Stormy Weather

Well, it's the start of The Storm Season down here... If that goes as it's supposed to, it'll be about 2 months of pretty regular storms, mostly thunderstorms. I've lived in Wetern Washington state, on the Olympic Penninsula where, at the time, it rained over 180" in a year's time, and in the monsoon-prone areas of Arizona: Nonetheless, I'll guarantee you that I've never seen it rain harder than I have here. Take, as a fer instance, our last 2 storms: The first one, the weekend we went to Mississippi, dumped 8.5" of rain in 24 hours, and the next one, last week, dropped 6.5" in about a day and a half. It's common for our back and side yards to be basically under water during these downpours...

Still, the bottom line in local weather patterns is that we're in a drought here that is pretty serious, and starting into its second year, so we need rain badly. There's no guarantee whatsoever that we'll get it though. The concern, as it is in a lot of places, is that weather patterns are changing so profoundly and rapidly that nobody knows if there is still a Storm Season here any more.

As a result, Monica and I decided we needed to turn our landscaping into a more environment-friendly, resource-conscious, low-moisture-use type of scheme. As far as we're concerned, that starts first and foremost with drastically reducing our lawn, which is patently dumb in a hot climate anyway... The only grass that survives down here without super-intensive management a la a golf course, is Bermuda or Saint Augustine, neither of which I care for, and neither of which is a particularly soft and fuzzy lawn, anyway. Besides, when it rains, as mentioned, it rains hard and fast, and soil or mulch on planting beds has a tendency to get washed away if it's loosely laid on the ground. Last year, during one storm, I woke up at about 1:30 a.m. and noticed that the front third of the lawn was underwater, as was the street. The water was about three feet deep in the middle of the street. Next morning, we found our trash can three blocks down...

So, we've decided to erase all the grass in the back, and about a third of it in the front, and to containerize all our planting, except trees. As far as the grass went, I argued for getting rid of all of it, and the damn lawnmower, (Even if it is electric), but Monique kept saying something about 'saleability' and maintaining a token semblance of neighborhood uniformity... I say if we do decide to sell it some day,, and prospective buyers don't like common sense, then we didn't want 'em to buy it anyway... I got The Look from She Who Must Be Obeyed for that crack...

OK, so, she won that discussion, because I always defer to her re landscaping and gardening - She, like my mom and my sis, knows all them schmancy sci-en-tific names of stuff and refer to them exclusively as such - When you ask what they're talking about, they look at you with a patient expression and say, "Oleander, honey, you'd call it Oleander." I'd try and fight back by flashin' some tree names at 'em, because I was, after all, a Forestry Major in college, but they know all those, too, darn it... They say, unequivocally, that one never buys from a nursery where they don't post, know, and use the scientific names of the plants they're sellin' you. I find myself sliding ahead of them and surreptitiously glancing at the little cards hanging from a limb, so that when they arrive at the next offering, I can say, "Oh yes, Bundifloria Catagutsis, and a fiesty little example of such, if I do say so myself!" I don't think it actually fools anybody, but it makes me feel better...

So this weekend, after laying out Monica's new planting areas with a hose and a can of blue spray paint, we bought yards of barrier cloth and started hauling river rock from the big pile in the driveway to the back yard and the front yard planting beds. We painted the patio with concrete stain so that it now has a brick-like hue, which I must admit, is much nicer looking than plain ol' concrete color, (I wish I'd stamped a pattern in it when we laid it, but I was in a hurry at the time...) All her new planting areas will be container gardening, either pots or small, wooden beds, lined and everything, so we'll just water the plants with a drip system, and not the whole area. I think it's starting to look pretty cool...

I am also truly blessed that we have an able-bodied 15 year old at home, though, 'cause that rock sure looks heavy!

Wait...
You didn't really think my sorry ass was hauling it around did you?
I may be crazy, but I ain't stupid...

Ten bucks an hour to the CaseyMeister takes care of that little task, and I feel much better for it, thank you very much! I dug holes for Monica and nodded with what I felt was a properly sage expression when she asked me what I thought about the shapes, sizes, and orientation of the new planting areas - It will all really look great when we're done, and she should rightfully be proud!

It also doubles or triples her planting area, which makes her very happy - Dirt and plants are Monica's guitars, and I admire and truly enjoy her efforts. She has an eye for such things: I have enough of one to know what looks nice, and am smart enough to regularly make it clear that I appreciate what she does and how she does it. Casey likes the fact that there's no more mowing or weedwhacking in the back yard, and I appreciate that too, 'cause in the summer when he goes up to Washington to visit the folks, I get that duty...

Anyway, we'll end up soon with a very attractive landscaping scene that is, finally, coordinated all around the house, and that will use a lot less water than we do now. As for the front yard, I think I'll just keep quietly kicking that river rock out onto the remaining grass, and slowly but surely...