Author: admincatsg

For over the past week we have been in rain, even if not every single day, we’ve had rain. Last week we had over 2-1/2 inches of rain. This week we’ve had almost 5 inches. Even though we’ve had just below 5 inches, I expect we may pass the 5 inch mark as its only 5pm as I write this, and we still expect more rain today.

I had put some seed in the grown, and we’ve had so much rain most of it is coming up already. I say most since I think some of the seed may have been old, and it doesn’t seem to be sprouting.

But we’ve also had warm weather. The coolest we’ve hit was 69 one night. Most of the days have made it in the 80’s. Last week we actually made it to 92, but this week its made a high of 86. Next week we might hit 90 one day, but most days it will be mid to high 80’s. But the nights will be in the low 70’s. That’s still good planting weather.

Actually its such nice weather we can be planting:

under cover or indoors – lettuce, and spinach

plant outside – beans (bush snap), beets, broccoli, brussell sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, garlic, kale, leek, parsnip, and swiss chard.

I’ve already put some of these in. I’ve put in spinach, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, swiss chard, and beans. I think some of the lettuce that’s coming up is seed that didn’t sprout earlier. But the beans are coming up, they’re a few inches tall. Some of the spinach and possibly broccoli look like they may be sprouting. But I’ve bought some new seed to see if my problem is I’m trying to plant old seed.

Since I usually use seed and not purchased plants, and I just put it in the ground, I don’t put it in bedding trays, some of my little seedlings may not get off to the best start. I don’t sow using the best of methods. I tend to broadcast sow small seed. Things like beans and peas are such large seeds I tend to put a few together in the same hill or hole. This way if one doesn’t sprout, its likely some of the others will.

But the nice thing is the weather is great for fall planting. So if you are wondering if you should plant now, the answer is yup!

We’ve had lovely and average hot muggy humid Texas weather. Until yesterday. They’ve been saying we’ll get rain, but yesterday we got some. And with that rain, a slight cool down. Now for Texas a cool down means instead of being triple digits or the high 90’s, we’re in the low 90’s. So instead of being 97-99, we are down to 92, with a possible 87 tomorrow. WOW! Yes, that’s what a cool down can look like in this area. Crazy huh!

But the nice this is with this cool down we actually got just over 1/4 inch (per an outdoor rain gauge) yesterday. As for today we’ve had about 1/2 inch. Still not a lot of rain, but the yard will love it. I’m sure some other areas got more or less rain, but that’s what we’ve had here.

On the bright side, over the past few days I’ve put more seed in the ground. I’ve put in squash, zucchini, tomato, broccoli, beets, beans, and carrots. Now I recognize that some of my seed may be old, so I’ve put lots of seed down hoping at least some of it will sprout. We’ll see. I’ve also ordered some new seed.

Because of the heat we have, highs in the triple digits, and we had it for well over a week, I’ve been working in the yard pulling out dead plants. We’re having a problem with the watering system, so we’ve been having to water by hand. Its nice the weather is cooling down when you have to stand out in it to water plants. But with luck we’ll be able to get something growing and get some veggies later this year.

Wish me luck. With Texas weather being what it is, you never know what will happen. It could get back up to high 90’s all over again. But if it stays this cool, and we get rain for a few days, more things have a chance of surviving.

Autumn will arrive some day.

Texas has a heat wave

Per KXAN news the Austin area has been hot enough to rate the following:

• 45th 100º days so far this year (6th most on record since 1897)
• 9 consecutive days of 103°+ in Austin
• 11 consecutive days of 100º+ in Austin
• 3rd-hottest summer in Austin history

It looks like we may be in for more heat for at least the next week. Yay for Texas summers that never want to end.

Yes, I know other areas get lots of heat too. Phoenix gets hot as do other southwest areas. But it doesn’t make you feel better when you are living in it. It’s like knowing others are in the same boat, trying to keep from shriveling up in the heat. It doesn’t make the weather any cooler to live with.

KXAN-Austin Forecast

Today is our last day of expected 2 digit weather. HUH you ask. Well for the next week we are expecting 100 or above for temperatures. How’s that for hot. The low’s at night will be in the 70’s, but the days will be hot.

This is the what the weather bureau says we have on tap.

“…Afternoon heat index values will reach 105 to 108 degrees in some areas. possibly 109 or 110 in a few spots….”

One good thing is not high humidity. So at least it will be something passing as bearable. But still not great weather. But it is Texas summertime.

It was nice yesterday. It was cooler, as in we a hit 78, and got about 0.42 inches of rain. That may not seem like much, but at this point every little bit helps. And I’m sure the plants love it. We’ll see what the rest of the week brings.

We still have our cold front. Its been rather nice in many ways. It hasn’t been as hot, though the temperature has been up and down. Yesterday it was warm, but by 11AM the temperature dropped and we got a little rain. Then it promptly proceeded to warm back up and of course get humid. Rain plus warm equals humid!

