I'm really happy for everyone getting some much needed and deserved drought relief but I do worry about the flooding and mudslides. I saw some terrible flooding photos on the weather channel this morning. Please be safe everyone!

Here in Silicon Valley we've had three and two-thirds inches of rain over the past week, with light showers expected to continue off and on over the next couple of days. NOAA predicts we'll get somewhere between a few hundredths of an inch up to maybe a quarter inch or more. Bring it on! We have not had this much rain in a week in years. I do know that too much rain in too short a time can be dangerous, but I don't think anyone is anywhere near that point yet. We're not expecting a rainy year, just an average year. After three years of solid drought resulting in empty lakes, streams, and reservoirs, average is looking pretty good to me.

Rosefolly

We got 2.5" here. Everything is so clean!

With the rain having had a chance to soak in a bit and having today off, it was rose moving day.

I got the 4 HTs moved to where mom can pick long stemmed big roses to take inside (St Patrick, Queen Elizabeth, JC's Rose and Perfume Delight)

And 4 of the no name cuttings from Kim planted ( Pink edged singles to peak out of the picket fence)

And two of the standards dug up and ready to go to a friends garden

And my two Gruss an Aachens planted.

Don't get too impressed, a lot of this was digging out one rose and moving it and then re-doing the hole for a new rose. And I have to go back and reconnect all the drip system parts.

And 4 new baby teas planted.

I was saddened to see that the rain only made it down a few inches in the soil, guess that shows just how dry it really is. More rain is in the forecast so hopefully it sinks even lower

Forecast revised here as well, so it looks as though more rain is on the way. I'm happy. I did not get everything planted before the rain came, but I got most of it done. A couple of baby oaks will spend the winter in pots, as will a couple of roses. Everything else is in the ground where it can grow permanently, and just in time!

Lots and lots of weeds are now sprouting. I'm sure I'll grumble about it in time, but just now I don't really care.

Rosefolly

We got between 2 and 3 inches! Last year there wasn't anything like this, just a very dry fall and winter. Everything looks fresh and clean and smells wonderful.

Monday I got a few native plants in, the stunning Trichostema 'Midnight Magic' and the groundcover Phyla nodiflora.

Melissa

Here is a link that might be useful: Trichostema 'Midnight Magic'

Isn't rain lovely! We're getting some here, at the beginning of summer and my tanks are full. That should see me through the usual dry and hot January and February. My resident engineer tells me that 2.5 inches falling on a 3000 square foot house translates to 4670 gallons in the tanks, amazing!
Sue

Very happy for all of you in SoCal! Enjoy the rain!! :-) Hope to see more beautiful roses from SoCal! Lovely pictures Kim!
Can we see some happy gardening photos? Dancing in the garden? Dancing in the rain?? :-)

No dancing, but here are two from the first day of rain. This is Carding Mill:

And here is Alnwick:

A bucket that was empty before this series of storms now has 4 1/2", including the tenth or so that fell this morning. During a period of sun later this morning I found a bloom on "San Leandro Dark Red Hybrid Tea" with dew-drops. Everything looks so fresh now, even though it's late fall.

Beautiful indeed! Raindrops on roses.......sound of the music! :-)

It didn't rain yesterday for the first time after 8 days of rain. In that 8 days, we got 7.5 inches of rain. More supposed to come in tonight, and then a "strong storm" in three days. Hee, hee, hee! This is the normal sort of winter we have here, but we haven't seen it for over 4 years. Two of our 6 local reservoirs are spilling - love that word!

Jackie

Call me jealous, because that's what I am. I'm happy with the 1.7 inches we had, or at least I was until I read your post, Jackie. Don't get me wrong, I'm over the moon with your rain and reservoirs spilling over (who'd have thunk a month ago?) but I wouldn't mind more down here and the forecast isn't very encouraging. Well, winter isn't over yet, and whatever you get there will benefit us too. Hoping for a better Sierra snow pack too.

