Rewilding My Lot

We had not had rain since September 5. Finally, on November 5 we were blessed with 2.08 inches overnight.

One of my goals here is to minimize rain run-off, so I’m always interested in how rainfall behaves when we get it. The garden isn’t mature enough to capture water as well as I want yet — eventually the native roots will be deeper, there will be more biological activity in the soil, and there will be less exposed ground.

The not-yet-completed pond half filled with water! By the end of the day it had completely drained (we have sandy soil).

The two rain barrels are finally full again, so I can stop using the hose pipe to fill the watering can, probably until at least next spring. I put a fresh Mosquito Dunk in each barrel. Theoretically, that’s not necessary because the barrels are screened, but it seems a good precaution to take.

The garden overall looks very happy. A strong rainfall is a good opportunity to clean things up, like dead leaves that were ready to drop. The insects that I’ve been watching seem to have held up well during the deluge, including this Giant Swallowtail caterpillar that arrived on a newly planted Common Rue.

The tiny Mexican Buckeye tree that I recently planted looks fine. A few days before the rain, I did give it a little stake because the winds were strong (15-20mph) for a few days and it was lashing about quite a bit (the winds here in Seguin are generally stronger than what I experienced in Houston). Overnight, the Mexican Buckeye appears to have acquired a young bluebonnet companion. I’ll leave it for now, but remove it if it crowds the tree.