growing grass once again needs management

We had an entirely unexpected 1/2" of hard rain with a thunderstorm about 2am yesterday. Last I had noticed, there was a 10% probability in the forecast. I, with a mindset fostered by months of drought, discounted this entirely. Thus my front driver's seat is a trifle damp, even now, a day and a half later. There was probably quite a bit of run-off, but I haven't been down to see the effects on the tank yet.

Here are notes from earlier this week (I see I am repeating myself about the thunderstorm.


Wednesday 19 October

A blustery day with cloudless sky, struggling to get up to 70°F. August just a horrible memory! My feet were cold last night regardless of the down.


Thursday 20 October

Pretty much a beautiful repeat of yesterday, with the wind calmed down. Even chillier last night; there might have been a very light frost, but I wasn’t up early enough to see. Probably not, though -- the portulaca in the front yard still looks just fine.

The yard was starting to look a bit shaggy, so I let Buddy in the last couple of days. There seems to be a lot more green regrowth in the yard than out on the hillside, probably because I watered it a few times so it was not in such really terrible shape. The horse-mowing is pretty good. He has neatly nibbled around the red sages and the yellow comps that he evidently doesn’t like. Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to like Johnson Grass either, so I am going to have to deal with the edge of the herb bed.


Sunday 22 October, 4am

Another lovely day, and I paid no attention to the forecast, which the last time I checked had a 10% chance of precipitation. Woke up at 1:40 am to a thunderstorm and a downpour, already so heavy I decided there was no point in going out and getting soaked to close the car window. Second-guessed myself in the half hour following. It did taper off after that, and by 4 am was completely over. Remains to be seen in the morning the state of the car seat.

The ground is really getting quite green with the new-sprouting grass, and the clumps of bluestem have several inches of new growth.

I forgot to look when I was at the Community Market yesterday to see if there were any new yellow rain lilies so late. This might bring out a few more, even in October, since so many plants are coming out as if it’s spring. The old-fashioned pink-and-yellow lantana at the entrance to the vegetable garden space has all new leaves and several flower heads.Tough old plant. The beautiful red one I got at the Discovery Garden sale last fall didn’t survive the winter (still in the pot), and if it had, I suspect it wouldn’t have made it through the summer. But I might get another anyway, it was so nice.

In the front yard, the scarlet sage and the turk's-cap, both rejuvenated by the cool weather and rain, are making a nice red show.