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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Drought continued...

Click map for drought details.

I had hopes that we'd get a bit more rain than last year. But...
If it's more, it isn't much more, and droughts year after year aren't good for the plants, water table, or much of anything else.

The sweet corn is doing poorly in spite of efforts to water.

I've been looking at a coupla sites offering seed from the desert...
High country gardens and Native seed search
They talk about their seeds growing in arid alkaline soil... I have the arid soil...

It seems like landrace seeds from the desert should do better in the sand hills than the seeds that I've been planting...


The squash has done well.



Vitex bloom and sand wasp


Popcorn tree and sand wasp.

Neither of these are getting a drop of extra water...
As pretty as the popcorn tree is, it's considered an invasive exotic.
It's also supposed to be a potential source of petrol.

I have house wrens...
in the house...


Mother house wren is pretty funny, hopping around on the floor back and forth, when I'm in the same room as the nest.

The zebra and spicebush swallowtails have been spending a lot of time in the garden.





I have a lot of sassafras trees, and so have plenty of the black swallowtails (as a result), but I'm not sure where the zebras are coming from...

 

4 Comments:

Blogger Lisa said...

I hope you guys get some rain soon! It is starting to look too much like Texas.

May 28, 2012 at 10:40 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

I've been thinking of you. I hope you had a good rain this past weekend!

May 31, 2012 at 10:31 PM  
Blogger Gardens-In-The-Sand said...

Thanks Lisa...
Got about a quarter inch...

Not going to complain... anything is better than nothing... but the Rain Gods are stingy... The area is a bit of a rain shadow, where the moisture is sucked north by the Appalachians, much the same as a chimney works.

So... Xeriscape gardening and teaching the plants to get by on less becomes an ever more practical solution. I tried watering my tomatoes last year, and never got any.... Here's hoping for better luck this season... I'm making more of an effort to apply compost and wood chips this year.

June 1, 2012 at 9:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love those images. The butterflies are beautiful and the wrens are very cool with where they decide to set up housing. Who knew, "in the house".

June 2, 2012 at 11:25 AM  

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