It's a rare gloomy day in March here in Tampa, and although we've been teased on and off with a few drip-drops, it doesn't appear that we'll be getting any real rain anytime soon. Although this is to be expected (we're in the middle of the dry season - November through April), I can't help looking hopefully at the clouds above.
The
Tampa area is in a pretty severe drought right now. Our
reservoir is running dry and the latest word is that the
desalination plant is facing some problems too. We really can't expect any meaningful rains until the tropical storm season begins - probably not until June. And that doesn't mean relief is necessarily on the way - last season our daily rains stopped about six weeks early, and we didn't get any of that beneficial Tropical Storm Fay rain that everyone else in the state got (too much of in some places!). I'm certainly not wishing for any Category 4 hurricanes this year, but I wouldn't mind if some nice tropical storms gave us lots of rain this summer.
In the meantime, the water supply is in danger and of course must be reserved for drinking and bathing, so gardeners take a pretty hard hit in return. Hillsborough County has some
fairly steep restrictions in place, and in My Florida Backyard we follow them to the letter, and then some. We don't have much grass, and we expect it to be brown this time of year, so we don't use our sprinkler system at all. We restrict hand-watering to plants in pots or newly-established plantings, and we water those as minimally as possible. Of course, our established plants were selected specifically to make it through droughts like this one. In a future post, I'll detail the plants that have done the best during these "drying times".
And, for those rare occasions when we get a bit of rain, we've installed a rain barrel*.
There are a lot of great sites out there that provide info on obtaining and installing a rain barrel, so I'm not going to go into detail here. Instead, check out these links:
If making your own rain barrel seems like a lot of work, or if you want something a little classier than a spray-painted food-grade plastic drum, check out the many rain barrels available for purchase.
Clean Air Gardening has a great selection, and
Gardener's Supply Company offers some really nice ones, including
my personal favorite and the one I wish I could have afforded. There are plenty of suppliers available - just Google "rain barrel" and see what comes up!
Now, as Homer Simpson says, "Here we go with the add-ons!". There are lots of rain barrel "accessories" out there, such as kits to connect rain barrels and products to keep the mosquitoes away. The only one we've invested in is the
Garden Watersaver Downspout Attachment. Because of the way our downspouts are situated, we didn't have a great place to put a rain barrel where the downspout could drain directly into it. This is definitely the easiest (and least expensive) method, and I wish it could have worked for us. However, the downspout attachment is a great solution, and I can recommend it.
Of course, since we got around to installing the rain barrel, we've had exactly 2 rainstorms, each lasting less than 30 minutes, so we haven't gathered any great amounts yet. But I look forward to gathering plenty of free water over the summer for watering potted plants, and even one good rain between now and June would set me up for weeks. I encourage anyone living in a drought-prone area to consider making the small investment in a rain barrel to reap the rewards in your own backyard.
*Water collected in a rain barrel is not suitable for drinking or other human consumption. It should only be used for watering plants, lawns, etc.
Until then, we're soaking up as much rain as we can get. Since our first substantial rain back on May 12, Tampa's had a very decent rainy season. The hurricane season has been mild thus far, and no tropical systems have brought us any precipitation to speak of. However, we've had lots of afternoon thunderstorms and even a few systems moving down from the north to bring our rainfall totals to very respectable amounts.
We've been in a pretty wet pattern lately, which we here in My Florida Backyard don't mind at all. The lake and the rain barrel are both full to the brim, and far beneath our feet we know Florida's aquifers are filling up too. This is the way summer in Florida should be.
The woodpecker likes to hang out in the pine trees nearby too; no doubt the soft bark hides many delicious creatures for him to dig out and scarf down.
The rainy weather keeps the butterflies away, for the most part, but it's a great time to go on a caterpillar hunt. My milkweed has constant visits from Monarchs, so it's not surprising we have plenty of brightly colored Monarch Caterpillars:
To the very large!
My passionvine may be stubborn about flowering lately, but the Gulf Fritillary butterflies are still using it to lay their eggs, as is evidenced by their spiky orange caterpillars:
Finally, I made one more interesting discovery, which my neighbor Paula (of Adopt-A-Pond fame) helped me identify as lacewing eggs. I love how they hover at the ends of their delicate little threads:
Unfortunately, research tells me that once they hatch, the lacewings will feed on such tasty morsels as that little tiny monarch caterpillar crawling alongside them. Although lacewings are generally considered beneficial in a garden for just that reason, I'm actually trying to raise caterpillars, so the lacewings have to go.
P.S. This time next month, I'll probably think it's funny that I wrote two posts in a row about the rain, but for now, I stand by my excitement!
But this muscovy duck seems a little grumpy about the whole thing.
Well, guys, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, "The best thing one can do when it's raining is let it rain." We're happy to do just that in My Florida Backyard.
There are a lot of great sites out there that provide info on obtaining and installing a rain barrel, so I'm not going to go into detail here. Instead, check out these links:
