Houston Lawn & Garden

Non-Rain Clouds at 6pm

Hi folks.  It’s been a while since the last post mostly because it’s been rather DEPRESSING here in northwest Harris county where it seems like it NEVER RAINS.  I think for the whole month of June we got one early evening shower that lasted long enough just to bring the humidity level slightly above miserable.  I’m sure that everyone that lives in other sections of Houston (especially in the Katy area) are saying “What are you talking about?  We’ve had flooding over here!”  We’ll guess what?  We must have an invisible shield over our neighborhood that deflects all of the rain to areas all around us, but leaves us with absolutely nothing.  Here are some pictures of the rain clouds from this past Tuesday that are just passing over our head and heading west without showing us any love.  How rude!

More rain clouds at 6:05pm (but not for us)

And don’t even get me started about THE WEATHERMEN on the local TV stations.  Every time they come on the air my blood pressure goes up a few notches.  Don’t they know that Harris County is the largest county in the country?  If I’m watching Dr. Frank or one of the other bozos and they are trying to tell me that it’s raining in Harris county, I’m thinking to myself “are you talking to the Bellaire residents or the Spring residents, because we might as well be in different states when it comes to the weather!”  I see images of people driving their cars into flooded streets and getting stranded but there is absolutely no talk about the drought we are experiencing in Northwest Harris County.  Maybe when I’m done ranting I’ll leave a comment on the local news sites pointing them to this post and see if we get any air time…NOT!

More rain for Katy, but none for us at 6:10pm

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to blame the local weathermen for the lack of rain here.  I just want a little recognition that there are other extreme weather conditions going on within the viewing area other than the rain in areas other than the northwest…like the LACK OF RAIN in the northwest.  OK, enough ranting because it is finally raining here.  It started at about 1pm and it is still coming down at 4:30pm.  Now the garden can get a good health drink of water without all of the additives that get thrown into our local water supply.  We got a notice in the mail about a month ago saying that our water supply is being switched over from ground water to processed water in order to preserve the aquifer and along with that notice was a bunch o warning for people that are on dialysis regarding the purification chemicals that are used.  I figure that can’t be good for the garden either.

Basil Plants - 7/1/10

Trumpet Tree - 7/1/10

Purple Okra - 7/1/10

It’s been a while but now ‘the kids’ are getting a good healthy drink of water and if they had mouths they would be smiling.  Here we have our baby Basil plants that are starting to form nicely.  In the center is our Trumpet Tree that is doing a good job of growing its leaves back after a hungry caterpillar had a 3-course meal, and to the right is the largest of 3 Purple Okra plants.  This is the first time we’re trying to grow Okra because I’m not a humongous fan, but the purple variety seemed like a nice twist to add some color to the garden so we’re giving it a try.  So far so good.

Sorry for the rant but maybe now that the dry spell has broken we see a little more production from the garden (and from me too).

Tags: basil, houston drought, houston garden, houston rain, houston vegetable garden, houston vegetable gardening, houston water supply, houston weather, purple okra plants, trumpet tree