Month: August 2020

Sigh of relief.

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Hurricane Marco was a bust. It didn’t do anything here. And Laura, which is currently still ongoing, make landfall at a category 4, and 12+ hours later is still a category 1. But it did not even give Austin any rain.

We are lucky, the storm did not make landfall in Texas, it landed in Louisiana, so we did not get that much damage. But make no mistake, Louisiana has taken a hard hit. Laura is a powerful storm, but at this point it is still a bit early to know the entire extent of the damage.

The storm is heading its way up to Arkansas, then over to the Memphis area, across Kentucky, then out to the coast, and up the coast line. How this storm is managing this I do not know.

As for Austin, we are back to hot. The weather forecast includes high 90’s to low 100’s again. How long this heat wave will last is definitely up for debate. Next week is the start of September and the highs are still in the 90’s. At this point I’m not sure what normal temperatures would be. But we are just plain hot.

Shade cloth

In honor of all this heat, I decided to attempt using a shade cloth over part of the garden. Since the garden is so close to the back fence, the shade cloth is attached to the fence using bungee cords. The shade cloth has grommets around the edges, so I have grommets impaled onto the 6 foot tall bamboo sticks to help keep it over the garden. Not the most elegant solution, but one that works for the time being. Since I’m not sure how long I will keep the shade cloth up, and I need an easy way to take it down if needed, this works. I consider this part of the learning process of a garden.

Hopefully this works and my fall seeds will sprout and be happy.

We got rain!

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Saturday morning we were lucky enough to actually get that much wanted cool front. With it we actually got rain. We got 1-1/2 inches of rain here at the house. Much needed rain. The other nice part of the rain, was we did cool off some. Not for long, but a couple days of just below 100 was much welcomed relief.

I’m sure the yard will be so much happier that we got some rain. We also have an unusual weather condition coming up. There are two storms headed our way, Laura and Marco. Marco, I think, is expected to make landfall today somewhere near New Orleans. Laura is expected to make landfall in a couple of days. What will happen with either remains to be seen, but rain is in the forecast, probably Wednesday or Thursday. I’ll keep you posted.

the dry spot

As I mentioned before, I had these two raised beds put into my yard for growing my veggies. Even though I haven’t had as much success this year as I had hoped, I’m keeping positive as I get to know my yard better.

But the reason for this image is to point out the consequences of my choice. This is not about good or bad choices, this is just about the learning process. When we purchased this house it had a front and back lawn with installed sprinkler heads. That’s the good news. The land was already graded to allow for water drainage. My beds don’t seem to impact the water drainage. BUT, the beds do impact the sprinkler heads. The sprinkler heads do not pop up high enough to water beyond the beds. The heads do pop up, but the water can’t quite clear the beds. Consequently I have the dry spot in front of the beds where the grass is dying.

And if you’re wondering why there is green grass on this side of the beds, its from the drip watering system inside the bed. It sprinkles just outside the bed too.

Now I don’t have a problem with this, I can water the area easily. That’s why I have a hose with a sprinkler head. Its actually on top of the piece of wood to keep it level. It kept falling over whenever I turned the water on, so I put it on a piece of wood to keep it more stable. It does work on my yard.

Eventually, maybe next year I will see about what to do about the sprinkler heads. I’m sure there must be a way to get them to pop up higher, even if I have to get new sprinkler heads that do that.

But the whole point here is, if you make a change, it may impact something else. Just be aware of that, even if you didn’t foresee it. Most things are fixable. My problem here, the dying grass area, is not the end of the world. Its fixable, and even a small fix as far as I’m concerned. But I personally will accept I have to fix this in order to keep my garden. Having my garden matters more to me that this drying grass spot.

But that’s just me.

Still hot

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Well, our triple digit days are still with us. Though last night we got a sudden downpour of rain about 3AM. It didn’t amount to much in terms of inches, less than 1/2 an inch of rain, but at least we got something.

But as for daily temperature, its still hot. We’ve been beating or matching heat records the past few days, and those have been triple digit days.

The rain has been helpful in cooling us off. If you can call it that. We will “cool down” today to about 95-99, depending on which weather site you look at. Its late morning as I write this, 11 AM and its already 87, so its not exactly cool. And of course it will heat up as the day goes on.

Some plants are going down hill. This heat has been too much and it is taking its toll. But that’s okay, its time to start thinking about the fall garden.

Texas heat

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To help those of you who don’t live in Texas what our heat is like, the following is taken from a local new website, KXAN.com. This is what they posted, August 6, 2020 about Texas weather.

” AUSTIN (KXAN) — Thursday will be our 5th day in a row and 26th of the year with afternoon high temperatures reaching the triple-digits. Austin is likely to reach 103 degrees with humidity bringing heat index values to 106-108 degrees. 26 days of triple-digit heat is twice the average for an entire summer, and it’s only early August.

https://www.kxan.com/weather/forecast/todays-forecast/

An area of high pressure is now moving eastward into Texas. This heat ridge will settle over the state leading to mostly dry and very hot weather, even by August standards (average: upper 90s). There are some indications this second heat wave could continue well into mid-August.”

https://www.kxan.com/weather/forecast/todays-forecast/

Now I know there are other areas that also get hot, Phoenix Arizona comes to mind. But that is the point. There are some areas where gardening in the heat has a different meaning.

I pulled the weather conditions off Weather.com for Omaha, NE. Their high is 83 for today, but over the next 5 days is 85, 93, 94, 86, 87. If you live in Brattelboro, VT your weather is 81 today, with the next 5 days as 78, 79, 86, 90, 89. The point here is triple digit weather is not everywhere in the USA. And so gardening in these conditions can be different if you come from somewhere else and are not used to this heat.

And that is actually part of the reason I began this website. To track what the weather is, and how it affects my garden.

Oh, and yes my cucumbers are still producing well. Go figure.

Triple Digits

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Yes, this is central Texas weather. We are back into triple digits. Its hot, no other word for it. HOT!

But we’ve also had a few clouds pop up. So we have days of hot triple digits, a quick drop in temperature, quick wind, a fast downpour (or maybe just a sprinkle), then the heat comes right back. How’s that for fun.

What it does mean for my garden is everything is in a holding pattern. I’m just trying to keep things alive. In 100 degree heat not much actually grows, nor do a lot of plants or veggies ripen. On the other hand my cucumbers are going gang busters. I have to check that plant daily! Go figure!

I have recently joined a Facebook group for Texas Central Gardeners. I figured since I can’t easily go out and talk to people, this would be a good option. On someone’s recommendation I have ordered a set of SVB traps (that’s squash vine borer SVB traps). I’m not sure how long it will take for them to arrive, but we’ll find out if they work. I actually have a set of squash plants still growing, so maybe they’ll show up in time and I can tell you how they worked.

On a different not, please please please, when you plant something try to label it in a manner that makes sense. For instance, I have used some of those white plastic in the ground sticks you write on. With the harsh sun here all the writing has disappeared. I used a sharpie, but not help, the writing is gone.

Another issue I’ve had with labeling plants, is I had a helper putting in my labels. Well, I had a plant labeled as watermelon. It sure looks like a butternut squash to me! Try to make sure you label seeds or plants correctly, and in a way that is still readable after rain or harsh sun.