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