great way to capture water). At any rate, it looks like what I've done is going to work, just need to tweak things a bit.


Monday, June 23, 2008

Light At The End Of A Very Hot Tunnel?

Hmm, is this a good sign of things to come, or the Weather Channel dangling that perverbial carrot on July 2nd?

TueJun 24
Sunny
107°79°
0%

WedJun 25
Mostly Sunny
105°79°
10%

ThuJun 26
Mostly Sunny
106°79°
0%

FriJun 27
Sunny
106°80°
0%


SatJun 28
Sunny
109°83°
0%

SunJun 29
Mostly Sunny
111°83°
0%

MonJun 30
Mostly Sunny
109°81°
10%

TueJul 1
Mostly Sunny
106°81°
10%

WedJul 2
Scattered T-Storms
103°81°
60%



Saturday, June 21, 2008

Rain?

Hmm, not here, but in the SE part of the state is actually is raining this afternoon.

Yesterday in the filtered sun my thermometer registered this gem of a temperature. Granted it wasn't quite that hot, but it may as well have been.



Here's today's radar, the rain is moving away from us, but it's been nice seeing clouds on the horizon, a sign of things to come, I hope.


Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Monsoon Cometh

The first signs of the impending monsoon are upon us, thank goodness. That huge blob of orange right below the border with Arizona is the beginning of the monsoon that will eventually start creeping northward in the next few weeks (hopefully).

The ten day forecast for here actually shows a 40% chance of rain next Wed and Thurs, although that would be a little early for the monsoon to start (typically it begins around the beginning of July). However, if there is a light at the end of this 112 degree tunnel, that would be it.

I am slowly putting my rain barrels into place on the corner of the house, and have the PVC pipe to connect them all together. Emily is trying to find a resource for gutters, which is kind of important to this whole thing. Pictures will follow.


Saturday, June 07, 2008

June Yard Update

June has been kind so far, around 100 in the afternoon, and nice cool mornings still.

Lots of color still in the yard, although yellows are dominant.

Here is a new one in the wildflower area, don't know if this is a weed or something I threw out in seed last fall.




Another blanket flower is blooming.



Here is one of the sunflowers in the yard, this is a multi-stalked one with about four or five blooms on it, about four feet tall.




The bush lantana is still blooming, and spreading everywhere.



The golden fleece that came up on its own all over the yard this spring is still blooming as well.




Here's a volunteer that came up under the Acacia, it looks like a brittlebush from the leaf and bloom color.




The yellow elder are finally recovering from the freeze two winters ago.



A few evening primrose are still coming up here and there and blooming.

And finally, calomondins are coming in, I juiced at least 30 of them today, abot 6 ounces worth, 2 ounces short for a cake recipe my mom gave us a year or so ago. Yum!