Not hosta, but several others were run down, in a true hit run. Someone came into our driveway presumably to turn around too fast, hit the gravel then skidded over a daylily, clematis roots, catmint and several annuals then hit a picket fence. We assumed the speed/gravel part because they took off, and neither us nor a neighbor saw this. They picked up the fence and righted it using plants they hadn't run over to hold it up. I noticed the squished plants (the pansies were goners, everything else has come back to some extent, the daylily only has distorted leaves to show for it, the clem is fine, the catmint is still stunted). Couldn't for the life of me figure out how they missed the fence...until it tipped over on it's own revealing the broken posts. The VERY NEXT DAY an elderly gentleman came to get some lily of the valley, and backed out over the squished daylily and pansies again! That bed has been there since we bought the place, seems that was some seriously bad timing because it never happened before that.

For more information on the drought in the state, than a person can really stand :) , I would recommend subscribing to the OCS Mesonet Ticker. Send an email to this address.... ticker@mesonet.org ... and you will become subscibed to a daily email from Gary McManus, our state climatologist. Its filled with data on rainfall, drought, and the weather in general. And Gary presents this in an entertaining way. Im gonna try to copy and paste today's email, so maybe it will provide an idea of what Gary does .... ========================================================== MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... April 8, 2014 April 8, 2014 April 8, 2014 April 8, 2014 Whither tornadoes? The folks at the Norman NWS office sent us pretty interesting today concerning the dearth of severe weather we've seen since last year, tornadoes in particular. I'll just shamelessly cut and paste what they sent me. Lazy? I prefer "practical." Keep in mind this info is strictly for the NWS Norman forecast office, so it does not hold true for the entire state (I've adjusted the dates to account for today as well). - The last tornado warning we issued was at 810pm on Friday, May 31, 2013. It expired at 900pm. - If we get through today, April 8th, this will be day 312 without a tornado warning - The previous longest streak was 293 days - June 1, 1990 to March 20, 1991 We talked about this previously, and since then, there still hasn't been a tornado touch down (at least a reported tornado) in the state since August 7, 2013. If we count today, that brings the consecutive day total to 244 days. That still ranks as the third longest period on record, at least dating back to 1950 when accurate statistics began, but we're quickly closing in on #2 (248 days from 7/16/1990- 3/20/1991). This info also comes from the NWS Norman office, but this data is for the entire state. -***- Top-10 Consecutive Day Streaks in Oklahoma Without A Reported Tornado Rank Days Period 1. 292 05/17/2003 - 03/03/2004 2. 248 07/16/1990 - 03/20/1991 3. 244 08/08/2013 - 04/08/2014 4. 234 07/04/1976 - 02/22/1977 5. 220 08/24/1977 - 03/31/1978 6. 200 08/08/1955 - 02/23/1956 7. 193 09/06/1978 - 03/17/1979 8. 189 10/11/1969 - 04/17/1970 9. 188 09/27/1967 - 04/01/1968 10.(t) 187 08/16/1952 - 02/18/1953 08/29/1962 - 03/03/1963 09/22/2006 - 03/27/2007 -****- If we can make it to Sunday, the current streak will move into second place. Right now (AHEM!), that appears to be a decent bet. There will be a chance for some storms this weekend, apparently, but I can't see too many forecasters gearing up for any bigtime severe weather event. BUT, it is April and so things can sometimes pop up (or pop down, in this case) unexpectedly. Here's a bit of info from our friends across the hall at the Norman NWS office. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140408/nws-norman.jpg "MANY HAVE ASKED ABOUT SEVERE WEATHER CHANCES. THE ANSWER... IT IS STILL TOO FAR OUT TO MAKE ANY CONFIDENT DECISION OF ANY VALUE WRT SEVERE WEATHER. WITH DIFFERING SOLUTIONS... AN EXACT ANSWER IS NON-EXISTENT. AS WITH EVERY FORECAST... CONTINUE TO CHECK BACK AS WE GET CLOSER TO THE WEEKEND FOR UPDATES AS GUIDANCE IMPROVES AND CONFIDENCE INCREASES. WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW IS BE PREPARED... NOT JUST FOR THE WEEKEND... BUT ALWAYS." And from our friends across the, uhhhhh, state, up in the Tulsa NWS office. They're screaming it just like Norman, so they must be serious. "THE CHANCES OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS RETURN SATURDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUE ON SUNDAY AS A COLD FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE REGION SUNDAY INTO SUNDAY NIGHT. THERE ARE EARLY INDICATIONS THAT THE STORMS ON SUNDAY COULD BE STRONG TO SEVERE. THE SHOWERS WILL END ON MONDAY AS THE STORM SYSTEM DEPARTS TO THE EAST." With that possible threat of storms comes rain, which is needed more and more each day as the sun climbs higher into the sky along with water stress. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140408/7day-rainfall-forecast.gif More important also because the state needs the moisture to start greening up so we can start to reduce some of this fire danger we see every few days (for days at a time as well). The Amarillo NWS office, which has gotten accustomed to high fire danger these days, is apparently so happy to have a day without blowing dust they're going with a nice "Little House on the Mesas" theme today. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140408/nws-amarillo.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140408/nws-norman-fire1.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140408/nws-norman-fire2.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140408/nws-tulsa-fire.png Nevertheless, much of the Oklahoma Panhandle is under a Fire Weather Watch for today. Plus, I'll bet they get blowing dust anyway. By the way, if we want to beat that top tornado-less streak of 292 days, we'll have to make it until May 27th. Make it so. Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org April 8 in Mesonet History*: Record Maximum 94 F at ALTU in 2011 Record Minimum 17 F at JAYX in 2007 Record Rainfall 3.22" at BIXB in 2008 * - Mesonet History = since 1994 ================================================== The OCS/Mesonet Ticker http://ticker.mesonet.org/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Ticker or for questions about the Ticker or its content Phone or Email the Ticker Manager at OCS Phone: 405-325-2253 Email: ticker@mesonet.org --------------------------------------------------- -C- Copyright 2014 Oklahoma Climatological Survey ===================================================