Ingrid

Here in northern California we are expecting a "pineapple express" this Thursday, a storm of tropical rain. Most areas will get 2-4 inches, some even more, in a short period of time, and with high winds. Tom has cranked down all the antennas (he is a radio ham). High winds mean we may lose our power, and with it our water since we pump city water up the hill to our tank. It's certainly not the best way to get rain, and I hope there are no slides for anyone. Still, it is water badly needed. Lots of snow expected as well for the Sierra Nevada, our natural reservoir.

Lots of robust weeds popping up in the garden, and I've been pulling every day without keeping up. I need to start the pruning as soon as I can. We've been busy recently, but I'll get to it soon.

Rosefolly

I am excited for you, it is funny down here the weather reports call it a "real winter storm". We are forecast for 2-3" starting Thursday

I am looking forward to it

We seem to be at the tail end of all this largesse, with about one half inch expected. Since the ground hasn't dried out completely from the last rain, even this will have a positive effect, but at least where I live so far we've been the stepchildren in the rain distribution system. More over here, please.

Ingrid

Hope everyone in NorCal is doing okay and not flooding

I'm sure hoping thee weatherman is exaggerating. He's saying 8" of rain in No. Cal. Stay safe.

Well, I hope you are all alright over there...as I've just seen some photos of the flooding in Sonoma, Berkeley and Windsor amongst others, and moving south apparently.... snow too up in the north I think...

I doubt Ingrid will be telling us her garden is now a swamp, but I hope the rain is welcome for you...

It was a good steady rain last night. I dug out at least six roses Thursday and now they are in fifteen gallon cans. Nantucket from Palatine has been outstanding here. Blooming all season in a beautiful range of colors. Ascot was disappointing only giving two small poorly formed flowers all season. Hoovb is right. Not the rose for our climate. Still, it will stay one more year to give it a chance. It's a healthy plant but without flowers why have a big bush like that?

Now I'm starting my year end pruning. Working in the cool moist air is refreshing. I love pansy weather!

How did everyone do overnight?

The wind whipped they rain and tree debris around here. I heard a banana tree fell on a rose bed but have not run up to see how it looks yet. We lost power for about an hour at the height of the storm. Our rainfall total was 2.5". We are already over what we got all last year for rain.

I think I will put up an ad for a free place to dump wood chips because the tree guys will be busy today.

One of the dead snags on the hill behind us fell last night.

Hope those north of us have power back

We had high winds Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Huge palm fronds (22 by actual count) from our neighbor's palm tree have wrecked havoc in my garden. Wollerton old Hall has suffered the most. Flower beds are squished. There's damage to our arbor, luckily just to decorative cross-pieces; nothing structural.

We had just under 2 inches of rain. This is nothing compared to what other areas received, but we had a few streets in town which flooded and had to be closed. The problem was that half an inch came down in less than 15 minutes when the front passed overhead. We had to contend with pooling around our back door when a downspout couldn't handle the copious amounts of water draining through it. And, we have found out that we have some serious grade issues in parts of the yard that we are going to have to get corrected at some point.

Hope other folks have fared better!

Jo

Three inches of rain here yesterday, which puts us at more than 200% of the average for this time of year. After the 4" last week, the ground is now saturated, creating some minor flooding in one corner of the backyard when the drain there became overwhelmed (I set up some hose siphons to help it out -- we are on a slope, so water eventually will drain; the question is how fast). Glad to think of the alkali salts finally getting a flushing.

It really did rain 8" in Guerneville on the Russian River yesterday -- amazing. It's a rainy area but not usually THAT rainy.

Luckily the wind was negligible during the rain here, though it blew a lot beforehand, knocking over a few trees in the neighborhood. In fact, one reason the rainfall amount was higher than predicted here, probably, is that the storm stalled for several hours right over Livermore -- no wind and lots of rain. The drains were doing fine until that happened...

