Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about an object lesson. You may remember me from such posts as “Creeped Out”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
You can see how hard I am at work, gardening.
The guy I live with said it may be about time to replace that ramp. The guy I live with’s wife built it for Flurry, the first purebred border collie who lived here, when he was getting on in years. There’s little space to step out onto the patio because a previous owner added an extra sliding glass door and never thought about a way to extend the concrete step.
The ramp bounces now.
Anyway, our streak of hot, rainless days continues. All the rain is falling to the south or east of us now.
Here I am putting a brave face on this situation.
Before I talk about the object lesson, here’s a picture of my Private Lawn. This is ‘Cody’ buffalo grass.
That line is from the hose, because he mowed the lawn a few days ago, and buffalo grass does need to be watered after mowing.
Other than that, it just grows, assuming at least some rain falls, which is an assumption we can no longer make.
And another picture of Mentzelia decapetala taken right before I went on my evening walk.
Hopefully this plant will produce some viable seeds, because it behaves like a biennial here, though it can also be perennial.
Claude Barr wrote that an excess of moisture would cause the plant to die, but it’s clear that this plant would have benefited from more rain.
In most summers, the guy I live with would just let the garden dry out, but during the grasshopper infestation last summer he started watering more, because he read that grasshoppers attack drought-stricken plants.
The watering didn’t stop the grasshoppers, but it made the plants look healthier.
So this year he decided to water more. He bought a nice Melnor oscillating sprinkler (the one with a metal base) which he says is a good one, and now we have a lot of plants in flower for the hummingbirds.
Salvia greggii won’t flower in dry soil, so he set a smaller sprinkler in the side yard and the plants started flowering almost immediately, which makes sense since they’re native to west Texas and adjacent Mexico where monsoon rains fall, almost coinciding with the flight of hummingbirds back to Mexico.
Normally Penstemon barbatus stops flowering in a hot July, but look at it now, after watering. An object lesson for the guy I live with.
There are other red-flowered penstemons, and Penstemon eatonii, P. cardinalis, and P. rostriflorus are often available in the trade as plants or seeds, but there are others, like P. centranthifolius, P. superbus, P. utahensis, P. floridus, and P. rubicundus that have to be grown from seed.
And quite a few Mexican species which are difficult to come by. The guy I live with grew a few of these a long time ago.
The agastaches in “the enclosure” are very happy with the extra watering.
If you look closely, or enlarge this picture, you can see a broadtailed hummingbird, just to the left of the big metal chicken.
In keeping with the hummingbird theme, the guy I live with had a pot of Ipomopsis aggregata seedlings which he repotted just today. Hopefully these will have red flowers, though populations with pink flowers and with white flowers are common in the foothills here. This is a biennial.
The pots will be surfaced with fine gravel.
This is the soil mix he used. I’ve shown pictures of this before, but I think it’s worthwhile to show how different this is from commercial mixes.
This is a highly porous mix which allows all the water to go straight to the roots.
The mix was used for troughs, most of which are at the Chatfield Arboretum now.
And I have one other hummingbird-related item. A swing.
That’s right, this is a hummingbird swing.
It’s supposed to be close to a food source but it isn’t, right now.
So that’s all I have for today.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me next to an unhappy hackberry tree in the little field to the north of us.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Vegetation only exploits what becomes available to it at the time. It is probably no less happy in the garden there when it ‘looks’ less happy. I mean, as far as it is concerned, it is just responding to whatever resources are available to it at any particular time. Actually, some plants do not last as long if they are too happy. For example, valley oak can live for several centuries in dry chaparral climates. However, those that seem to be happier in more riparian situations may survive for only one century.
According to Wikipedia Quercus lobata only grows where groundwater is present.
The point here is that drought-adapted plants native east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades, and west of the 100th meridian, will only flower with adequate soil moisture. There are some exceptions.
The guy I live with says that the idea that these plants can be watered too much during their growing season makes him wonder what happens when plants in the wild experience higher than normal rainfall. He suspects that, like cactus, the plants just grow bigger.
The more rain, or the more watering, the more flowers.
Yes, but It does not happen for more than a year or two. They grow bigger, flower more, and so on, but then resume business as usual before they get too much of a good thing.
The situation is very different here. The more water the dryland plants get, the happier they are.
