How Much Rain Have We Had?

Because I can, I've accessed very local rainfall records and drawn a picture. One of my neighbors, about a quarter-mile away, participates in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network. Every day, since the middle of 2006, she posts the previous day's precipitation totals into a website created for the purpose. There are thousands of people doing this around the country, and it provides a database for researchers looking for hyper-local effects, on daily weather and on climate. There are about 20 reporting stations in our very large county. Having this fairly granular data is especially helpful in thunderstorm country where idiosyncratic effects lead to big differences. (For example, a couple of years ago, National Airport a mere 12 miles away, received six inches of rain IN AN HOUR, but we got about two. We got a lot of rain, but not the record.

The main thing I use this data for is deciding when to water my own garden. But, looking at the graph of cumulative rainfall for every year since 2007 leads to some interesting musings about patterns of rainfall here.

For starters, most rainfall totals cluster around the average. But we've had two years that very much stand out from the pack: 2007 was by far the driest year since 2006 (and would have been even drier had it not been for an October storm dumping a few inches at once). On the high end, 2019 takes the cake by a lot. It doesn't really stick out in my mind as being that rainy, but I guess it was.

More interestingly, when a year diverges from the average makes a difference. Our record dry year, 2007, was average through the beginning of May. Our wet year, 2018, was only slightly above average in mid-July. And then it took off! Last year, 2019, was average until early July, and then the rain turned off for nearly three months. But we finished the year well within the average band we see in the greyed out history.

This year (bright red) has had above average precipitation right out of the starting gate. Even our spring was wetter than average. My observation has been that for my garden, full of spring wildflowers and shady natives, the early rain is important for the whole year. So that's good news. But lately, the rain has come in some big huge dumps, resulting in the stair-step look of the line. We got 1.75" in rain in two hours one night! One issue of these huge dumps is that much of the water isn't absorbed locally, because it comes down too fast. It just runs off, frequently taking some of the soil with it.

We do things to capture and retain both the water and the soil, to some effect. The single biggest thing is to avoid having any bare dirt. Plant, plant, plant, especially on slopes. Mulch in the places the plants haven't filled yet. I have some steep slopes at the edges of my yard, because my house sits on a relatively level plot created by scooping the top end and building up the bottom portion, and the street was left at almost natural steep grade.

This view of the steps to my front door
also shows the steep slope of the street.

My whole neighborhood, built on steep slopes above a creek, has rain gardens to retain even more water, built by the county to try to improve Chesapeake Bay water quality. They dug out more than eight feet down, filled the bottom six feet with what looked like plastic giant egg crates, then put rocks, gravel, soil on top, leaving the spot below grade and with drain pipes leading in from uphill and out from downhill. The soil is planted with an attractive variety of native plants that are well equipped to handle flood/drought stages repeatedly. After a big rainfall, the below-ground areas store water, which then slowly leaches out through the soil, leaving behind various contaminants. Each site requires significant maintenance of the plantings - weeds are ready and able to move in and take over.

The big climate question is volatility. Will we continue to see these huge, record-setting storms?

Apples!

I have an apple tree (I used to have two but I got rid of one this winter because it was too big too close to the house) and I've never eaten an apple from it. I've watched it bloom, I've watched tiny apples form, I've watched them grow,  and slowly, slowly, I've watched small amounts of red creep across them. Just when I've thought it's time to try picking, they all disappear. I've known it's deer and squirrels - the highest apples are well above the reach of deer. But I've always timed it wrong. This year, I've been able to watch it much more closely than in other years, and the apples are growing bigger, slowly. Few have any red - interestingly, the reddest ones are the smallest.

Earlier this week, Rocky and I came back from our stroll around the block to find a deer grazing on the tree. Grrr! She was very bold and hard to shoo away. (I should note that Rocky's only interest in deer is their poop they leave behind - yummy!) "Shoo!" made no difference to her. "Woof woof!" (from me) made no difference to her. She seemed very big when we got close. She sidled a few feet away, and she kept an eye on Rocky, but she decided to sample the dahlias and mums that were closer. I grabbed my deer-chaser I keep on my front porch: a metal coffee can with a few nuts and bolts inside. I shook it at her, and finally she wandered across the street to eat Betty's flowers. Hat-tip to my neighbor Bill for suggesting that was a noise that was likely to work - I've used it several times this year, to good affect.