We've already had half an inch of rain during the night and this is a much harder rain than the last one; it's coming down buckets and expected to last until tomorrow, and after that another storm is expected next week. The weather people were dead wrong for our area and I'm not going to complain about being at the tail end of THIS storm. I understand Los Angeles is being totally pounded and that has to be a mess. Well, we wanted rain and we've got it!

Ingrid

Jo, my sympathies. Palm fronds are so heavy and so many of them. I'm glad the nearest palm is two houses away from my place. The debris that flies off the neighbor's redwoods into this garden is annoying, but at least it is light-weight.

We got 3.5 inches in the northern Stanislaus County area in the last 24 hours. It fell slowly and steadily. No damage that I could see on my way to work beyond a few large puddles. We are so glad that we transplanted over 10 climbing roses and over 100 bulbs in the last week or so.

Gentle downpour all night, no wind, no thunder (happily for my little dogs). Buds everywhere, but Tamora as usual is in bloom. Caught this picture during a moment of sunshine this morning.

I am so happy to hear about your rain in California! Your gardens are going to respond like gangbusters I'm sure.

Thank you lori elf. It's quite a relief although in some places it's too much of a good thing. I've never seen the Los Angeles River as anything but a concrete-lined trough with a trickle of water down the middle but now I've seen pictures where it's full of raging water from which people have had to be rescued. And the mudslides of course and flooding, but that's pretty standard with El Nino. Living on a hillside with granite underneath is a blessing I'm appreciating right now. I hope your winter weather is not too severe yet, just enough to make it seem like Christmas.

Ingrid

5 1/2 inches from the Pineapple express plus days more of rain coming. The pond is overflowing now. The driveway needs repairs. I'm still pleased as could be.

I wish I had that annoying redwood debris. It's a mess for you, but I'd love it for my camellia beds. Goldenwest college in Huntington Beach lost 3 beautiful redwoods this summer in the drought. I was down when
it happened. I buy my pots at the weekend swapmeet there.

It was nice having the rain all morning long. Hopefully I can see a snowy Mt. Baldy today if it isn't obscured by clouds. We used to get that view all the time here in the winter (1970s). I'm looking forward to the end of smog someday when the air is clear like today. Clean air shouldn't just be a treat from the rainstorm.

I'm happy for all the water and sorry for the wind damage it caused some of you. Kippy you get those wood chips while the getting is good!

During this last storm it rained without stopping here for 36 hours straight. We got a total of 4.7 inches. That has brought our YTD total to 150% of what is "normal" for this date. It has not been anywhere near normal for 3-4 years. Now 4 of our 6 local reservoirs are spilling, and the total water storage is at 85% of capacity (was only at 61% prior to this storm). It was a great storm! Not nearly as windy or as destructive as the forecast, either. Now we just need 3-4 more months of this!

Jackie

Congratulations, Pamela! That's marvelous! And, happy birthday! Kim

Congratulations!

happy happy rain dance!

{{gwi:2121432}}

This last storm brought us 1.1 inches of rain, and the total rainfall this season is 3.8 inches, which is excellent, since this is only the beginning of the rainy season, and rain is forecast for next Tuesday and Wednesday. I know this is nothing like the dramatic totals further north but I'm as happy as a clam in mud. The soil is finally moist quite a way down instead of just on the surface. This is a great boost to the many new and young roses I have, and I'm looking forward to finally having a real spring flush after the pitiful showings of the past few years. More importantly, this is such a boon to the native vegetation, and especially the live oaks, which has been under severe stress.

Ingrid

I'm really happy to hear this Ingrid. It always rains more here in the north and to the north of me even more. It looks like you may get your average, which is fantastic. We were all so worried last year.

Ingrid, I too have been worrying about the native plants, most of which receive no irrigation. I like to see them thrive.

Well, maybe not the poison oak.

Rosefolly

Or, the Prickly Cucumber! That nasty stuff can grow yards with one-hundredth of an inch of rain! It makes tumble weeds preferred "companion plantings"! Kim

(Sending Kim the collection of tumble weeds from the bumper of my truck where they blew down the street)

I planted 4 of the Chinas yesterday. They are a bit small but I figured with all the rain it is a good time. This leaves me just a few roses waiting to grow up.

