Hallelujah! After a dry fall/winter, with only two mini-mists,
we're having a real rain today! The plants are thirstily drinking in
the good sky water, after months and months of treated faucet water.

Now, to gird my loins for weeding,weeding, and more weeding as
as soon as rain ends (downside)

Upside: getting my tomato seeds into the nice, lovely, welcoming
earth.

Persephone

(So. Calif Coastal)

On Feb 22, 5:10 pm, Persephone wrote:
Hallelujah! After a dry fall/winter, with only two mini-mists,
we're having a real rain today! The plants are thirstily drinking in
the good sky water, after months and months of treated faucet water.

Now, to gird my loins for weeding,weeding, and more weeding as
as soon as rain ends (downside)

Upside: getting my tomato seeds into the nice, lovely, welcoming
earth.

Persephone

(So. Calif Coastal)

You have to live in So Cal to appreciate one inch or so of rain. I,
too, live in the area, and for me it seems that the first rain in Jan
or Feb seems to be the actual start of the Spring season, or the weed
season, as you pointed out!

I wonder if that's the case in other places like Arizona, Colorado or
Texas, for example?

Do weeds start to grow the first day after January or February rains
in other places?

Of course, we can always grab our long handled weed tools or weed
twisters to get a head start on a growing problem. It's also fun to
let some of the green things grow a little to see if there are any
surprises.

It's always a wonder how we pray (or dance) for rains and yet fear the
clouds. Perhaps that human or humid nature?


Ray
===========
Google organic weed tools for the latest hand tool solutions.

Persephone wrote in message
...

Hallelujah! After a dry fall/winter, with only two mini-mists,
we're having a real rain today! The plants are thirstily drinking in
the good sky water, after months and months of treated faucet water.

Now, to gird my loins for weeding,weeding, and more weeding as
as soon as rain ends (downside)

Upside: getting my tomato seeds into the nice, lovely, welcoming
earth.

Persephone

(So. Calif Coastal)


This sounds like an erotic novel. :-)

On 23 Feb 2007 09:57:10 -0800, "raycruzer"
wrote:

You have to live in So Cal to appreciate one inch or so of rain. I,
too, live in the area, and for me it seems that the first rain in Jan
or Feb seems to be the actual start of the Spring season, or the weed
season, as you pointed out!

I live in Texas. Although our average rainfall is supposed to be 31
inches, it all comes at one time.

I wonder if that's the case in other places like Arizona, Colorado or
Texas, for example?

Texas is interesting in that it has 10 distinctive regions. Where I
live in Austin, it is still considered to be part of the humid south.
We're on par with the southern states of Louisianna, Mississippi,
Alabama and north Florida. It's humid here than not.

Do weeds start to grow the first day after January or February rains
in other places?

Yes, but if the weeding is kept up it can be good for the soil as the
roots cut through the soil and aerate it. When I weed as I did last
few weeks here and there, I did so by forking up a bit of soil as to
just loosen it and that way get the entire root.

Of course, we can always grab our long handled weed tools or weed
twisters to get a head start on a growing problem. It's also fun to
let some of the green things grow a little to see if there are any
surprises.

I never weed out hairy vetch. It stays right there. It fixes
nitrogen and is a legume, so welcome all hairy vetch! I don't use
corn gluten meal because I have bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush,
larkspur, nigella and other self sowing wildflowers and they would not
germinate if I used any product, organic, natural or synthetic for
weed management.

It's always a wonder how we pray (or dance) for rains and yet fear the
clouds. Perhaps that human or humid nature?

I love the clouds! Gardening here with the sun is very difficult. I
have an umbrella attached to my 4 wheel garden cart, so it's always
shady over my head, but he heat...oy.


Ray
===========
Google organic weed tools for the latest hand tool solutions.

Persephone wrote:
Hallelujah! After a dry fall/winter, with only two mini-mists,
we're having a real rain today! The plants are thirstily drinking in
the good sky water, after months and months of treated faucet water.

Now, to gird my loins for weeding,weeding, and more weeding as
as soon as rain ends (downside)

Upside: getting my tomato seeds into the nice, lovely, welcoming
earth.

Persephone

(So. Calif Coastal)

Where I live, we've had 3.47 inches in the current rainy season. Yes,
in southern California every 0.01 inch is important.

In Los Angeles, I believe this January was the driest January on record.
The Sierra snowpack is less than half the average for this date.
Fortunately, the reservoirs are still quite full from the heavy rains of
two years ago.

By the way, the rainy season is reckoned to run October through
September, to have "years" that don't change in the middle of a storm.
However, little or no rain is expected after April or before November.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:39:33 -0800, "David E. Ross"
wrote:

Persephone wrote:
Hallelujah! After a dry fall/winter, with only two mini-mists,
we're having a real rain today! The plants are thirstily drinking in
the good sky water, after months and months of treated faucet water.

Now, to gird my loins for weeding,weeding, and more weeding as
as soon as rain ends (downside)

Upside: getting my tomato seeds into the nice, lovely, welcoming
earth.

Persephone

(So. Calif Coastal)

Where I live, we've had 3.47 inches in the current rainy season. Yes,
in southern California every 0.01 inch is important.

In Los Angeles, I believe this January was the driest January on record.
The Sierra snowpack is less than half the average for this date.
Fortunately, the reservoirs are still quite full from the heavy rains of
two years ago.

By the way, the rainy season is reckoned to run October through
September, to have "years" that don't change in the middle of a storm.
However, little or no rain is expected after April or before November.

Reckoned according to whom??

I've been out here nearly 40 years, and we've never, that I can recall
had rain after March/April or before November, even in a good rain
year.

Remember, I'm talking coastal, and you're in the mountains,
from what I can tell.

Persphone

Persephone

Persephone wrote:
On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:39:33 -0800, "David E. Ross"
wrote:

Persephone wrote:
Hallelujah! After a dry fall/winter, with only two mini-mists,
we're having a real rain today! The plants are thirstily drinking in
the good sky water, after months and months of treated faucet water.

Now, to gird my loins for weeding,weeding, and more weeding as
as soon as rain ends (downside)

Upside: getting my tomato seeds into the nice, lovely, welcoming
earth.

Persephone

(So. Calif Coastal)
Where I live, we've had 3.47 inches in the current rainy season. Yes,
in southern California every 0.01 inch is important.

In Los Angeles, I believe this January was the driest January on record.
The Sierra snowpack is less than half the average for this date.
Fortunately, the reservoirs are still quite full from the heavy rains of
two years ago.

By the way, the rainy season is reckoned to run October through
September, to have "years" that don't change in the middle of a storm.
However, little or no rain is expected after April or before November.

Reckoned according to whom??

I've been out here nearly 40 years, and we've never, that I can recall
had rain after March/April or before November, even in a good rain
year.

Remember, I'm talking coastal, and you're in the mountains,
from what I can tell.

Persphone

Persephone


The "rain year" is reckoned by the California Department of Water
Resources. See http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/current/EXECSUM,
where they call it the "water year".

I'm in Oak Park, which is in the Santa Monica Mountains (little more
than hills), about 2.5 miles north of the Ventura Freeway between
Thousand Oaks and the San Fernando Valley. In the summer, we get ocean
breezes from the Oxnard Plain. See my
http://www.rossde.com/oakpark.html.

--

David E. Ross, President
Community Foundation for Oak Park
http://www.OakParkFoundation.org/