Laundry Room Details

Daltile Ocean Blue wall tile

Askö washer and dryer

Cabinets by my husband

Codicer Arte Black floor tile 

Door to garden and pool

August 2020 Garden Report

August was perking right along for us here beneath the oaks with all the usual things happening:

Double Delight 

Rose's blooming.

Great Horned Owl 

Birds visiting.

Early Girl

Vegetables coming in from the garden.

Squirrelfoot Fern

And watering, watering, watering.

Then this started happening.

It's called sudden limb drop and it happens on really hot, still days when the oak trees take up more water than they can release from their leaves. The moisture overwhelms the cells' integrity and branches crack and fall. The weight of the acorns probably contributes too. Last year we had almost no acorns and this years the trees are loaded. (No limbs fell last year.) That's a snow shovel scooping up acorns in the photo below.

I have seen quite a few fall. First you hear a cracking noise, then you hear the branch ripping through the tree as it falls, then finally the crunch as it hits the ground, or a thump if it hits someone's roof. So far we've had at least nine limbs fall in our little circle of 70 homes. None in our yard, but three from the tree in the middle of the street, which we've cleaned up.

In fact, we've also cleaned up three limbs for various neighbors. Not only do we get a little firewood, but yesterday we got ice cream out of the deal too! This neighbor actually drove to Baskin Robbins then delivered three pints of ice cream to us as a Thank You gift. I love our neighbors.

Along with the hot weather we've had a few thunderstorms which have sparked wildfires. So now we have an eerie orange color to the light, and ash and smoke everywhere. August is proving to be rather annoying in the garden.