Torrential rain

We are supposed to get 8-9 inches of rain this week. If you live in the Bay area and you didn't know about the big storm, I recommend you stop reading this and go out and batten down your hatches right now!

Matt likes to walk around on "storm patrol" in the rain (product of being raised in a dry place I suppose!) so after I was suitably fortified by a large breakfast at Just For You we went by the garden. Caltrans has asked me to make sure the storm drain stays unclogged, and I cleaned out most of it a couple of weeks ago. However, as anyone who knows the garden will tell you, very little water actually gets into the storm drain in a storm (see left) as all the plants and mulch uphill suck it up before it trickles down into the drain. It's just kind of a pain really.

And so it was today: I moved a wheelbarrow full of muck from the drain as a torrential downpour was ending, more because I was cold than due to fear of flooding. Naturally the rain stopped and the sun came out and the water's almost gone already!

Suitably sweaty by then, I moved on to the edging project. Yesterday we put in 10 pavers, today I did another 20 or so. I also moved more Gazanias to the front, in alternating colors, and trimmed back some Gaillardias and so on, and finally left when my muscles just gave up!

My plan is to edge the entire sidewalk in Gazanias, move some Gaillardias further back, and put some mid-height, bushy perennial flowers in between to stop Gaillardia flop this year. I am thinking something like Arctotis and Salvias in various hot pinks and purples, and maybe some clumps of day lilies  and so on.