This Crazy Weather!!

The weather has been so brutal recently. I'm not complaining...yet. 30 or so miles from here, people have been evactuated from their homes and are sleeping in shelters due to the flooding. At least I'm still in my home...for now. I'm wondering if I should get sandbags or something. We're getting more rain dumped on us today (2 inches they say) and another 2 inches tomorrow and still more on Tues!

There's a ditch that runs behind my property, just 8 ft from my house. It is overflowing. My house sits flat on the ground, right on the ditchbank. I've built the bank up as much as I can to contain the flow. The city is not good about keeping it cleaned out. If a beaver dams it up somewhere, I get flooded. It's a big ditch that catches all the runoff on the highway. Today I'm a bit concerned.

Here are pictures of what it looks like around here--not as bad as what you see on the news in the Black River area, but scary to me since it's getting so close to my house.

This is the river that is running thru my side yard. See the bridge? There's a pond around the bridge. And you can't tell the difference between my pond and my gardens. It's all under water now.

Here's the higher end of the same side yard. I've lost several daylilies and irises this year due to our wet winter and this wet spring. I've only been able to garden 3 days this whole spring! And I did that in the mud. I was out this morning while it was sprinkling digging up plants for a trade.

This is my mother's home, two doors down. The ditch has overflowed its banks there and has flooded her backyard.

It's too bad we don't have some kind of pump system that could redirect some of this rain to GA and TX who'd love to have a bit.

I waited so long for winter to pass so it would be warm enough to play in the dirt and it may be 100 degrees before we have any DIRT. I sure wish I had a rain barrel system in place already to catch a lot of this to water my plants with during the summer. What a waste!

How are y'all holding up? Are you flooded too? If any of you need to flee to higher ground, come on over. I've got room for your pets too...as long as my house doesn't take on water.

This message was edited May 1, 2011 12:59 PM

How awful! It's just so hard to imagine. I feel sorry for you and your mom as well as the poor plants that do need some major relief.

You'll be in my thoughts, BC, and in my prayers.

Thanks, Arlene. Hopefully it won't get too bad before it's over. The weatherman said two more days of rain, and then we get 4 days of sunshine!!

The rain has stopped or slowed down temporarily and a lot of the water has receded. WHEW! That was close!

This is my mom's backyard now, after the water has receded. The ditch is there to the right; you can barely see it now due to the vegetation. In the earlier picture, it was a river.

This is my side yard now that the water has receded. It's expected to flood again tomorrow with another one or two inches of rain. I've been quite lucky so far. Although tornadoes have swirled within a couple of miles from me, I don't have any damage from them. And so far I don't have serious flood damage either. So I'm counting my blessings.

I hope the weatherman is wrong and you start with sunshine tomorrow - no more rain.

Hi BC: We're in the "same boat" as you. We live close to Cape Girardeau. We've had rain for "40 days and 40 nights"! It's raining right now. Poor Poplar Bluff--it's really been hammered. I haven't been able to get into my gardens much either. It's either in between rains or I am out while it's lightly sprinkling. We live on the side of a hill and have a small creek going through the very bottom of our backyard forest. So, most of the rain goes on down the hill, but we're having some erosion problems.
I have sooo many flowers setting on the driveway near my house that needs to be planted. We had strong winds and hail recently and Lowe's had many plants that blew across their parking lot. I stopped by the second day after that happened and made out like a champ on perennials---50 cents for quarts! Now, I just need a chance to get them planted before it gets so hot they won't get established.
Are you near Jonesboro? My nephew lived in a small town near the White River-I think that is what is was called.

Hi Birder, I guess we need to start building an ark, don't we? I've got my two dogs ready to load on it. LOL

That's a great deal with those Lowe's plants! What all did you get?

I wonder if you could put in a "dry creek" where it's eroding, and when it rains, you have a real creek. The rest of the time, you can have the dry creek, planted with grasses, Louisiana irises and others on the edge to make it look like nature carved it to be a creek. We built a house for a doctor and he built a dry creekbed in his sloping backyard for erosion control. It was beautiful!

