Dawn - it is raining here steady all day - nothing like the rain we got in Texas years past but so much I do worry about my cacti and family in the outdoors, are they ok and when do you bring them inside up here in OK? Move one zone North and everything changes...

Dawn, I rode off to the Saturday morning donut ride this morning. Not a long ride, but if I ride from home, then it is. There was no rain, and it didn't look like it would before I get back home.

W R O N G !

It started raining about at the turn around point. This means, I had about 20+ miles to go.

At first, I thought I would hitch a ride with one of the others, that drives to the start.

But, it wasn't cold, the rain nor the air, and almost pleasant, and I decided to ride.

Now, I am back home for quite a while already, my bike is clean (almost never happens) cause I hosed it off, and wiped it down. The chain is lubed. The helmet straps are even washed...

And the biggest bonus of all...

I got to ride my bike, and enjoy the rain.

:)

So far, it looks like today has been about 1" in my gauge.

I hope, you get more, without the wind and damage.

Moni

Okiegarden,

If you were in zone 8 before, bring them in 2 to 3 weeks earlier than you did in Texas, or proabably no later than early October. IF the rain persists, bring them in earlier or at least move them under a porch or patio cover to keep excess rain off of them. A lot depends on how well-drained the soil is. IF it stays persistently rainy and humid, watch them carefully because they can rot very easily in our cooler, milder, more humid autumn weather. It's all about the drainage at this time of year.....

If Randy sees this, he can offer better advice than I can as he grows a lot of plants in containers. I know Randy said earlier this week that he is moving a lot of plants back into the greenhouse (for the winter) earlier than usual to avoid the pounding rain forecast for this week/weekend.

Moni,

As soon as you said "I rode off....", I just knew you'd tell me the rain got you! I am glad the rain was gentle, mild and pleasant though. I bet it was lovely riding in the gentle rain...almost like an April or May morning.

I know we aren't going to get the 6" to 8" of rain out of Ike that was predicted for us earlier in the week, but we've had almost an inch of rain today, so I can't complain.

Actually, after watching footage of the Gulf coast damage, I wouldn't complain if a foot of rain fell and the house flooded......what's a little rain compared to all the destruction down in southeastern Texas and southwestern Oklahoma?

The radar shows the eye of the storm fairly close to us in far northeastern Texas, sort of west of Texarkana, so I think we'll have rain here, on and off, all night tonight and maybe part of tomorrow, unless Ike really picks up speed as it goes into Arkansas.

It sure feels like an early autumn here.....lots more cool nights and rain than we normally have here in September.

Dawn

Well Dawn at least you are getting some rain.

I have been having a terrible allergic reaction which started Tuesday afternoon and by the time I returned from OKC on Wednesday evening, I was in sad shape. I got a hair cut Tuesday afternoon and they sprayed a "shine" product on my hair during combout. I developed a rash everywhere my hair touched my body. Not on my scalp because my hair is thick, but all around my hairline, jaw, and down my neck. Both ears were swollen, but my left one looked like a boxer's califlower ear. Itch, itch, itch! After meds and an injection, I am a little better. I have also been glued to the TV, but the meds kept making me go to sleep. This afternoon I decided to go outside and move the plants that were elevated on tables and such, and put them on the ground. Just as I started, it started to rain lightly. It felt so good on my hot skin, that I just kept working and was pretty well soaked by the time I came in. So I played in the rain too.

CNN shows us outside the wind pattern, but inside the rain pattern, but the weather channel is still showing us in the wind pattern. It could go either way, since I am right at the edge of the curve as it moves to the right. We have had light rain this afternoon and it got very dark here about 5:30. I think we will get a lot of rain and if we get wind too, the plants will only turn over, not get knocked off a table.

Well, Dawn I am sure glad you got some rain, here in
Major County, where I am, we have had .
1 inche last Thursday,9 inches Friday,and 2 1/2 last night.
Lots of flooding here , as we are not used to getting that
much at one time. No injuries but every basement had water
because we have a high water table. No damage on my place
but ruined some of my potted plants. Broke them over.Water
flooded seveal homes.Channel 5 was here and put us on the
news a couple times. We had the highest amount of rain
in the state when we got the 9 inches.Lot of roads
were close for a time. "My gage ran over"!!!! caroline

Hi Carol,

Good heavens! What a horrible reaction. I am glad you are getting some relief and hope the meds continue to make you feel even better. I can just imagine how nice that gentle rain felt on your poor inflamed skin.