I am loving the rain!

Oh yes, Kim, the prickly cucumber. Scary things that can climb up trees with the speed of light and then the next tree, and the next. I hate them with a passion but fortunately they seem to stay in the one shady area where there are quite a few trees. Scorching sun and aridity does have its uses.

Thank you, Pam. I think this is the best Christmas present any of us could have been given. I find I'm much more relaxed lately and finally came to realize it was because of the absence of the nagging worry of the drought month after month. I'm just so happy for all of us.

Ingrid

Oh, Kippy! You are SO generous! Thank you (NOT)! LOL! You're very welcome to collect the ones which have grown since the last rain several months ago from just down from the house here. They should make marvelous holiday decorations with sufficient gold spray paint!

I'm glad you're more relaxed, Ingrid. I know the feeling, except for watching for the little green shoots starting to creep from under the soil... If you have that nasty invader in the shadier areas of your garden, that means there is water there. It grows where there is water, from Mexico to Canada. It CAN be eradicated,but it does demand herbicides. If you dig the tubers and leave them in the direct sun, they shrivel and die (vampires!), and I have done that with literally several hundred over the years. I've unearthed quite a few the size of a V-8 American automobile engine and they shriveled and dried up once exposed to the elements. Others have been "dispatched" with buckets of "the devil's brew" herbicide we won't mention, with the tendrils wrapped around inside them so they sucked it up like wicks. It didn't take long and they NEVER reemerged! Kim

All the weed seeds are busy sprouting along with a few million 4 o'clocks. On the other hand, the wheat seeds I purposely spread for chicken grass seem to have fed a happy group of birds. Oh well.

I was surprised to see just how many trees and branches blew down in the big storm.

But today I was happy with TWO full truck loads of fresh green pine chips.

How lovely! Congratulations! The Petty Spurge seedlings are exploding all over the hill and rose area. They're such a pretty shade of brilliant green! Kim

Petty Spurge, Gopher Weed, Feverfew, Mallows, 4 oclocks, african daisy....I will be busy pulling. Why is it that even if I could let the hens out to pick weeds they will not touch those weeds.

Kim, when I pulled those nasty things off the trees and other plants I did pull them out by the roots and made a big pile. It wasn't even in full sun but it did kill them. I'll have to check to see if new ones have sprung up.

When you say they grow where there is water, does that mean an irrigation pipe might be leaking?

Ingrid

If by gopher weed you mean gopher purge, then it is a Euphorbia, like the Petty Spurge, and toxic so the chickens won't eat them. Feverfew might also be toxic to them. No ma'am, Ingrid, not necessarily a leaking water pipe. If there is enough ground water, the prickly cucumber flourishes. Of course, if you have a leaky pipe sufficiently near the tuber, it will definitely make use of it. But, I'd imagine you should notice that in your water bill. Perhaps where they grow well is where the water gravitates? Shady areas will naturally remain damper and if they're under the drip zone of larger trees, particularly oaks with their amazing tonnage of water transpiration and deeper litter, the ground can remain amazingly wet. Mine are quite fond of the littered and shaded areas under Cal. Walnuts, Cal. and Brazilian Peppers and the native shrubs growing better toward the bottom of the slope where I am sure the water table is closer to the surface than high up on the ridge where the house and "garden" are. Kim

With the drought and then the rain, the Alba Semi-Plena in my front yard is confused. I was surprised to see this one bloom on the first day of winter.

Ingrid and roseseek etc,
We always called those climbing plants, wild cucumber and I enjoyed them as a child, young man and even later because they were fun to play with. They were also easy to pull down. Anyway, long into my adult years, I realized that they had these Huge roots. They in fact are one of several plants named Manroot. I just googled and found : 'Coastal Manroot, Oregon Bigroot, Old Man in the Ground, Wild Cucumber' as names and pics for the plant.

With that root, you won't be pulling them out easily!