I live in Jonesboro. I'm about an hour from the White River, I think. My brother goes canoeing there on the weekends. Right now the Black River, 30 miles or so from here, has flooded several towns and forced evacuations and road closures. So I'm very fortunate.

It rained all day here today. I got so bored that I called the program I volunteer with and asked if I they could find some work for me to do today. Of course I knew the answer--they were thrilled to have me help out. I get so bored if I can't garden. It was either do volunteer work or clean my house. You see which I chose. :-)

Nancy Ann, I am so sorry you are having to deal with all this. I have worked several days already in the yard and know how much it has helped me. I know you need to be out there playing in the dirt, it is just in our blood I guess.
I planted a lot of annuals today I got on the trip we made shopping this week end.

I planted them under the Japanese maple that was given to me when I lost my Mamma last fall.

Oh Sandra, that looks so pretty!! And I love that Jap maple! Your mom would too.

If we dont' get some dry weather soon, I may just head to Ripley and play in the dirt with you. It's just so boring if I can't play in the dirt. :-(

Come on over, there is still plenty of work that needs to be done around here. I will provide you with lots of dirty things to do--LOL--
You probably have not got to set out your things you bought on your Memphis trip yet have you?

No, I still have them sitting around waiting for dry weather. I've gotten a few of them planted, but not many.

And Sat I went to a Master Gardener plant sale and bought another 35 plants I just had to have. I took my double decker plant trolley and loaded it up twice. Everyone at the sale loved it. People were taking pictures and studying it to see how it's made--on an old lawnmower base. Get Jerry to make you one. It's so convenient! I'd make mine taller because I use the top shelf for writing on my garden designs and it's a little low and causes back strain. Have him make you one where you won't have to bend over the top shelf. I drag mine all around the garden with plants and tools and I can even put my laptop on the top shelf if I need to use it in the garden.

I still want to go back to Memphis to get some more plants to complete my gardens, but I'll wait til I get these planted so I'll know exactly what I need. I need to give them time to restock after y'all went there and bought them out. LOL

You know, Sandra, the dirtier I get, the happier I am. :-)

That is pretty neat. I don't usually have to haul lots of plants anymore though. I am trying to move into maintenance mode this year, and just add annuals each year. I pulled up so many oregano plants today they had spread way too much. I did buy some hydrangeas that I have to make a place to and some loosestrife, in a new color

Sandra, I love that loosestrife!! What's its name? Did you get it at Randolph's? It's so pretty! I don't usually like loosestrife but I'd grow that one.

I left all the tags outside, it is burgundy something-no it came from Homestead. I saw some on someone's wagon and was going to look for it when Kathy Ann called me and told me she found it, she brought it back to the front for me. You know how huge Homestead is.
I feel for it too, it looks so different is why I wanted it.

Well, darn! I didn't make it to Homestead when I went to Memphis. I was so tired when I finished Dabney's that I just came home. Can you imagine ME skipping a nursery?? Geez, I must be getting old!

I am planning a nursery run to Cave City maybe tomorrow. I can't seem to find any butterfly bushes anywhere, and this nursery posted on Craigslist that they have bfly bushes, roses, corkscrew willows, red twig dogwoods, etc., all for $5 a gal., and a whole lot more. So I'll run over there (about 1.5 hrs from here) and see what I can grab. I'm really trying to fill up my gardens and "finish" them this year so I can get to the maintenance and enjoyment stage.

I really have to have some dry weather so I can work out there. In Mid June, I'm having a little garden party and everything is such a wreck right now.

