Rain Is A Good Thing

Those of us that work/play in our gardens recognize the value of a good rain. Unlike what the Beatles once wrote, we don't run and hide our heads....... we head outside to soak it up with our plants. It would seem that here, in central Florida, the summer rains have finally arrived and rectified the parched conditions we have faced these past 4-5 weeks.  In the last 2 days, I've recorded nearly 4 1/2 inches here at my home in Holiday and it has been most welcome. My collection of orchids are ecstatic and the hundreds of seedling wildflowers I've been moving into pots from flats are responding well. Rain is a good thing.

My created wetland after 4 1/2 inches of rain
A close-up. Water has pooled ever so slightly in the lower area away from the house
My landscape also is happy with the return of rain. The small wetland I created several months ago using a pond liner is doing exceptionally well so far and it is working as I planned. Even after 4 1/2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours, the upper portion nearest my house does not have standing water. The soil, of course, is saturated, but the water moves slightly downhill to the portion away from the house and would eventually pop off into the lawn below it should we get much more rain. Otherwise, it will simply evaporate. It is not designed to hold water permanently. At this moment, the water is about 1/2 inch deep and that is perfect for the short term. The cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) in the foreground, prefers conditions like this in central Florida and it is the only way I've been able to grow it here. The water hyssop (Bacopa monnieri) is spreading throughout the open soil and providing ample food for the white peacock butterflies that I hope to feed. I saw one in my landscape yesterday so perhaps I will see caterpillars soon. I have monarch caterpillars on my pink swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) at present so that has worked according to plan. The water dropwort (Tiedemannia filiformis) is still too small to attract the eastern black swallowtails that found the curled parsley in my front yard, but they are growing by leaps and bounds. From my experience, this plant serves as a favorite host plant only in the fall when it is in bloom.
What also excites me is that the small woody area I have planted outside the liner and along the northern (right side of photograph) and southern edges of this wetland is also doing well. I have planted 8 native pink azaleas on the south side (Rhododendron canescens) and 3 Alabama azaleas (Rhododendron alabamense) on the north. Here they get more sunlight than I have planted them in in former landscapes, but the moist soil, mulched with leaves, seems to be to their liking. The Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina) is also on the north side and has doubled in size over the past 3 months. This also is the area where I've planted ferns - 5 species to date, and they also are growing robustly even in the higher light levels that I would have put them in previously.

The wetland pot today

My pine lily (Lilium catesbaei) has returned for another year
Before I created my wetland using a pond liner, I installed the wetland pot that I brought with me from my former home in Seminole. It is a simple arrangement - a broad clay pot that sits inside a plastic pond. For the past several weeks, the plastic pot was dry and the "wetland" inside the clay pot was slowly drying - as it would in nature. Today, after 4 1/2 inches of rain, everything is full and saturated. I put this pot in full sun to provide for the native plants that prefer these conditions. I have both of the robust blue-flowered button rattlesnake masters (Eryngium aquaticum and E. integrifolium). These are wonderful pollinator plants when they bloom in late summer. I've also grown a pine lily under these conditions for at least 3 years now. In nature, it occurs most often in flatwoods that shallowly flood during the rainy season. The conditions in this pot seem to be to its liking.
Wetlands can be a critical component to a living landscape - not because I am providing wetland habitat for wildlife (these are too small for that), but because it provides more plant diversity for the pollinating insects I wish to attract. Within these 2 small areas of my otherwise dry landscape, I've been able to add several dozen additional flowering plants that I could not grow otherwise - and, to be honest, I get to include plants that I just like to have near me. A living landscape has to be about us also and my life is enriched surrounded by the plants I love. I believe that to be true for all of us that garden.

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