Our rain petered out shortly after I posted the message, and by 10 o'clock or so, we had mostly clear skies and a gorgeous moon.

Caroline,

Wow! That is a lot of rain. Rain is usually a blessing, but when 9" of rain falls in one day, it doesn't feel like such a blessing, does it?

The most rain we've had in one day here in Love County since we moved here in 1999 was a little over 9", and about 8" of that fell in less than 4 hours. It was in April and the year was probably 2006. When that heavy rain fell, we had minor flash flooding of roadways and water in a few homes, but nothing horrible. The creeks sure did fill up fast and overflow their banks, though.

I wish my raingauge would overflow--it hasn't overflowed since last spring or summer.

I hope y'all get a break from the rain so everything can dry out.

I saw the news about flooding yesterday and was surprised.....I didn't realize that much rain had fallen anywhere here in OK this week.

Dawn

Dawn, Don't you ever sleep. I am just up for meds then I am going back to bed. We got some wind last night but it wasn't bad. The 2 day rainfall is a little over 3 inches and the rain has now moved on so I think everything has now passed us.

I have aloes this morning swimming in their pots... a lot to do and must start getting them moved in for Fall. all this rain is not doing them any good.

Dawn - you know I read about you and how wonderfully smart you are for Oklahoma over at another big online costs to be a part of it forum? You are one of the gurus fopr our state talked about all over this fair land.

Mitch,

Oooh, you're embarassing me.

I don't consider myself a "guru"....just someone who loves to garden and who loves to talk about gardening.

If I am a "guru", then we have a LOT of 'gurus' here on this forum.....but I won't try to name names because inevitably I'd leave someone out (my memory isn't what it used to be) and hurt someone's feelings, and I don't want to do that.

One thing I love about this forum is that I learn something new EACH and EVERY single day. We have so many intelligent, experienced gardeners, landscapers, farmers, etc. here, and the sharing of knowledge is amazing. Sometimes we wobble a bit and go "off-topic", but I think that is OK--because we also let one another vent frustrations (gardening or otherwise) and we support one another emotionally during stressful times. Gardening, watching the weather, etc. is important, but so is life, and we all are part of one another's lives, and it is a beautiful network of friendly gardeners that we have here. On many forums and blogs you find a LOT of sniping and one-upmanship and harassment.....but you just don't see that here, and I am glad.

Dawn

Dawn, I sure wish we could have sent you some of our rain. So far we've had almost 9" in Sept and almost 8" in Aug. We coulda shared. Our total for the year is right at 50" What a strange year. And now supposed to dip into the 50's overnight. I hope you will still get some good rain this fall. Dorothy

Carol,

No, I never sleep. LOL I TRY to sleep. With a DH (law enforcement officer) and a DS (firefighter) who both work VERY odd hours, and me being a light sleeper, and dogs who wake up and bark when DH and DS are coming or going, and fire pagers that go off just when you're REALLY sleeping well....I just don't sleep. If I wake up and am wide awake, I'll come downstairs, turn on the TV and the laptop, and just chill until I get sleepy again. I'm one of those people who--when I wake up, I'm wide awake and can't fall back asleep for hours. DH is total opposite. He can sit down in a chair or lie down in bed and be asleep in 90 seconds. On the rare night that I sleep the whole night through, I wake up groggy from having slept "too long". I've always been that way ever since I was a small child.

Dorothy,

I think ONCE in the decade we've lived here, we had something like 48" of rain and I was in hog heaven....hardly had to water anything at all that year. Of course, we made up for it by having a year with 18" of rain afterwards! Fifty inches! I don't think my heavy, slow-draining clay soil could handle that. I wouldn't mind 30" or 40" of rain though. We've had about 22" of rain this year so, while that is not a lot, we still have Sept.-Dec. to get our 2008 rainfall up to our average, in the low to mid 30s.

The biggest issue now is to get enough rainfall to fill up the ponds. If they don't fill up in the fall to early winter, the wildlife have a hard time finding anything to drink. I hope we get some good rain this fall too.