Sandra--love the Loosestrife-please tell us the name.
Nance Ann: I bought Alyssym saxatile (Basket of Gold), Saxifraga Rosa Neon Tourn (rockcress) and Iberis Sempervirens (Candytuft) all for 50 ea. I also purchased a Hucherella (gal.), Penstemon Husker Red (1.00), and some annuals African Daisy (quart), geraniums .50, -- that's all I can think of. I "shouldn't" go back. I have so many plants sitting on my driveway now. I bought a bunch before the storm at various places. I keep telling myself to stay away from the places that have plants. If I am at WM, I end up in the garden dept.! If I am in the garden area, I end up finding something I "think" I need. I'm like Sandra--my gardens are pretty full. I have to move stuff and pull stuff up to make room.
If I go to Lowe's, I always go to the clearance rack first. They have some really good bargains.
Today, we have SunShine!! I told my husb. "Look at this ray of light coming through our bedroom window. That's called Sunshine!" It's been a long time coming. I am going out and mess in the mud and make a mess!
My Bluebird babies fledged in all this rainy weather. Everything looks so pristine outside today.

Birder, you got some good deals! My gardens used to be full too...so I took over some more of my brother's land next door....and then some more...and then some more. He has about half a lot left and I'm eyeing it! LOL My entire yard is a garden now with none of that stinking, lazy grass people are so fond of. LOL Since I've expanded my gardens so much, I still have holes to fill.

But even if my gardens were crammed full, I'd still be pushing you and Sandra out of the way to grab that next exotic plant. Sandra knows what I'm talking about. She has seen me in action! Below is a picture of what the flooded garden above looked like around June of last year.

I don't know if I'll get to go to Cave City. Several miles of hwy I need to travel to get there is closed due to flooding. Mabe by the end of the week, it will be open again. We have sunshine today too and for the rest of the week I think. It's too wet and soggy to do much outside. But I bought some wicker rockers I need to paint, so I'll work on those today and see if I can hang up some of the windchimes and other garden decor I've gotten over the last several months.

Oh boy, I went out to check on things and get that plant tag, every hosta I planted yesterday has been dug up-I potted some coleus plugs, they were turned over and scratched out==can you spell ARMADILLO ????

This is the tag on the loosestrife
Lysimachia "Beaujolais"

I didn't get it planted yet as it is needs sun, and that is what I have filled to the brim is my sun areas. I will have to hunt it a nice home.

Um, Sandra, oh Sandra dear, I know where there's a nice sunny home for Beaujolais. I've found the perfect home for it!! Out here in my butterfly garden. You can thank me now! :-)

I'm sorry that Armadillo dug up your plants. Can you trap him? Oh, and see, there's another reason to find Beaujolais a home in my butterfly garden--no pesky armadillos to uproot it! LOL

Too late, I dug into the mud in the daylily bed and planted them--lol--I hope he does not dig them back up. I replanted all the hosta and then put the worst smelling fire ant killer out on the bed, hopefully that will keep him from digging there. We don't have a trap, but I fought this same battle last year in that bed. I reset hostas every morning, I had 5 and only 2 of them survived, so I am trying to stink it out this time !!! I read they have a high sense of smell. I bought Ortho fire ant killer this year after reading some very good comments on it on the internet. I made the mistake of opening it in the house, I though we were going to have to move-it is so stinky. It has worked well with killing the ants too.

I hope it works for you, Sandra. How frustrating it is to keep replanting stuff! And then losing some plants too because of a mischievous rascal is just no fun.

As far as traps, you might be able to borrow one from animal control. We had trouble with possums and my brother borrowed a cage-like trap so the could be caught and relocated.

BC: Love your garden of daylilies etc. I wish my garden looked like that! Most of my gardens are borders around the yard, around the house . I have a berm that goes across the front yard. It's probably my favorite landscape area. I would like to turn more of my yard into garden instead of grass, but I am afraid I would not be able to keep them weeded and also afraid the gardens would just slide down the hill.
We did put in a pretty good sized drainage area with rocks and a big pipe that goes underground on one side of the house. We really need to do something on the other side of the house.
I need to plant some plants that would hold the soil-but then, it seems if you plant something that holds the soil-it becomes aggressive and grows into your flower beds too much.
We've had over 20" of rain so I am really into stopping erosion right now. Usually, we don't have too much of a problem.
We planted a bunch of Ninebarks, Sambucus (Elderberry) and Rough Leaf Dogwood from the Mo. Conservation Dept. 25 each. Last year we ordered Witch Hazels and Cornus florida (Dogwoods).
No rain today! Yeah!

