Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Housebound

Given our climate, I'm seldom housebound by inclement weather for long; however, the relentless rain and cold temperatures associated with the most recent atmospheric river has kept me inside almost continuously for three solid days.  Although I've periodically said I'd welcome a winter break from gardening (as long as it wasn't longer than a month), the present experience suggests otherwise.  After three days, I'm feeling stir-crazy!  There are only so many home chores I can stand in steady succession.

As we were flooded with warnings about this second storm, I took care of grocery shopping and outdoor activities in advance of its arrival.  In the course of surveying the garden, I cleaned up my lath house and discovered two issues.  The first was that I'd been unsuccessful driving away the gopher(s).

I discovered mounds inside and outside the structure.  The floor's comprised of concrete pavers.  It was my idea to leave planting pockets along the edges of the pavers but I didn't factor gophers into the equation.  Now I think I need to add concrete bricks to fill those gaps.


There's also a gap in the short retaining wall that came with the garden on its southwest corner that wasn't there before.  It's visible from inside the lath house.  I'm inclined to blame gopher activity but time and weather could also have played a role in this break.



The second issue was that the first atmospheric river had an impact on the lath house structure itself.

I think critters may have contributed to breaks in the lath house roof but tree trimming activity could also be a factor; however, the recent storms have made things much worse


My husband, who built the lath house for me in 2018, will make repairs to it once our rainy season is over in late March or early April.  Meanwhile, I ordered more gopher repellent and yesterday took advantage of a brief break in the rain in another effort to drive it/them away.

I sprinkled the gopher repellent in what appeared to be entry/exit holes, pounded the soil back into place, watered in more of the castor oil pellets they hate, and added a solar-powered sonic deterrent device


Earlier efforts to drive the gopher(s) out of the back garden seem to have yielded results but whether the activity near the lath house can be attributed to the same animal or a different one isn't clear, especially as I've found evidence of activity on the back slope.

This gopher mound on the lower level of the back slope suggests that the critter that'd made a mess of my back garden had moved downward through the garden in the direction of the eastern canyon area.  It's hard to imagine that the same animal is responsible for the new activity on the southwestern edge of our property adjacent to the lath house.  Gophers may be solitary creatures but they seem to have subdivided our property into at least 2 territories.


I've made a couple of other brief excursions into the garden, usually involving picking up the mail or taking out trash, but I've pulled a few weeds and cleaned up the fruit littering the driveway under the ornamental pear tree and the Camellia petals shattered by the rain.  

The photo of Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' on the left was taken just as the first storm started last Thursday.  The photo of the same plant on the right was taken yesterday.


I noticed the first sweet pea flower when I passed through the cutting garden and the first Arctotis flower as I walked through the back garden.

This is still the only open sweet pea bloom but there are other buds biding their time, waiting for more sun and warmth to open

Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' is also waiting on some sun


Other than the quick passages through my garden, I've had to make do with checking it from inside the house looking out.

View from the living room looking at the back garden.  The Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' in the background (center) is getting top heavy and could use pruning.

View of the north side garden from the master bathroom (with a bit of glare from the window glass apparently created by a night light).  I've yet to even start cutting back the Leucadendron 'Chief' in the background on the right.


My husband's kept himself busy with a woodworking project in the garage, where he has his own small hobby shop.  It's times like this when I'd really like a smallish greenhouse to putter in.  If we get a lot more atmospheric river events as some climate scientists predict we will in the future due to climate change, I may campaign for a greenhouse, if I can only figure out where to put one.


Pipig's company is helpful.

She spends most of her days now sleeping on the afghan covering her heating pad in my office.  Her gait suggests arthritis and I think the extra warmth offers comfort.  She insists that I leave the guest chair by my desk askew, though, so she can jump on my desk when she wants attention.  She lodges a vocal complaint if the chair is improperly positioned as she's no longer prepared to jump on the desk in a single leap as she once did. 


It looks like we have one more day of rain left, although we may be lucky and get several hours of partly sunny skies. 

View looking northeast from our backyard late yesterday afternoon.  I saw traces of blue sky as I took a quick spin around the neighborhood to walk-off some pent-up energy.  About 90 minutes later, the skies opened and we had the biggest downpour we've had yet.