A couple of nights ago, I was down in my basement gym (yay me!), flat on my back, and I looked up and out the huge window well there, and I saw a squirrel on the tree. What he seemed to be doing was sampling every apple by taking a single bite! Grrrr! I finished up the workout briskly instead of lingering over my stretches, and went out there. The squirrel was not in sight, and I took the moment to harvest a few apples even though they are still green. I carefully positioned them for the photo with best side forward, because they all have flaws (but no actual squirrel bites). The largest one is about the size of a peach, small for an apple.

I'm contemplating my next move.  Will the picked green apples ripen or rot? Harvesting a lot more apples requires hauling out the ladder. I want to delay that as long as possible, in the hope they will continue to grow and eventually ripen. But will they all be gone by then? Yesterday, I saw a squirrel perched atop my fence enjoying one.

In other news, the yellow jackets are not gone. They have opened a new nest entrance about six inches from the old one. The specialist says he'll be back Saturday. Grrrr!

ATTACKED!! 2020: This Time, It's Personal!

On Sunday, one of the hottest days of the year (so far), I was moving hoses around, preparing to water my garden. Suddenly, an intense sharp pain on my knee made me aware of several buzzing yellow jackets! The back of the other knee got nailed! My shin! I started to flee, and I noticed the dog had gone full Eeyore on me: head down, ears down, tail down, feet firmly rooted in one spot, at least a half dozen yellow jackets buzzing him.

Doomed! The white dust is from the exterminator.
The lower nest is blocked, and the entrance is full of poison.

In an incredible act of courage, I hobbled over to Rocky, and grabbed his collar. The back of my hand got nailed by a stinger. I shrieked at the sad dog, terrified of the numerous persistent pursuing insects, and Rocky planted his feet more solidly and refused to move. I dragged him by the collar, out the gate and halfway around the house, brushing yellow jackets off him and then me as we went. Poor Rocky was stumbling and almost falling, perhaps as terrified by me as by the stingers.

I got us inside, verified we had left all pursuers outside, and assessed the damage. I had at least six stings on arms and legs, and they were already incredibly painful and swelling up fast. Rocky was still in Eeyore mode, but didn't flinch when I patted him.

I've never been particularly bothered by bees. When I've been stung before, it hurts, it swells, and in an hour or two it looks and feels itchy like most people's mosquito bites. (I am even more indifferent to mosquitoes, usually.)  But I am aware that many stings can bring on anaphylactic shock, and I'd never felt anything as painful as this. I raided the medicine cabinet, first for Rocky, then for me - antihistamines and painkillers all round. I texted my BIL to keep checking back with me for the next couple of hours, to make sure I hadn't started gasping for breath.

Of course then I took to the internet to figure out what these infernal pests were, studying the nest through the window. Clearly territorial yellow jackets, not bees. There were DIY solutions for getting rid of ground nests on the internet, but neighbors strongly recommended a local one-man specialty service. With my left hand already swollen so it was hardly functional, I decided to wimp out and go with the expert.

The stings continued to swell, reaching a good six inches in angry painful diameter each. Monday was worse than Sunday, but then they started to recede and now, five days later, they are roughly mosquito-bite itchy, not painful, but still large and red. I have a new healthy respect for all things stinging.

The "Bee-Be-Gone" guy has just left, noting the nest had taken advantage of tunneling mammals - probably voles - so the nest was very deep and long. He had to go with poison, not just mechanical means, to get rid of them. So now the front yard is filled with extremely perturbed angry flying things with nasty pointy ends that pack a poison of their own. It will take up to three days for the activity to die down, and if there is any residual flying activity in a week my guy will come back and do it again.

Bad Nature! Bad bad nature!

BTW, this is only a few feet from where I had a welcome distanced outdoor chat with Liz last week. Luckily, we didn't inadvertently bother the nest, and they didn't bother us then. What a debacle that would have been!