Thank you, Birder. My gardens started out like yours, just borders around the house. But I couldn't keep the bermuda out, so I kept ripping out more grass and expanding my beds until flowers covered my whole yard. Weeding is a pain right now, but as I cram in more plants, there are few weeds to deal with.

I also mulch heavily--getting free mulch from a neighbor who is a tree trimmer. He saves himself about $50 a truckload by dumping his ground up tree trimmings in my yard instead of the city landfill. And I get it all for free. So I never have to buy mulch.

Most plants will hold the soil if they root deeply. Daylilies are wonderful for soil erosion and there are so many different ones these days. Ornamental grasses, sedums, roses, and so much more, all mixed in together, would stop erosion.

That drainage area you have with the rocks would look pretty outlined with some Louisiana irises, Jap irises, orn grasses, daylilies, etc t give it a dry creekbed look instead of a drainage area. You could also put some of the low growing creeping sedums or some creeping jenny out there. Both of those would creep out among the rocks and could create a pretty carpet over the rocks.

Isn't it great that it stopped raining? I sure am enjoying playing in the...mud.

BC--love your suggestion about the drainage ditch. I am going to do that. I have some Siberian Iris, Tall Bearded Iris, Dutch Iris and a few La. Iris. Do you think those would work instead of the Japanese Iris? Also, I have the La. Iris right below our bird bath where a dripper is on most of the summer. I did not think the La. Iris would make it unless they are constantly moist?? This drainage area gets really dry in the summer.
What kind of grass did you mention? I can't think of which grass you are talking about.
The only ground covers I have is thyme and ajuga. I will check into the two plants you mentioned. Such neat ideas!!
Mulch! Yes, one has to Mulch! What a set up you have. My brother purchased 500 dollars worth of mulch last year. I find the mulch I buy always has so much weed seeds in the mulch-nut sedge especially. I did not put much mulch down last year. I have a LOT of volunteer flowers coming up but you also get the weeds. Seeing the volunteer flowers is an exciting bonus.
I have lots of daylilies. We planted a lot of them to go around the edge of our "cultivated" backyard. The rest drops down into a great wild life forest. However, we have to spray for poison ivy and Jap. Honeysuckle several times a season. The birds love both of them and spread them all over the place which is one more example in life you can't have it all! :)
I am not sure how to "lay out" the daylilies in other areas of my yard to stop the erosion--like in my front yard. Right now, they are just in one of my gardens doing nothing but looking good. I know one can use them for erosion control, but I haven't quite figured out how to do the landscaping. As you can see, I am not good at that part of gardening!
I have spent a lot of time on the computer today. I have been trying to organize and send off trades I have made. The sun is shining, the temps are in the upper 60's, and the out doors is calling my name! I have so many plants I bought that need to be panted. We are to get more rain Saturday. :( But, it's not to be a big amount.
Thanks for your good ideas!

I wouldn't put the bearded irises there since they don't like a lot of water. They also root shallowly and sit on top of the ground instead of in it. So they might actually slide down the hill. But the others should do fine in that drainage area.

Altho the LA irises love water, they thrive in drought too. Mine go nuts no matter where I put them. I don't water, so if Mother Nature doesn't do it, and she didn't last summer, they don't get it. They are so easy and versatile.

Any of the ornamental grasses, short and tall, would be great. Zebra grass comes in a very tall variety as well as a dwarf variety. The carexes and Forrester grasses are shorter and have a weeping look to them. Lowe's usually carries several different kinds so just pick out some you like. This year they have whitish carex or liriope, can't remember the name, Silver Sedge or something like that. I really like it and it stays around a foot tall. You could also go with a golden striped acorus. It's a pond grass but also thrives in drought.

