Sunday, August 24, 2008

Garden Rising from the Dead

It rained this past week in the garden - Finally! My garden was about dried up and dead. So of course I had to take photos of the rain, because who knows when I will see it again? I feel a little weird taking photos of the rain - I am originally from Seattle where rain was never a problem - but now that I am a denizen of Austin, I find myself laughing hysterically and running around in circles like an idiot in the rain while snapping photos of the raindrops whenever mother nature turns on the faucet! What is wrong with me? *Sigh* Anyway, the garden is coming alive after the rains.

RAIN!



Pouring out the spout:



Filling up the drainage ditch:



Yellow Rain lilies along the side strip:



A little closer:



Pink rain lilies:



A Hibiscus I recently bought on impulse at HEB because it was just so pretty:



Echeveria blooms:



The insects have been going nuts this week after the rains.

Green Dragonfly:



Blue Dragonfly:



Queen butterflies mobbing the blue mistflower:



A closer look:



An Orb Weaver. I watched the hummingbirds hover near this web over and over and I could not figure out what the heck they were doing. I finally realized they were picking the insects from the spider's web! Better to let somebody else do the hard work and catch the insects for you. The spiders even wrap them up like little presents and hang them out for the hummingbirds to take their pick. How handy! The behavior of stealing food captured by other critters is known as Kleptoparasitism. I tried to get photos of the hummingbirds in action, but they were too fast! I will keep trying and hopefully post a photo of them stealing insects in the future:



Birds hanging out in the shade of the fountain catching a drink and a shower:



Native morning glory and Hot Lips salvia:



Russian Sage:



The Scarlet Runner bean, a hummingbird favorite, is flowering like mad after the rain:



Turks Cap - another hummingbird fave with that brilliant red:

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your rain lilies, and your Turk's cap looks fabulous. I know what you mean about celebrating the rain. I was out dancing in it last week.

ConsciousGardener said...

Looking great! I've been enjoying the bugs too:)

katina said...

How does your turks' cap do? I've been thinking of adding that to my garden because it's supposed to be a 'any amount of sun' plant.

Rock rose said...

It's amazing how quickly the plants recover when they get some rain-and the weeds too!

bare-faced gardener said...

I know what you mean about taking pictures of the rain ! It’s rained here once in almost eight weeks and we’ve had temperatures in the mid/late 30°s (sorry, don’t know the Fahrenheit equivalent).

Now it’s a little cooler, I hope to get back into the garden (once I’ve been surgically removed from my computer and learning how to blog !)
Nice blog

Sue Swift said...

One of the benefits of gardening is that you really appreciate that every type of weather has its part to play in ensuring that the world keeps living. I always find it funny when the weather forecast announces rain by saying "bad weather". What do they think we'd do without it?

Lee17 said...

pam,

Thanks! I love dancing in the rain ;)

Lee17 said...

consciousgardener,

Aren't the bugs nifty? I love them ;)

Lee17 said...

Katina,

My turks cap does fabulous! It seems to really enjoy the shade. I don't have any growing in full sun, but I have seen some monstrous specimens around growing in full sun - but I would bet they would need more water there.

Lee17 said...

lancashire rose,

I know! Just when you think the garden is done for, it rains and everything comes back from the dead! Oh - and yes - the weeds go nuts!!

Lee17 said...

Bare-Faced gardener -

100 deegrees F is about 37-38 degrees Celsius. Hot and toasty! It just cooled down this last week into the mid 90's here so I will be putting in some wildflower seeds this month.

Lee17 said...

Sue Swift,

You are so right! They always act like it is a bad thing. Rain is what makes things green and leafy ;) Yay rain!