How my Corner has Evolved

If you are not looking at this on a phone, you may have noticed I finally updated the cover photo. Here is how my corner has evolved over the years:

2004: Before I had the stone wall built.

2007: Wall is new and I'm gaga for tropicals in pots

2010: This is what I was using as the blog top photo

2014: The tree behind the "no outlet" sign is small

2020: The shade from the tree, and losing the spruce, has totally transformed the corner

Apres Moi, Le Deluge?

Broccoli, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, chard

I harvested yesterday - a much bigger haul than I expected.

I knew I had to harvest the continuing sprouting of side shoots from the broccoli - this is much more broccoli than I ever expected. My first venture into broccoli - highly successful! But when I unzipped my crop cage on the raised bed to go in there, I realized it was time to perform some basic hygiene on all the veggies.

Cherry tomato post pruning

I only have a couple of cherry tomato plants in pots this year, because my plants in the raised bed last year succumbed to what I decided was a virus. I was really sad to see my plants in pots also had yellowing leaves, primarily on the bottom. The internet assured me it was probably the virus, and suggested cutting off all the apparently infected leaves. I suspect the virus got there because I am using plant supports from last year, without actually washing them. I never have, but my books recommend a wipe with bleach at the start of the season, for this specific reason. Tools as well. It's too late for the supports, but I can clean up the tools. I spent a pleasant several minutes pruning and carefully tossing ugly leaves. As always, with pruning the trick is knowing when to stop. Let's hope the plants pull through.

My raised bed is planted very thickly, and the plants are all on top of each other, and there were many yellow leaves at the bottom. Inspired by my tomato pruning, I decided to tackle the whole bed. This would also allow me to really examine what is there, because with it all zipped up, and all of the thick foliage, it's hard to tell what is actually going on as far as blooming and producing is concerned. So I unzipped and raised the sides of the covering, got on my hands and knees, and cleaned and harvested. The chard was almost completely overshadowed by the zucchini foliage, so I decided to take all of the outer leaves and see what happens to the residual plants.

I'm really happy with the way the clean-up went, though I started out planning on spending 15 minutes and ended up spending three hours. There is a specific warning against handling wet foliage (especially bean plants) and it has been very rainy and damp most mornings. Yesterday, Friday, dawned drier and I went to town. Now, there is less rot and better airflow. It can only help.

Broc in the foreground, zucchini in the middle,
cuke on the left, beans on the far end.

My zucchini plants have almost all male flowers. Some years, those are the only flowers I ever have, never any fruit. I have a bad history with zucchini - never have I drowned in them. A large part of that is because of a pest called "squash vine borer" - a butterfly lays eggs in the main thick vine of the plant, the caterpillars eat their way out, and the plants wither. I think the mesh around the bed may prevent that by being a bit too fine for their wings. So could this be the year I have the classic over-supply of squash?

I bought plants and seeds late, and I was stuck with what they had. Zucchini was easy - but then I also bought packets of beans, both pole and bush. I had noted a bean or two, from outside the bed, but when I was down into the details I ended up with a whole pound! Sadly, I'm not so wild for fresh green beans. I'll cook and eat them, since they are mine. But fresh beans are one of the foods where the hassle of tip-and-tailing them, versus pulling a bag out of the freezer, hasn't generally shown me to be worth the effort. What are your favorite bean recipes? I have a feeling there may be a lot of them. 

Prickly climbing cucumber

I never eat a lot of cucumbers, but I bought a couple of plants and they are climbing up. The plant is attractive, but the fruits are funny and spiky. There was a cuke recipe in yesterday's paper (basically cukes with egg salad and dill) and I'll give that a try for the one edible one I've got already. I'm eating a lot of salads, so if the cukes are coming I may be able to keep up with them.

Of the haul in the photo at the top, so far I've eaten the cherry tomatoes (snarfed like candy), broccoli (roasted), zucchini (tossed into a chicken saute), and the chard (sauteed with breakfast sausage this morning). I'm doing a salad for lunch (cuke, I'm looking at you) and will think about the beans tomorrow.

I would have to say none of these, except the tomatoes, are head and shoulders better than the usual vegetables I get at Whole Foods. It's still fun, though.