First real rain of the year.

[hoodat]

For those of you from other parts of the country it may seem strange that we haven't had a real rain here since late April but that's San Diego for you. Right now we have a good one going. It started about 4AM and has been steady ever since.We have almost an inch and there is no letup in sight. Should do my garden a lot of good and in a couple of weeks I will have wild oats and burr clover to harvest for my rabbits.They've been getting plenty of dandelion gathered wild but they need a little variety. With any luck this is the start of the rainy season. Time to get more pak choy and cabbage planted.

 

[digitS']

Hoodat, I thought we had a dry year . . !

I was reading awhile ago about the genetic make-up of plants - said something about tomato plants on TEG and how long and complex those tomato chromosomes are! The geneticists say that it is because they can't move . . . There's no migrating away from difficulties so they just adapt, adapt, adapt!

Enjoy your rain. Wow!

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Getting all of our rain from late Winter to early Spring is just the way things are here. Five or six months without rain is normal. Our native plants in this area have learned to use the ocean fog for water by absorbing it through the leaves.

 

[ninnymary]

Hoodat, we are hopefully going to get a little of that rain tomorrow.

Mary

 

[baymule]

Enjoy your rain! We had a drought in 2011 that killed trees. Big beautiful trees, just died, it was so sad. Utility crews were busy cutting the dead trees away from the power lines for awhile. Ranchers sold their cattle, a lot of them couldn't afford the hay to keep them alive.We are still in a drought, but not as bad as last year.

 

[Smart Red]

We are having a rainfall today as well. We haven't had more than 5 inches total since early April. Lots of damage to trees, young and old here.

Still, I sure appreciate rain versus a snow of equal amounts!

Love, Smart Red

 

[Nyboy]

When i was looking for a house I wanted to make sure I would never have water problem for garden. I would only look at houses with ponds or streams. I ended up with a house with a large pond and stream. By mid summer the pond is nasty . and I have to carry flood insurance of $1,700 a year.

 

[digitS']

NYboy, I wonder if you can make use of that pond on a seasonal basis. I mean, could you kick the gate out and allow it to completely drain during late summer? Could you allow it to drain now-and-then thru the summer?

This may seem strange but I once had a pond in the garden. Nobody would have thought that possible by looking at my rocky soil but . . . it was the neighbor's fault.

You see, he had a very leaky valve on his irrigation line. The water would continue coming thru that 4" pipe just forever, even with the valve turned off. It leaked into a puddle right near my garden. Now, I asked him - it wasn't like I was stealing his water. I ran a pvc pipe only a short way, not over 10', into the garden. The water was carried from the leaky pipe into a little pond about 4' by 8'.

I grew watercress in there!!

The neighbor may have been embarrassed by the situation. He replaced his valve and that was the end of my pond. It was sure nice to have the watercress, however. Initially, I got the starts from the soopermarket. They seemed to take dry periods quite well just as long as they had many days with water covering their roots.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Trench an electric line out to near the pump, put in a GFI outlet on a small pressure treated post, cover it with some stones to distract from the outlet, then aerate the pond with a fountain feature, doesn't have to be super crazy just enough to pump something to disrupt the surface of the water.

That will allow for better gas exchange (surface disruption = gas exchange) and the pond will be healthier because of it. It will make a difference. Another option is to color the water so light doesn't penetrate so deep and allow for algaes to grow, and die making the water so foul.

Add a couple of feeder goldfish (since Koi are SOOO expensive) throw in a large strawberry pot or 2 at the deep parts of the pond so the goldfish will have a place to hide from fishers, racoons, herons, the smart ones will survive. Stupid ones are food. But at the price of feeder goldfish its not a huge setback.

Put in a couple of dwarf water lilies, maybe some grasses, you could have a VERY nice water feature that would be very relaxing and enhance your property.

Sorry to threadjack back to the rain updates

 

[hoodat]

NYboy, I wonder if you can make use of that pond on a seasonal basis. I mean, could you kick the gate out and allow it to completely drain during late summer? Could you allow it to drain now-and-then thru the summer?

This may seem strange but I once had a pond in the garden. Nobody would have thought that possible by looking at my rocky soil but . . . it was the neighbor's fault.

You see, he had a very leaky valve on his irrigation line. The water would continue coming thru that 4" pipe just forever, even with the valve turned off. It leaked into a puddle right near my garden. Now, I asked him - it wasn't like I was stealing his water. I ran a pvc pipe only a short way, not over 10', into the garden. The water was carried from the leaky pipe into a little pond about 4' by 8'.

I grew watercress in there!!

The neighbor may have been embarrassed by the situation. He replaced his valve and that was the end of my pond. It was sure nice to have the watercress, however. Initially, I got the starts from the soopermarket. They seemed to take dry periods quite well just as long as they had many days with water covering their roots.

Steve

Steve, you should try upland cress. It tastes the same and doesn't need any more water than most of the other garden plants.