Beth, You know how they call New Mexico "The Land of Enchantment"? Well, I think we should call Oklahoma "The Land of Extremes" because it seems like, for many of us, rainfall is an all-or-none type thing. Last year we had the "none" part of the equation here in southern OK, and this year we have the "all". LOL I feel bad for the folks in Mayes County. I understand that there's 3' of water in some people's homes there. Even though we had a lot more rain than they did, they are having much worse flooding. Peppers are pretty tough and mine probably don't show 10% of the leaf problems that tomatoes do, as a point of comparison. Often, with peppers, you'll see a little leaf miner damage that will look like little curly or squiggly lines in the leaves. The lines are brownish. I usually ignore them, but you you spray your plants with Bt, a bio-insectice that targets the larval form of the insect that causes the damage if they bother you. Sometimes on pepper foliage you might see brownish or yellowish spots on the leaves and these normally are the first signs of bacterial or viral disease. Treat at the first sign so you can nip these infections in the bud before they begin to spread. You can spray with an approved chemical or organic fungicide--just read the label and make sure it is approved for use on peppers and other edible crops. A quick, organic homemade fungicide is 4 teaspoons of baking soda and one tablespoon of horticulural oil (or citrus oil or molasses) mixed in one gallon of water. The baking soda essentially changes changes the pH on the leaf surface and that interferes with the bacterial/fungal growth, and the horticultural oil (or citrus oil or molasses) serves as a "sticker" to help it adhere to the pepper leave.) You would spray a fine mist on the plant--upper and lower surfaces of leaves and stems as well. Spray the plant well but stop as soon as the spray begins to drip onto the soil--you don't want to change the pH of your soil even temporarily. If I had a choice, I wouldn't use citrus oil once the daytime highs are over 80 degrees because plant foliage might burn. In fact, I'd probably use molasses or horticultural oil but not citrus oil because I've seen citrus oil burn too many plants. (I do like using citrus oil in a drench for fire ant mounds.) A disease that sometimes appears on pepper plants is pepper mosaic virus and it manifests as a twisting and mottling of the leaves. You also might see a sudden stunting, or halt in plant growth. The common recommendation is to pull and destroy plants with pepper mosaic virus, but I don't do that. If I first see it on only one limb, I will prune that back and then I'd spray with the baking soda spray. I probably haven't seen pepper mosaic virus on my plants 5 times in my lifetime...maybe 2 or 3 times would be a more realistic number, but it is a major problem in some places. Many modern hybrids have some resistance to pepper mosaic virus bred into them. If you get heavy rain and immediately see wilting of you pepper plants, that just means the roots are waterlogged and you just have to hope the plants outgrow the waterlogging. Or, if you have a couple of cloudy, rainy days, and then suddenly have a bright, hot, sunny day, the peppers might wilt a little because they've gotten used to "cloudy and cool" and are too happy about the sudden transition to "sunny and hot". It's smart to plan ahead and know what to expect, but don't panic. Weather changes often cause plants to get a little unhappy and sulk for a while, and usually the plants adjust and are just fine without any help from us at all. Dawn

What was most disappointing for me was that while everything bloomed beautifully, the bloom time was nearly 'halved'. Damned excessive heat and arid conditions do not bode well for our friends. As Rhodyman cited, decideous and exburies were spectacular. Bud set on nearly everything in my garden was amazing after last years terrific summer growing season. As for this year? We didn't have rain for nearly 3 1/2 weeks in April here along the Jersey coast. Why couldn't we have received this past weeks rain in say late late April? Fwiw, my mountain laurels are spectacular as I write.