No yardwork today; I had too much work work to do, and besides it was cold and windy. I hope it will be nice this weekend so we can make more progress on the mulch pile. I made a good dent in it yesterday, moving 16 wheelbarrows full. I covered the blueberry bed and the path around the vegetable garden.
One of our rain barrels has a slow leak. It looks like the barrel was patched, and water is seeping out of the patch. In this photo you can see the patch, a trail of water dripping from it, and a water stain on the concrete block.
I wrote to the rain barrel guy and he said he'd schedule a time to come out here. I'm not sure if he's going to repair it or replace it. I guess we could probably have done it with a pool repair kit, but I'm glad he's willing to come out and fix it. After all, we just got it a week ago.
Other than the leak, the barrels are great. One solid rain storm fills them both. If we have another drought as bad as last year, eventually they'll dry up. But I think the barrels will help us obey water restrictions and keep the plants adequately watered for most of the season.
We lost a distressing number of plants due to last year's drought, though I was surprised by some of the things that survived. Of course the echinacea and sedum survived with very little water. So did the yarrows and the purple verbena; they look great already. The roses also look great. Whew! The columbines, which were just seedlings last year, all made it. As did the agapanthus, alstroemeria, and gerbera daisies. The snapdragons also look great, but they were right along a soaker hose, so no surprise there.
On the other hand, we did lose some things that make me sad: the pink campion which had silvery fuzzy leaves; the euphorbia; the hardy geranium; the butterfly weed; two out of three verbascums. And worst of all, the entire bed of asparagus. Sob! I may or may not replant them this fall. It's not a place that's easy to water and I fear that if I plant there again, they'll just die again.
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