Rain, mulch, and mud

It's going on 5:30 pm on an afternoon where we've been alert to a line of potential tornado storms in our region.  This morning it rained and I went out to plant more daylilies as soon as the rain passed.  My earth auger works easily in the wet, heavy clay.  I can dig holes seven or eight at a time, then pause to set in plants, then dig more holes.  All in all, about 40 plants in an hour's work.

In South St. Louis they've just measured a hail stone at softball-size.  No hail fell here this afternoon.  This morning I quit after pieces of dime-sized slush came down briefly.  If that had been hail, it sure would have stung!  You'd never know another rain was sweeping in by the look of this picture I took just after I took the equipment inside.

It looks like a dove is taking off in the upper left corner of the picture.  I've got 183 plants in this bed now.

I took a look at the storm water running down our swale a few minutes ago.  It's staying within the banks all the way to the lower section where I haven't tossed the obstructions out yet.

Our new berm for the dogwoods on the north corner of our lot is catching runoff from the higher ground of the street and the neighbor's big front lawn.  Then the water flows onto the line-out bed that Kathy has been planting, where it is sponged up by the thick layer of leaf mold.

In the back yard, I can new see the patterns of downhill runoff, and I see what I'll have to do to divert this runoff away from seedling beds and onto the grass of the lower back yard.  Much of the water flows directly onto one of the eight big planting beds for mixed perennials.  Now that I understand something more about what our potential ornamentals need, I see a good spot for Louisiana irises and Hydrangeas as well as Siberian Irises and, of course, the water-loving daylilies.

I had several new daylilies open today, blooming in pots.  Here is the third bloom open on Larry Grace's DELIGHT OF MY EYES:

Sorry about the rain spots, but, "Sometimes in this life, Baby, ya see things ya don't wanna see" (my favorite cliche in the movie, "Dirty Dancing").