A lot of us have had to refurbish the gardens after February’s freeze, including me, and today’s cover pic is a shot of my newly planted fauna along with a surviving Mediterranean Palm. Of course, we went from the cold to a dry March/April and now to a very wet May to today! The Houston NWS put out this 7 Days of Rain graphic below--check out the purple 10-15″ in Matagorda and Jackson counties.
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I did a little data dive and added up our May to yesterday rainfall, which came in anywhere from 16″ to almost 3 FEET!
Bush/IAH 21.48″
Wharton 15.92″
Angleton 19.96″
Palacios 34.64″
And, as you know, we’ve had another round of 1-3″ again today.
So while there is an upside to rain-cooled temperatures (we’ve hit 99 just once back in June), we are mostly sick of the rain around here. Unless you’re a plant:
That’s my new olive tree, which replaced my dead lemon tree, and newly planted ground cover. According to my landscaping friend, Erik Ruediger of Scape HTX (@scapehtx), the plants love the cooler temperatures just like we do--they can focus on root growth and production while not worrying about wilting leaves and getting thirsty!
In addition, any wilting grass like our common St. Augustine bounces back quickly with the rain. Just make sure you have adequate drainage as nobody like brown patch. Speaking of the negatives to all this rain, Erik mentioned root rot, less pollination from our favorite bees and butterflies, and a higher chance for fungus outbreaks.
So What To Do?
Erik says try and clear drains and channels to reduce the water buildup but refrain from removing plants or mulch. If you see a white build up, use an herbicide/fungicide to get rid of it.
Also, consider planting native plants popular with the pollinators! Lantana, salvia, hummingbird bush, butterfly bush and Mexican milkweed are all favorites to get those bees and butterflies back to the yard. And you’ll be happy in future seasons that you did!
Finally, it’s the weekend and we deserve a drier one! At least we are going into one with lower water bills!
Frank