Asplundh and any tree trimmers in your area might be happy to bring you big commercial truckloads of mulch. You save them the landfill dumping fee. And you may save them time and gas too if they're working out your way. When they fill the truck, they might prefer going down the road to your place insteadof driving across town to the landfill. Call around. Most are happy to do it if you're not too far out of their way. And remember, they tend to work a wide region, so it's possible that they may be in your area at some point and could save you hundreds of dollars. Be sure to tell them what you want it for and express that you want good, clean, finely chipped stuff so their blades need to be sharp. If their blades are dull, it will be long strings of stuff that you can't even pitchfork. Asplundh brought me a load like that and it was just a tangled, useless heap that I set fire to. That's the only load I've gotten like that though.

I'm not so good at garden design myself. I just put stuff where I thin I like it. Sometimes it looks good there and sometimes I dig it up later and try it somewhere else. That's the great part about gardening; you can easily fix most of your mistakes. For erosion control, just spot some daylilies here and there and then fill in with irises, sedums, etc to give it a cottage garden. Over time, as everything fills in, it will just look like a natural cottage landscape--like you were a genius and had it planned all along. :-)

Below is a picture of an area around my pond. It's planted with Jap Irises, LA Irises, ornamental grasses, cannas, amsonia, callas, hibiscus, etc. Nothing was really planned. I had plants I needed to use so I stuck them here and there. On the left, just past the bridge (excuse its demise; repairing it is a future project), is the dwarf zebra grass I mentioned. It's one of my favorite grasses. On the right, you can see some "soft rush" mixed in with some irises. The rush is the spikey grass with the rusty brown "fuzzies" at the top of the stems. You can often find clumps of it along ditches, which is where I dug this one up. You can see I just have a conglomerate of assorted plants. After it all filled in, it looked pretty nice. But in the beginning, before everything grew, it didn't look quite right. So remember to give the plants a year or two to fill out before you decide if you like it.

If you need more plants or ideas, come and see me in Jonesboro. I think I'm about a 3 hr drive from you.

NancyAnn

OMGosh! That is so pretty! I had some miscanthus grass at one time, but it got 10 feet tall, started blocking our vision from the road and was spreading beyond what we had planned. We had to put a rope around the root ball and pull it out with the pick up!! We put it in our forest and the stuff is going strong. I like it there!
I also had/have some liriope. It is sooooo agressive. Sends out runners. If you don't get all of the white crispy root, you get more plants. I have been fighting it for 15 years. I just dug it out again yesterday. I hope I got all of the roots. It's tangled in some Kwanzan Cherry tree roots. However, those little experiences have made us a little shy of grasses even though we really like them.

I am going to have to "study" all those neat plants in your picture. Thanks for sharing it.

I am going to try to take a picture of my drainage area tomorrow and show it to you.
I bought some sedum today on the clearance rack at Lowe's to put around the edges as you suggested.
So, what about the Siberian Iris and the Dutch Iris?. I have those but not the Jap. Iris. If those don't work, I will start shopping around for some J. Iris.

You have me all motivated to fix up my drainage hole! It's been kind of an eye sore.

Any of the irises will work except the bearded irises. They're the only ones who don't like a lot of water. The other irises will do fine there. They'll love when they get flooded.

Oh, that common green liriope (monkey grass) is such a nuisance! Try the variegated form. It's not as invasive. It's slow moving and it's prettier. But with all grasses, or any plant, you do have to divide it once in a while.

The dwarf zebra clumps well and you can easily divide the clump whenever it outgrows wherever you have it. The tall zebra grass is TOUGH! It will continue to form a bigger and bigger clump. And when you get ready to divide it, you'll have to hook it up to your truck too. And then you'll need a saw to saw thru the roots. I know this because that's how I divided a large clump. But I ended up with about 10 divisions which I planted along my driveway. Visitors ooh and aahh over it. It gets really tall with those horizontal stripes and everyone loves it. I thought I had a picture of it along the driveway, but I can't find it. I can take one tomorrow...if I remember. It's not quite as striped right now as it gets. It starts out all green and then acquires the stripe, like a dalmation acquires its spots. LOL

Most of the newer grasses are not as invasive as the monkey grass. And variegated grasses are usually slower to grow. I love the carexes. They're shorter grasses and you can find so many different ones these days.