All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party


30 comments:

  1. I know all too well the anxious feeling of being cooped up in the house. For me, it comes on with a snow event, less so with rain - I can still drive in the rain.
    I was pondering where you could place a greenhouse in a mature garden with so many established plants. Is there any space left around the cutting garden?
    Your baby girl Pipig is doing what cats do best: sleep, stretch and sleep some more. And I bet you leave the chair at just the proper angle for her to jump on your desk: her assistance with writing the blog is invaluable!
    Chavli

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    1. It'd be hard to fit even a small greenhouse into the cutting garden unless we were to take out at least one of the citrus trees. They're not in the greatest shape despite my efforts to give them a boost but, unless they literally drop dead on their own, I think my husband would mount a campaign to save them - or propose replacement. Maybe we could add a glass addition on the east side of the garage but that could cost me the Japanese maple and possibly also Camellia "Taylor's Perfection'. The back slope doesn't provide much room for one and then there's the issue of the fire ants. Replacing the lath house with a greenhouse might be doable but that'd mean finding alternatives to care for shade plants. It's a conundrum.

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  2. So funny, I've been thinking of where to put a greenhouse too! But I want a really big one...You and Pipig are quite the team, you keep her cozy, she keeps you amused. Maybe take up sketching Pipig in all her various sleeping poses?

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    1. I can barely draw stick figures so I think taking up drawing is out of the question, Denise. I think Pipig believes my office is her space and that she allows my presence as her regular groomer and petting provider.

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  3. A few day of being housebound can sound nice, but usually isn't! I'm with you, I get stir crazy. Pesky gophers! Your camellia is pretty even after getting heavily showered on. Pipig looks very cozy, she's enjoying you being inside.

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    1. The gophers are making me crazier than being confined inside by the weather. I jinxed myself by mentioning that I'd driven them out of the back garden - I found another small mound there this morning only about 2 feet from the sonic deterrent. Maybe the annoying creatures in my garden are deaf and have developed a taste for castor oil!

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  4. Count me as another gardener wanting a nice big greenhouse. Actually as we talk of moving (we've been doing it for a while now, so it's certainly not eminent) it's a feature that I want to make sure has a place at any new home we buy. I'm glad your husband will be able to fix the damage to your lath house.

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    1. I hope any future home you purchase offers either an onsite greenhouse or good space for one, Loree! I think there's only a nominal chance of finding space for even a smallish greenhouse in my own case, as my response to Chavli indicates. Ultimately, a greenhouse would require trade-offs I might not be able to either negotiate or tolerate. I've considered options like cold frames to grow seeds but of course that doesn't support puttering in inclement weather. I haven't come up with a good idea to facilitate gardening inside the house either.

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  5. Stir crazy is right Kris ! I hate being cooped up in the house . It's been rainy off and on since the New Year it seems. The sun came out for awhile yesterday and it was great to get out and it gave me a chance to clean up all the storm debris and stake up a couple of post-windstorm listing plants. Soil is too saturated to do much else. That's too bad about the damage to your lath house -good thing the building contractor is close at hand !

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    1. My husband's expressed concerns about the hardiness of the lath "we" used for the structure's roof. Maybe a different type of roof, potentially a sturdier one of plexiglass that allows more light from above, might be an option. Hmm, maybe there's an option for a green/lath house hybrid offering the best features of both...

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  6. All in all, it looks like you didn't sustain any MAJOR damage from that monster of an atmospheric river.

    My heart goes out to you and anybody else who has gophers. There doesn't seem to be a long-term solution?!?!?

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    1. Gophers are all over the place here, Gerhard. Even if I took lethal measures (which I don't want to do, especially in the case of poisons that can move up the food chain), there's no forever solution. I got off easy the last time it seems and I had several years without any noticeable issues but I could swear there are several operating in different areas of my garden now.

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  7. So sorry for what you guys are going through, and sorry about the damage. I think cold, heavy rain is much worse than dry, cold, snowy or sunny weather. You can pile on layers for the latter, but cold, pouring rain goes right to your bones. I hope your garden will come through the floods, and you'll be back to "normal" before long.

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    1. The rain should be done with tonight for at least another 8 days, Beth. While being stuck in the house hasn't been all that fun, at least we haven't experienced the challenges that others in California have with these atmospheric rivers.

