Soggy Saturday

That dry stream bed in my most recent post? It's not quite so dry after 2 days of often torrential rain. The last two stepping stones were under water about 2 pm today. That lake you see is my street. Uh-huh. My thoughts exactly.


It's somewhat comforting to know that at least I got the pitch of the bed more or less right. That area above the bull rock is where I currently plan to add soil and then plant creeping, cascading type plants to spill over the rocks. I say currently because as y'all may have noticed, I change my mind a lot.

Somewhere under that water is a stepping stone ...

Looking down the sidewalk from the front gate:

This is why I don't plant really xeric plants along this stretch of curb. Plants have to be able to tolerate both extreme drought AND extreme moisture.


I'm extremely grateful that I made it home relatively unscathed and I hope that tomorrow will find me able to say the same about my truck. I spent the morning at the Harris County Extension Center, working the spring plant sale held by our Master Gardener group. We're very appreciative of all the folks who braved the weather to shop with us. The Extension Center is an area that is prone to flooding in storms like today's: by the time the sale started at 9 am, the connecting road from one major street to another had to be closed due to high water. It was still open in the other direction when I left but a couple of miles down Highway 6, the feeder road along I-10 was underwater for a stretch. A few cars stalled out along there but FloraBob made it through and we headed down the freeway for home. What we found in the neighborhood was an even bigger challenge: most of the roads looked like this one below. This is the side street on the north side of my house; I'm standing in the alley entrance to take the picture.


Fortunately, the alleys were less flooded than the streets and I was able to use those to get through the neighborhood. I had to do some turning around and backtracking a couple of times. When I got to the intersection below and saw how high the water was, I gritted my teeth and took a chance that FloraBob could handle it for that short distance.

A few minutes later, I spotted someone for whom it was no challenge at all.

This neighborhood teen posed for me before heading to see if he could help a stranded motorist a couple of blocks away.


The rain is still falling as I write ... I'm hoping the downpours are over for my corner of Katy but radar does show a small storm cell just west of us. Other parts of Houston are still getting pounded and the entire area is under flood and tornado watches and flash flood warnings. I hope it clears up tomorrow as predicted: I have 40 bags of primo compost waiting to be unloaded from my truck. The upside of the low attendance at the plant sale: we didn't sell out of compost! I didn't get a chance to buy any plants, sadly, but I'm hoping to make it to our monthly meeting on Tuesday evening and have a chance at them then. A reminder for Houston area gardeners: the meeting will be open to the public and today's plants will be available for purchase. If you missed the sale, don't miss this chance to get some beautiful and healthy plants; you can also hear Dr. Carol Brouwer speak about these and othergreat plants for Houston. The program starts at 7 pm at the Extension office in Bear Creek Park.




Comments

Kathy said…
It's feast or famine over there! Weren't you complaining about how dry it was not too long ago?
That's something else! I'm glad you finally made it home. Good thing you were driving a truck. It's hard to believe that you were suffering through a drought.
Carol Michel said…
Water, water everywhere!

Unbelievable when I think about how dry it gets there. Certainly makes choosing plants a bit of a challenge as you noted. A tip of my hoe handle in your direction, because in spite of the challenges, your garden is generally so beautiful. You are quite the gardener!

Carol, May Dreams Gardens
MA said…
Read up on Raingardens. They are made just for that issue. Like you don't already have a project or two to keep you hoppin~!
It never rains but it pours. Austin was pretty lucky...we got a nice steady soaking in rain. Not too hard. No high winds. And it fell slowly enough that I didn't have any standing water or a flooded garage. I'm on a hill so I don't have the danger you face of a flooded street.

Hope you dry out without too much damage.
Brenda Pruitt said…
WOW! I hope everything is okay with you.
Brenda
Glad you are ok Cindy. I heard about the terrible rains there. We'll all probably be hoping for rain this summer! Take care!
Jan said…
Not a drop here in Corpus Christi. I don't think it will ever rain here again, or so it seems.
Pam/Digging said…
Gee, I don't know if I would call that "soggy," Cindy. More like soaking wet. That is a *lot* of water in your street. I hope it's already dried out for you.
Anonymous said…
Wow, what a difference a day makes! Ya'll got the storm that was supposed to break our drought; instead we got a bit of rain (less than one inch here) as it passed over us and stalled on top of you. Texas weather is definitely feast or famine, isn't it?
Anonymous said…
Cindy, I plan to take pics on the nice light this evening for my TTGG post - I'll link back to you when I do!
Cindy, MCOK said…
Fortunately, the water in the neighborhood drained pretty quickly. An hour later we were more or less back to normal. The ground's still drying out, though!
Gail said…
Goodness gracious...where have I been? Cindy...you might want to look at some of the cedar Glade plants I grow...they tolerate wet and dry. They may work...Here's a good link to get an idea about plants
http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/index/cedar-glade-plants-sci.htm

Growild is a local nursery that specializes in them and other TN natives. Perhaps I can ship them to you.

Gail
Wow that is just crazy! I can't imagine trying to plan for those extreems...
Lori said…
Wow, I can't believe that this kind of flooding happens often enough that you know to plant around it!