On the Morning After in the Rain Garden

Rain Gauge Report: .58 inches!

My rain gauge reported that we had a little over a half inch of rain yesterday. I've always been a weather watcher, but ever since I've been a Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network reporter I've been even more nutty about the power of rain.I know that anytime we get a half inch of rain it's just wonderful.

My easement rain garden

We could still use a lot more, though. I planted in my rain garden yesterday and the soil was dry and hard in many spots that you might think would be more moist from the recent rains. Apparently, it takes awhile to recover from a drought, and we haven't recovered from last year just yet.

Because it had rained and I planted in the rain garden yesterday, I walked down to the easement to check it out and take some photos first thing this morning. It hadn't rained hard enough to challenge the dam I'd reconstructed. It blew out after a particularly hard rain about a month ago, the one that brought deadly tornadoes to the area, passing within a mile of my daughter's home in Gloucester. This is the most rain we've had since then. Everything looked good. The first retention pond held all of the runoff that came to it from Oxford Road and Druid Court. It didn't look as though the second pond had held any water or that the dam had played any stormwater retention role.

Butterfly Weed

Can you see the Bald Cypress tree right in the center of the easement rain garden photo, above? I may not live long enough to see it develop those classic knees, but I couldn't resist trying to raise it. I also planted Lizard's Tail, Horsetail, Switch Grass, Blue Iris, and a Carolina Laurel Cherry in the rain garden and surrounding area.

I couldn't help but take lots of photos on this wet morning. Everything looks better in the garden when it's basking in raindrops.