It is NICE outside. I was just out there with the old, crippled dog and he got to chase an armadillo, in cool weather with the light of a full moon.....for a dog with bad hips, he was moving pretty well. The moonflowers and angel's trumpets and 4 o'clocks were perfuming the air, and it was just perfect out there. It is in the lower 60s here now, so it almost feels "cold". I think we'll be in the 50s by morning, but maybe not quite as cool as y'all will be.

Everything here looks so green and lush BUT there were some grass fires today, albeit small ones. I wouldn't have thought anything would catch fire for a few days at least. Our yard looks as lush and as gorgeous as it has all year....it is amazing how quickly brown bermuda grass greens up when some rain falls!

Dawn

Morning Dawn!

That is just why I don't water bermuda grass. All peeps in the neighborhood do, and all I can think of is "the waste of good water".

My yard looks nice and green too, and I got to mow today. Just one of many things that need doing.

Got to go and get started.

Moni

Moni,

What kind of turfgrass do you have?

I don't want bermuda grass either, but I've got it here.

When we bought this place, it seemed like it was all native pasture.....it hadn't been mowed in years. Then, we started mowing the area where the house was going to be built and all the pasture grasses and wildflowers were replaced by bermuda, which apparently had been planted years ago as cattle forage. (Bermuda can't outcompete pasture grasses if you AREN'T mowing, but once you start mowing, it can.) So, as construction on the house proceeded, we had less and less native grasses and wildflowers, and more and more bermuda. Little by little, though, I am getting rid of it.

In Fort Worth we had "Raleigh" St. Augustine, and I loved it. It would be only marginally cold hardy here, although I think it only gets cold enough here to damage it (or kill it) once every 3 or 4 years. One of these days, after I'm through building beds of perennials, trees, shrubs and ground covers, I'll probably replace whatever bermuda grass remains with "Palmetto" St. Augustine.

We'll mow later today if the grass dries out enough, and I need to do some weeding. For once, it is going to be cool enough to work outside all day long! I'm loving the cooler weather.

Dawn

In the front the former owners put in bermuda, or babied it? In the back is more crab grass than anything else. But I don't mind the grab grass, it is easier to get out then bermuda.

I hate bermuda.

Actually, I am not fond of grass at all. Every yard I ever messed around in, I killed more and more of it, and put in flower areas. Can't all them beds, as there really wasn't any rhyme or reason to them, other than I liked what I created.

Here's my current yard.

Moni

Here is a link that might be useful: Moni's Edmond yard

Dawn - I hear you it is wonderful over here, I paid to be a part of one place for a while and all it was is one up everwhere you looked.

Moni,

What a nice big yard you have. I bet you're going to enjoy replacing a lot of that grass with other plants. I can't wait to see what you do with it. Didn't you dig up and bring a lot of plants with you from the previous house?

It is slow-going here because I have to do so much soil improvement to the dense red clay before I can plant anything in it. We have more crab grass than bermuda once you get away from the buildings though. By this time next year, I hope the whole back yard area between the house and detached barn/garage will be about 80% mixed beds and only a small area of grass. I've been waiting for the trees to get large enough to shade the ground some so I could have plants there that wouldn't fry in the sun, since the backyard faces west.

I HATE lawnturf (and all of you who love your turf grass, please forgive me!). Lawns are a water-guzzling, labor-intensive monoculture that may "look good" but doesn't do much as far as supporting wildlife. I'd rather have beds of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, vines and flowers that are lower-maintenance, use less water and do support a healthy population of birds, bees, insects, frogs, lizards, etc. So, little by little--less turfgrass and more of everything else.

Mitch,

I agree, Garden Web is the best! I don't participate in other gardening forums where that sort of oneupmanship and snide remarks abound. I just don't find that enjoyable.

Dawn

Dawn, if you look at the picture: 100_6086.jpg, it has all the plants in it, that I brought from Tulsa, cept the dog woods, and the Jap. Maple and the stuff from my last load. It looked like so much stuff, when it was in individual pots. Now, planted it really doesn't look like much. But I also planted it tight, and put the soaker hose in, cause I was going to be gone. I don't have any pictures of my latest haul up yet.

Check this:

Here is a link that might be useful: the yard in Tulsa, before I plundered there

Okay, I have to say something about grass. First, yes, Bermuda grass, like Johnson grass should never have been brought here. Shame on the people who did it. Secondly, I am always amazed and amused at people who spend good money fertilizing and watering grass only to mow it and throw away the clippings. What a waste of money...and organic matter. The only time my grass gets irrigated is when the granddaughters are here and want to run through the sprinkler.

