Rainy Days, Mudslides and My Neighbor's New Rain Gutters

Tuesday Rains and Wednesday Cleanup:

My neighbors recently installed new rain gutters and downspouts.

Closeup of erosion

Our facet on top of the bank after the mudslide

Completely buried my soaker hose

Broke one of my jades and buried the Iris rhizomes

This is the top of one of the areas where the water went.  The plants to the left and right of this are covered with mud at the base;  I will need to dig these up after it dries out and replant.  There is still about 6 inches of mud at the top edge of the adobe wall but I can't get to it until I remove these plants.

This shows some of the mud, but most of it is under the plants on the left. Calendula seedlings were on the top of the bank!

East side of our garage where our trash bins are kept.  Trash is picked up on Tuesday morning so only one was in this area.  It's difficult to see the depth of the mud here, but one entire row of adobe bricks were covered. This is also after the rain from our garage roof washed mud down the drains and out into the driveway.  Our jeep had several inches of mud under it also, from mud coming down from another area.

I barely was able to move this a few feet.  This ground has a lot of DG mixed in. I had almost two wheelbarrow's full.

After mud removal.  Before I rinsed the concrete.  No stains though! Notice the jade plant hanging over the edge. It was standing before the mudslide and is about 4 feet tall.

Had I not gone out to bring the trash cans back to this location I can only imagine how much more mud we would have had.  I went up to the top of this bank when it was still raining and dug a small trench about 40 feet long to route the water to the road.

This is a rental unit, but I notified the owner and he has already installed drain pipes so this shouldn't happen again.  Normally this area is covered with high weeds, but he has been doing a lot of new landscaping and repairs to the property for the new tenants.  I wonder who put the rain gutters in for him?  Obviously not someone who thought about where the water would end up!  All is good now though and I had a good workout.





Companion Planting

Here is a link to the Farmer's Almanac for a list of friends and foes for 10 common vegetable companion plantings.

Rainy here today; plants are enjoying it.  I should be picking lettuces by the weekend.

Enjoy your day!
Carla

Kitchen Prices

I found this on a page in the back of an old cookbook I have.  I made a copy of it and now have it hanging on my refrigerator!

Winter Veggie Bed Update

I took a few pictures of the raised beds today to keep my blog up to date on the growth.  The rain this week and last has really helped in watering.  Normally at this time of year our weather is hot and dry.  I am so grateful to mother nature for providing us with this rain. 


All of these beds were planted on September 11th and 12th.  In less than a month we are almost ready to pick some of the lettuces and green onions, too.

Onion and Shallot sets, a few Garlic sets, Sorrel, Mesclun, Arugula, and Mache

Onion Sets, Swiss Chard, Kale, Radicchio, Spinach, Watercress

Beets, Kale, Cilantro, Radish and more Swiss Chard

I still need to find a place to plant my pea pods. 

Sunset After the Storm

A few pictures of last night sunset. It was a beauty.