These plants don’t “need” dry conditions, they tolerate them, and they aren’t “moisture sensitive” like is often claimed.
I believe the guy you live with, dear dog, has been talking about replacing the ramp for *years.* Prod him into action. Red-flowered penstemons are lovely. I believe the guy you live with wrote a book about the general subject. And the photo of you looking all brave is one of your loveliest portraits. Good luck with the rain. We are not receiving any down here on the Cali/Mex border on the coast. Usually a monsoon blows up from down south and we go almost tropical; this year, not so far.
Thanks; I do look pretty brave, don’t I?
He has been talking about replacing the ramp for years. He talks about a lot of stuff and I’ve learned not to pay too much attention; I thought we were going to get a new stove, or “range” as they say, last year, but so far nothing has happened.
He did write a book about such stuff and he would point out that the ultimate red-flowered penstemon from a hummingbird’s point of view, Penstemon centranthifolius, is very much native to San Diego County. And it’s hardy here, too.
Here, the monsoon has been a complete flop and the guy I live with said he wanted his money back, which I didn’t understand. We average two inches of rain in July and August, each month, and so far we’ve had about half an inch or a little more.
Some afternoons or evenings it looks like rain, smells like rain, and nothing happens.
Your supplemental waterings have produced some lovely blooms.
Thanks.
The guy I live with would make a distinction between supplemental watering (more than natural rainfall) and watering to make up for the absence of rainfall.
Though if you go around looking at public “xeriscape” gardens and see agastaches as big as border collies it’s because the plants get supplemental irrigation.
Nothing really wrong with that, though it may give people the idea this can be duplicated at home without all the extra watering.
By the way, it did rain here today. The guy I live with was potting up some plants and it started to rain. Gentle pattering rain for about five minutes. And then it stopped.
Good for you to have received some rain. Nothing in NW Denver still so I’ll have to do some supplement watering myself tomorrow. Lack of rain is bad enough but the relentless heat is impacting even the most xeriscapic plants in the garden.
The heat is a real drag, and it never seems to end. I stayed inside today while it rained. We had a gentle pattering rain for about five or ten minutes. The guy I live with said it will show up on CoCoRaHS as a “trace”.
The other thing that’s a drag is predictions of rain when it’s not really for us, but somewhere in the vast area east of us, or north, or south. Colorado Springs has gotten a bunch of rain this summer. They’re hogging all the rain, and not sharing.
Mew mew mew Guy been meowin about THE ramp since wee all met Mani….it ISS lookin purrty ruff….Wee not eether of you to get herted! You DUE have a brave face on Mani!! Wee gotted another wild Funderstorm last nite!! Ass in entire sky lit up with PINK Lightning an THE Funder was rite over where wee live! BellaSita an mee reetreeted to THE bedroom an stayed inn bed til it passed over. Wee thott of youss’ down there not gettin rain…. Yore red flowerss are so purrty!! Even without rain they show up 😉
**nose bopss** BellaDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
Yes, the guy I live has been talking about replacing the ramp for quite some time. He’s also been talking about having the sliding glass doors replaced, too.
He’s had a serious lack of motivation for a very long time now.
We used to have thunderstorms all the time. I mean like almost every afternoon or evening. We’ve had hardly any this year, though it’s been very dark here almost every day. Kind of gross, really.
Mee understandss Mani! BellaSita has a ‘list’ of thingss to due…butt sumhow they due not get dun. Iss not easy to be a Hu’man 😉
Yore weather sure iss weerd! Wee reememburr when youss’ got stormss alot. Now you lucky to get 87 raindropss on a guud day 😉
The guy I live with is old and he forgets stuff. Which is weird because he has a superior memory. Fortunately he bever forgets my breakfast or my dinner.
The weather this year is just disgusting, according to the guy I live with, though we have had years of no precipitation at all after mid-July. And I don’t like 95 degrees F day after day, for sure.
Bella Sita has a Daily Planner to ‘keep her on track’ Mani. It werkss purrty well. Xcept if shee does NOT reed it! Mew mew mew… Shee furgot to give mee snax twice last week beefore bedtime. Mee had mee Crunchiess so mee let it slide! It iss mid 60’ss heer an rainy….wee tried to send it to youss… **sighss**