Nut sedge hasn’t responded (read: “died”) to vinegar treatment. Or boiling water.
Good morning, gardeners!
At the end of March this year, I reluctantly reacquired a business I sold in 2012. That decision has dramatically changed a perfect retirement into a life with no time for gardening or sleep. Rather than bore you with the maddening aspects of rebuilding a business, let’s direct attention to what happens after months of never-ending rain (and neglect) to a beautiful landscape procured by 25 years of hard work. Oh, and um, some info on the solar power system you may have spotted.
OBSERVATIONS
After a long historic period of drought everywhere in Texas and devastating wildfires in parts of the state, Dallas has seen record-breaking rain and flooding for the last 30 months. This year, June/July (actually all this year) — have been another real eyeopener when compared to normal/average rainfall. June recorded 8.4” (normal 3.8”) and July so far has 4.12” (normal 2.0”); more predicted. Raining today (7/23/17). July 2017 is the 3rd wettest in the history of record keeping as of 7/28/17. August is off to a good start with rain predicted for the next 7 days.
Something else is truly unusual. Weeds in general were listed as allergens on our daily forecast for about a month. The weathermen said they’d never seen that before. Well imagine that. With more than the usual amounts of rain for three spring/summer seasons in a row, any gardener would instinctively know it could only result in lots of weeds setting seeds, multiplying like, uh, weeds. In the July 22, 2017 comments on robctwo diary (SMGB Vol 13.29), more than a few people expressed great frustration over the size and types of weeds in their parts of the country. So it’s not just Texas.
Besides flooding and weeds, the rainfall is breeding bumper crops of critters in the yards: fleas, field crickets, mosquitoes, giant water roaches, 17-year cicadas (they’ve recently started singing at dusk), carnivorous snails (yes, carnivorous), opossums, rats and a myriad of green anoles (Anolis carolinensis). Hundreds of tiny baby anoles recently hatched early due to high temperatures. The adult anoles feed on mosquitoes and other insects, so that particular local food chain is working perfectly.
The anoles, roaches, cicadas and crickets (and an occasional rat — I live near a large creek that feeds a nearby lake) provide grand entertainment for the cats who gleefully/proudly bring live ones into the house as toys. Thankfully all the rain should prevent a large infestation of grasshoppers this year. If you’ve ever chased one through your kitchen with the “help” from two cats, you’ll understand my relief!
While I don’t claim to understand all the scientific specifics, I’m sure climate change plays a large part in all this rain, even though our blindly psychotic and science-ignorant national leader thinks it’s a hoax. It is appropriate to reference Al Gore’s new movie: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. I see the movie tonight.
More:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/07/in-1968-utility-companies-learned-about-climate-change-and-did-nothing/
https://climaterealityproject.org/blog/what-does-climate-change-mean-Texas
I’ve read a lot about the global climate effects of:
- Greenhouse gases;
- Particulate matter in the air;
- The calving of enormous ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica; how it relates to
- The deep ocean currents global conveyor belt;
- The loss of fresh water aquifers in India;
- The horrendous earthquake/tsunami in Japan that shifted the earth’s axis by 6.5” eastward.
After coming to the realization that Mother Nature is screaming for help, I felt a deep driving need to reduce my carbon footprint.
I installed 56 solar panels on the roofs 3 years ago after losing all but two of twelve trees on the property. For optimal production, east and south exposures with NO shade are required. Seventeen panels are on the front, east facing roof. The rest are on the side, south facing roof. I have no electric bill and carry a credit every month with the electric provider. It’s the single biggest contribution to reducing my carbon/pesticide footprint next to my hybrid car and all organic gardening. ROI: 8 years.
Here’s a pic of the ‘power plant’ on the back wall of the house showing 2 inverters, one for each roof system. The installation has produced 13,370 kWh this past 12 months, even with all the rain. That’s more than the original energy production estimate. This is one advantage of living in normally very sunny, although HOT, Texas. Still investigating pros/cons of battery storage.
Solar energy is captured by the PV (photovoltaic) panels and fed into the inverter. The inverter converts DC (direct current) energy into AC (alternating current) and distributes it into the house. If the solar energy captured exceeds the amount of energy used, the difference is sold back to the grid. A new HVAC system installed 3 years ago with a SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) rating of 17 accounts for greater efficiency of the condenser/compressor. Humongous amounts of energy are required for central air conditioning to counteract the relentless summer heat. In combination, the solar power and new HVAC have completely offset my yearly electricity consumption.
Here’s a tour of the back yard before the lawn guys spent a week weeding/mulching the biggest beds. ”After” pics will follow, eventually, in another diary.
Before the new fence build last November, all the vegetation along the fence lines had to be removed. Unfortunately, that included the potting bench attached to the old fence on south side. (Now no place to work). The long established crossvine has a trunk like a tree that couldn’t be moved. The vine was severely cut back and laid on the ground anticipating it would be a short time before it could be retrained along the fence. Pretty obvious it still needs to be done. It took 5 months to get the builder to come back to apply a protective clear coat to the cedar pickets since clear coat won’t take to wet wood.
A 24” thick crossvine carpet is currently climbing its way up the south brick wall of the house, heading east on the ground and merrily winding its way north across the path into the Naked Lady Lily bed (Belladonna amaryllis - flowers in August). It’s in full bloom, even the vines in the shade from the eaves on the exterior wall. Anticipated hummingbird migration begins in August. Crossvine, flame acanthus and turks cap are the hummers’ favorite nectar. Much work to be done. I don’t have a trellis large or sturdy enough to handle the entire vine, so it has to go directly on the fence.
Estreya posits that all the overgrowth is a haven for nesting and foraging. Undoubtedly true. However, it’s going to be a pain in the posterior to rectify, not to mention dealing with all the critters that’ll get flushed out. High probability of discovering rat snakes. Eesh! Gardeners, how would you tackle this job?
The turks cap (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii — Texas native) was cut down to the ground in November. The patch was started with 3 small plants in 2004. Now 4-5’ tall (north facing), 9’ wide and blooming like crazy. Still no hummingbirds or monarchs.
The volume of rain caused 90% of my prized peonies to turn blotchy, yellow and die because of botrytis blight. But the grass and the cannas sure love it as do the American elm trees growing in my rose arbor. All the potted deck plants are now weeds along with the tomatoes that never got planted. Had to hack my way through 4-½ feet of totally overgrown flame acanthus (hummingbird bush) to the alley gate access to the garbage/recycling bins. The night blooming cereus has already bloomed — most unusual. Praying for a second bloom in late August.
Chemicals may be required to get rid of the nut sedge in front since deep weeding and the vinegar and boiling water treatments never made a dent. Believe it or not, there is a sweet olive tree at the front corner of the house currently covered by turks cap and lorapetalum.
Now that it’s 100+ degrees every day, any desire to expend effort outside with the hedge trimmer and a sharpshooter shovel to correct all the overgrowth is nil along with any extra time. At least my lawn guys show up every week to mow. And, hooray! they’ve weeded and mulched the beds.
Truest of true garden saying: Garden of Weedin’