Today has been a nice day. We had some warmth, blue skies and puffy clouds. Then it clouded over, we dropped about 6 degrees and proceeded to get a short burst of rain. I think it was rain with a hail mix. Some of those drops left a short bit of slush, and of course it was warm enough for the slush to melt rather quickly. But it does seem to be rain. The plants will love it.

Figures, I did water some earlier. So I guess it had to rain.

Wow, we have a cold front!! Its dropped down to high 80’s and possible rain. Yesterday we were just shy of 100 here at the house.  Right now, at almost noon we are only 85. That’s quite a drop in temperature. The forecast says possible rain between now (Wednesday) and Monday but of course that remains to be seen. But at least right now there is some overcast so there is no sun beating down on us. It has been pretty bright the past few days. So this overcast and slightly cooler temperatures are welcome.

As for the garden, I replanted some seed, squash, beans, cucumbers and all the seeds are coming up. I have had some problems with the watering system so I’ve been hand watering. And so far everything seems to be doing better. Hopefully that will last.

4:30 PM update

Yippeeeee!! We hit a high of 94, but have dropped down to 71. Not only that we have had about 0.25 inches of rain so far. Maybe not the best to have light sprinkles for the Fourth of July celebrations, but the garden will love it.  And since the sky is still cloudy with some hopeful rainfall in them, we might get more rain still.

Well, we did get some rain. Not a lot, but enough to make plants happy. We also got it in mainly small bursts over a few days. So it was able to soak into the ground up here. In total we got maybe an inch. I’m sure some areas got more, but here it was all of maybe an inch of rain.

Now we’re back to hot with a bit of humid thrown in for good measure. Its hot enough that we are getting Severe Weather Alerts. To explain what that means, here’s a small portion of what the alert says:

“HEAT INDEX VALUES OF 105 TO 110 DEGREES MOST AREAS THIS AFTERNOON.”

So we’ve gone from wet and warm, with one nice cool day, to hotter and humid with heat indexes in the triple digits.

Yup, we may only get into the mid 90’s but our heat index is even higher. Even the dogs don’t want to be outside.  Right now at 7pm it is just below 90 and heat index is 97.

Welcome to Austin Texas weather!

I’d call it more like a short shower. We got it yesterday, got maybe 1/2 inch of rain. Not much. But the plants do seem happy to get it.

It appears we’ve had some problems with our watering system. The system itself waters fine. The problem is it has a rain sensor. This sensor tells it if we’ve actually gotten rain. If you got over a particular amount, you set the amount, the watering system will not water. That makes sense. If you just got 2 inches of rain over night, you probably don’t need to water the next morning. But our rain sensor says we’ve been getting rain – for the past month. So it hasn’t really been watering at all. Well, we haven’t gotten rain until yesterday. So some of my plants are a bit crispy. My garden looks more like a weed patch.

Yesterday we tried to fix the sensor. When you get the little sensor part wet its supposed to expand and say “Hi, I got wet, it must have rained. Don’t water today.” I don’t know what’s wrong with it but I ordered a new sensor. Hopefully that will help. That poor sensor has been out there for 6 years so maybe it just needs to be replaced. Let’s hope.

Since I did some work outside, I also did some weeding in the garden. Its pretty dry. One hose had a leak near the connector, but since its the hose that waters a garden bed the bed hasn’t gotten much water. Even the weeds came out easily. So I pulled some weeds and put in some more seed. We’ll see how they fair being planted in this heat. If I don’t try, I won’t know.

I wish those seeds luck.

With luck we will begin a cool down, at least a Texas cool down, starting today. Instead of mid to high 90’s we will drop down to mid 80’s. Today we are only supposed to hit a high of 90. By Tuesday we should be down to 83. Not cool by most peoples standards, but for this area that’s something. Our nights will still stay in the low 70’s.

They are also saying we might get rain this weekend, on Sunday (Father’s Day). That will bring us this hopeful cool down.

Now one thing to remember is how central Texas often gets its rain. We can get just a light sprinkle, may not even register as a quarter inch, or we might get a downpour and get 3″ of rain. You never know.

The other fun part of rain in this area, is we are considered the Austin area. So if north Austin gets rain, that counts as rain for the area. But the distance from say Round Rock (north Austin) to Manchaca (south Austin) is about 30 miles. Because of how Austin area is framed, it covers from Williamson (top north area), thru Travis, down to Hays (bottom southwest) counties. Travis county is where most of Austin resides as far as I can tell. But the Austin area covers those three counties. Sometimes they even include Burnet County when talking about the weather.

So saying we (Austin area) may get rain doesn’t mean which area may get rain. I have a friend who works in downtown Austin. There have been times they have gotten downpours, complete with flooding, but where we are (corner of Hays County), we did not get so much as a sprinkle.

Let’s pray for rain in our area. That would be nice.