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  8. You are fortunate you are housebound so seldom... :) you definitely wouldn't like our winters, when storms and super-cold temps keep one inside a fair amount. Even on a good day, the most I am out is an hour. But when things heat up for you in summer, you are housebound then as well, I suppose?
    I hope the water you are getting is going to make a lovely spring for you! Eliza

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    1. I'm hoping we get a good spring out of this too, Eliza. At least my fears about another terrible rain year have abated. Our total for the rain year to date now stands at 12.25 inches, which is getting close to our "normal" level and we still have about 2 months left before our rainy season comes to an end.

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  9. I hope the weather clears soon and you can get back outside. The rain has to be welcome, no?

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    1. Oh, rain is almost always positive in my book but then we've been lucky to avoid mudslides and falling trees. California needs to get better at rainwater collection, though, as we can never be certain what we're going to get from one year to the next.

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  10. We got .6 overnight bringing us to 10.07" for the season. Wheeee!!

    I was stuck inside too but it helped my knee heal more. Napped and read. Enjoyed the sound of rain. Babied a Begonia, ha haha!!

    Pipig looks warm and comfy. She deserves pampering.

    Sweet pea flowers! You lucky! Mine are shoulder-high but no buds emerging just yet. Freesias flower stems appearing, though.

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    1. I'm glad you're babying your knee along with your begonia!

      We picked up another 0.26/inch of rain last night, which felt like gravy on top of what was dropped by the 2 atmospheric rivers. Re the sweet pea flowers, there's still just one fully open but there are buds, all of which may be from seeds of the same variety (which off-hand I can't name as I used new varieties this year from diverse sources). My freesias have had buds for a month or more but none appear close to opening - I imagine they're biding their time waiting for sun and warmth!

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  11. The gophers sound like a nightmare. Hope they vacate soon. Too bad about the lath house. I thinks it's a wonderful feature in your garden. Actually your garden is looking so scenic. Hope you can return to outdoors soon.

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    1. According to my neighbor, the coyotes have been traveling in packs here lately. I've only heard them twice but my neighbor has a trail camera set up at their lower gate and has seen them on her feed almost daily. Yesterday, I found a dismembered animal near a small hole in my front garden and initially thought it might be a gopher, although it was very hard to say what it was - until I noticed an intact cotton-ball like tail. Much as I'd like the gophers and rabbits to leave my garden alone, I felt terrible thinking the animals met their end that way.

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  12. Your experience with gophers sounds terrible. I fought our moles for a while, but gave up in defeat and have resigned myself to their presence. Frankly, gophers sound worse. I'm also wondering where we could put a greenhouse. I've got my little putter greenhouse on the back patio, but it would be nice to have a larger one where I wouldn't bump my head. Pipig looks very, very content.

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    1. I'm beginning to think that the gophers are experiencing a population explosion - they're certainly more tolerant of the sonic and granular castor oil deterrents than they formerly were. I probably deluded myself in the belief I got rid of them last time. My earlier underground resident might've just been better at hiding its presence. Yesterday I found a dead animal that was probably killed by coyotes and initially thought it might be a gopher until I found a small cotton tail. In any case, at that point, it became clear to me again that I couldn't kill them no matter how much trouble they cause.

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  13. Even if you did get a bit stir crazy, it's good to see that you are not in an area affected by flooding or mud slides.
    I know that, as an ecological gardener, I'm supposed to create a garden that accommodates the wildlife that is par of my local ecosystem -- but I find the various members of the rodent family hard to love!

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    1. I came around to accepting the raccoons, possums, and skunks. Gophers are more destructive but I expect I need to learn to live with them too - even if I send them packing for a time, they're all over our peninsula and will keep coming back. As to rain-effects, my area does get landslides but not generally immediately following rain :( The land shifts slowly - one area has been slowly sliding for decades while last year another had a sudden shift that resulted in 8 homes collapsing into a canyon. We had a geological survey done in 2019, though, and it indicated that our house is sitting on bedrock - I hope the geologists are right!

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  14. Those rainy days can really can get you down, can't they? I miss spending time in my garden during summer, so I am hoping the hottest days are nearing an end here.
    At least we don't have gopher problems!

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    1. I usually celebrate rain but then it doesn't generally come in stretches of several days at a time here. I hope you summer heat abates soon, Jo. I DO know the toll that long periods of summer heat can take.

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  15. Today we had some heavy rain. But not nearly as much as the earlier forecasts. Zoe has cold ears and is tucked between my legs on my foot-stool.

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    1. I'm sure sharing a foot-stool on a rainy day is a comfort for both of you, Diana :)

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