Rewilding My Lot

Seguin got a good soaking on Thursday, which was sorely needed.

• Both rain barrels filled up (they were empty). So I put in more Mosquito Dunks to keep pesky insects from breeding in the water (the barrels also have screens in the lids to prevent entry). Each barrel gets one Dunk per month, but I had delayed adding for this cycle until we got rain.

• The ground was saturated, which gave me a good chance to see how water flows here now that the neighboring lots have been turfed. That certainly reduced run-off flow through this lot and allowed me to clarify where the low spots are here, which helps future planning. (The empty dark circle is the original location of the Turk’s Cap.)

• Parts of plants were knocked off that were due to fall anyway — e.g., grass seeds, petals from old blooms, leaves traumatized by drought or transplant. I’m not worried; it’s just nature cleaning up.

• The extra soil that I had added to level turf on the south side of the house seems to have stayed in place. That’s encouraging.