You could also put some cannas, coneflowers, just about anything you'd create a cottage garden with along your drainage spot. You might even build a little decorative bridge to go over it for a touch a whimsy. Get a cute little troll to guard the bridge. Here are my trolls, guarding the bridge. By the way, the bridge was a kit I bought at Big Lots for $60. If you get one, varnish it well so it will hold up better than mine did. I need to repaint it and repair it. My new dog Nikko enjoyed stealing the finials off it, so now all those little black balls on top of the posts are gone. LOL

Nancy Ann, I planted four varigated sedum around my "rain garden". Actually it's just a drainage area, but I think I am going to call it my rain garden--it sounds better! :) I am going to move some of my Dutch Iris over there this fall.
It's gotten really hot here and so windy and humid today. Usually, if it's windy, it's not humid.

Hi, storm survivors - we went through it, too, here in Middle Tennessee. Kentucky Lake rose to record heights and here at the house a huge maple came down. We were marooned for a week and could only get in or out by boat.

But of course we were far luckier than a lot of people. We are still cleaning up brush but the only plant that actually died, that I have found yet, anyway, was a new oakleaf hydrangea. I knew it was getting too wet and kept trying to channel out the water. It did better for a while, but the third night of the second wave of storms, the poor thing just gave up.

I have to admit I am now afraid of the weather. Anybody else suffering from Post-storm stress disorder?

I think we all have a "healthy" fear of the weather. We should have too as much destruction as we have seen this year.
We are now looking at a dry spell here, guess we will have to start watering soon with no rain and near 100 temps

Good morning everyone!!! Yall have been in our hearts and our prayers throughout the weather ordeals you have each had to face!!! The city of BR was spared from the major flooding due to the Corp of Engineers opening the spillways up but the river is higher than ever right now but going down. While that major weather event is taking place we are in a drought!!!! Yes, hard to believe, the city of BR is in a drought while being flooded. We received less than 1/2 " rain for the entire month of May. Today our 5th season begins here is south Louisiana...HURRICANE SEASON!!!! They are saying it will be a bad one!!! I pray it misses all of us!!!

Amazing to hear about the drought. Today was the first day I've had to water here (about a month after the flood, and two weeks after the series of storms).

When exactly is your hurricane season? I will be pulling for ya!

While the hurricane season usually does not affect my area, other than sometimes we get rain from them, it runs until the first of Nov I believe, Jeri will be back soon to tell us for sure, I am having to water my tomatoes, I am not going to start with the flower beds as it is way too early to be this hot. It only takes a couple of days of 90+ to dry us out here.

Rebecca that would be greatly appreciated!!! Our hurricane season is from June 1st to Nov. 30th. Way too long!!! We're 99 today and 100 tomorrow.

We are having that heat too Jeri--I hope the hurricane season does not match up with tornado season! I talked to Em a few minutes yesterday and she is hot there too

She is hotter than we are and all that concrete makes it hotter than that!!!

Jeri we hit 99 today too with the index at 105. It felt like it too. I went out at six but the humidity was so high my clothes were soaked and could have been wrung out. We are in a drought phase right now. I am watering grass and beds. The wind dried up the few rains we have had pretty quickly.
On a good note even though the water got very close we did not get water inside the camp. 3 inches from going in. It's going to be a long time going down and some major cleanup before things are normal again.

What a mess, Cindy! I'm not going to complain about how hot it is here or how much rain we got. My yard didn't look that bad, and it's been in the 90's here but not up to 99 yet. To think I was working in an office today and complaining that it was 76 degrees.

I hope y'all are all safe from the hurricanes!