Friday, September 17, 2010

Moonflower

This is the first year I have had a moonflower vine, and let me tell you it will not be the last! Love, love, love this flowering vine.

The moonflower has a thick, heady scent. Boy is it strong!



This one is planted in a pot along my back porch. The flowers are just beautiful against the dark night sky.



The flower is over 6 inches wide!



More moonflowers opening for the evening:





Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hermine.

So Hermine. Yeah. 12+ inches of rain. I thought this one would fall apart before it hit Austin. No such luck. This thing was still a tropical storm when it arrived in central Texas.



The storm didn't seem like it was going to be that bad - it rained all day as it crept closer and closer. The rain was steady. Occasionally there would be a good downpour or two. The eye was still intact as it passed just to the West of us moving North. And then...it happened. The sky opened up and the faucets came on. Full Blast. Like a big ol' vacuum cleaner, Hermine sucked bands of tropical moisture from the gulf and spit it back out behind itself as it moved along. Dumping rain. Buckets and buckets and buckets and buckets(really not enough buckets here). Completely drenching us for hours and hours after it passed. When it was all over, we had 12-13 inches come down at our place.

See that red blot there? My house is right in the midst of that hot mess.



Central Texas. Gardening. They DO NOT go together like peas and carrots. Oil and water, maybe. Not peas and carrots. Let's just lay this all out shall we? A couple years back, a deluge all summer, worthy of Noah himself, that brought rain that drowned half my garden followed by a tree-cracking drought for 18 months topped off with 60+ days of 100+ degree temps last summer. Then a brief reprieve with a short lived El Nino resulting in an extra-cold winter that freezes half my plants. I replant in the early Spring - then La Nina - no rain as Spring kicks off, then 100 degree temps for 30 days in the Summer, what plants I have left...die. Then. A Tropical Storm. With a foot of rain. Just for shits and giggles. 'Cause ya know, the Powers That Be apparently have a sick sense of humor. And they thought - won't that be fun?!? We haven't had one of THOSE around here in a while! Well, how 'bout a friggin' tornado next huh? Yeah! That's all I'm missing. A tornado. Bring it on! Tear my dead plants from the ground from their roots and spin them away. A clean slate might be better anyway *throws up arms in frustration*.

My garden looks like crap. Dried up, dead, and drowned. Gardening in Central Texas. What was I effing thinking? I clearly enjoy beating my head into a wall repetitively. *sigh* I guess I better start planning my garden re-build.....

Ah well. At least I have some floppy cuphea and sunflowers to show for it all:



And a bunch of Oxbloods and Rainlilies. At least THEY like to be drenched and don't mind hiding as bulbs under the ground all summer in the cracked and dry earth:









And lookie here...a bluebonnet seedling. Nature is resilient. Life goes on.