But when you live in the country where fire is a danger, you HAVE to mow. We mow almost two acres around the house and garden. An acre of that is in the orchard and young pecan grove. We sweep up the clippings and throw them in the compost pile or when we have chickens into the chicken pen for the chickens to eat. The flavor of grass fed chicken is sublime. And grass clippings and chicken manure really gets a compost pile cooking. Most years we get to take a welcome break from mowing in July and August, but not this year. It has simply rained too much.

Oh and mown grass does give the kids and grandkids a place to throw a frisbee or ball.

There is a house in Tahlequah that was built into a stand of native woods. It is a city lot in a development. The owner left the woods and planted shade shrubs and perennials. This is the front yard. I don't know what the neighbors think of it with all their manicured lawns but I think it's wonderful. Dorothy

Dorothy - that house in Tahlequah sure sounds like something that I would love to own!

On the side - Bermuda Grass is right from you know where... battled with that stuff in my Texas garden and while looking here for a home we are only looking at yards with low ratio (we have not found a yard yet with none... ) can you tell we love to garden?

Mitch,

When you find that yard, just spray the bermuda grass monthly with Round-Up until it is all gone. (grinning) I guess the neighbors would just fall over in shock, wouldn't they?

We are removing the bermuda from out thick red clay soil the hard way....by hand, a little at a time. Each year I dig out some, enrich the soil and expand a bed the includes a mixture of trees, shrubs, ground covers, etc. Then, it still takes a LOT of vigilance to keep the bermuda grass from creeping back in. Slowly, the mixed borders (heavily mulched, of course) are getting bigger and the area of bermuda is getting smaller. That's only half of it, though.

Since bermuda can't handle shade, we've planted about 20 trees around the house, partly in the hope that we'll eventually shade out the bermuda and can then replace it with shade-tolerant ground covers. It is starting to work, but the trees have only been in the ground 7 or 8 years, so we have a ways to go before they are large enough to provide a large area of heavy shade.

Also, we plant rye grass every fall (and we seed it more thickly than the directions say to) as a fire protection measure. One good thing about the rye grass is that it shades the bermuda a LOT in the spring, and this means the bermuda is slow to start growing in the spring. (I'm all for ANYTHING that slows down bermuda.)

We're in our 10th year here. I hope by the time we've been here 20 years (around DH's retirement), we won't have any bermuda grass left. If we get rid of all of it before then, I'll be even happier.

If I had it all to do over again, I would have had a guy with a bulldozer take up the top 4 inches of the yard, dirt and all, and remove ALL the bermuda before we even built the house. Granted, I would have had to pay to have topsoil brought in, but fighting whatever weed seed would have been in it would not have been as bad as dealing with the bermuda grass.

Dawn

I think Bermuda Grass is the Kudzu of the southwest & should be outlawed!

Patty,

I agree. My all-time favorite GardenWeb user name, and I haven't seen it in a while, but came across it on the Southern Gardening or Lawn forum, or something similar, is: "Bermudagrassisevil". LOL If there is a user name on Garden Web that is better than that, I haven't seen it.

Dawn

Sounds like a plan - I had dug the area of Bermuda in Texas - I thought I got it all and those suckers came back again and again and again... it was a huge pain. I need to invest in Round Up - it is going to be my friend for a long time to come.

I have found it shocking to see homes way out in rural areas with full Bermuda yards, I was praying we could find a nice weedy yard and kill it nice and easy but sure does not look that way.

Even in very remote areas, many ranchers at some point in time planted bermuda to provide forage for cattle. I prefer pastures of native grasses and forbs myself.

You know how bermuda is....once it gets established, you never completely get rid of it, but I'm trying.

Ever notice how bugs leave Bermuda alone too? Very strange...
I knew of a couple of gardeners in Texas that had Bermuda lawns - they bought and wanted them, not for me but I know there are crazy people who just love the stuff.

SOME people really, really, really love their Bermuda....but, hey, different strokes for different strokes.

There ate a lot of guys who are really into their lawns, and they buy some of the very special hybrid TIF bermudas developed for golf courses, and they maintain them in perfect, immaculate condition, which includes mowing every 2 or 3 days to get that perfect "putting green" look.

Personally, I like more diversity in the landscape, but if it makes them happy, so be it.