If there’s a story of the year for the garden, one of the competitors would definitely be the December rains. The prognosticators were promising us a La Niña winter, cool and very dry. Instead we got one of the rainiest Decembers on record.
I’ve been playing with video lately, and here are some snapshots of the garden as it looked on December 22, partway through some of the torrents.
I was a wimp. All the shots are through windows, so you can only see part of the garden. But I think you get the idea.
The video quality is definitely lo-def, as the capture was done with an old point-and-shoot that had some lo-res video capabilities. But like I said, I think you get the idea…
And for you concerned capitalists out there who might have been worried about the status of one of our local shopping palaces after I posted some photos of part of it underwater, here are some befores and afters of the Fashion Valley Shopping Center. The befores are from the same day as the garden photos above. The afters are from December 29.
Not everything was back to normal. Parts of the garage are still under a few inches of water and cordoned off.
And there’s a limited amount of damage where the water undermined the road under the elevated trolley tracks.
But overall things looked pretty good, and shoppers were back to returning their ugly sweaters for something more desirable.
The forecast is for more rain the night of New Year’s Day. Will La Niña Loca continue on into the next year?
I was reading the Chance of Rain blog yesterday to reconcile that prediction of a dry winter with livin’ la nina loca. Not that I’m complaining. It’s been mesmerizing watching where the rain soaks in and where it doesn’t. Not to mention watching your bark mulch float! Great little movie. I’m going to want to watch that again this July for some inspiration.
Goodness what a lot of rain. It is amazing what the force of nature can do
Best wishes for 2011
The bark mulch pouring out out of the bed and on down the “river” like little rafts is am amazing shot. Our neighbors could have recently filmed a similar scene in their basement (household items in place of the bark mulch). Hope all of your plants recover from the deluge.
Your garden was under actual water! So I’m not the only one that happens to! This video has officially cheered me up more than any other garden blog entry ever!
You totally do have real clay soil. If it got actual heavy rain on it more regularly than it’s ever likely to do in San Diego, you’d probably have the same problems that I do.
The city seems to have dried out nicely. That one corner of the garage that’s still underwater, though? If we ever moved to San Diego, I’m positive that that parking garage would get torn down, and a house would be built there, and we would move into that house, and that lingering puddle there would be the exact outline of our yard.
I’ve been frustrated about the rains, but I should be really glad we didn’t get as much rain as you guys. That’s a lot of water. Kind of disturbing to think about it raining that much in one of my gardens. Glad to hear you dried out alright.
Wow, and you guys live on a hill!
so funny to see the tittle in Spanish. I hardly have a chance to read or speak anymore. Back some years ago we had a similar weather for the “El Niño”, we used to say. “ponglane zapeta al niño” wich translate put a diaper on that kid.
Wow! That’s a lot of water! I loved seeing the raindrops in your video – always lovely even when – they’re not so welcome. We are having good rains so far – soaking, steady, sinking in – and – touch wood – no major power outs yet or bad tree falls or slides. Touch wood again!
geez, when it rains, it really pours out there, huh?!
I’ve been meaning to check in and see how you were faring in the rain. With all the efforts you’ve made to find good drought tolerant plants, I hope you had very few drownings.
At first, the floating bark was all Esther Williams/Busby Berkley…but then suddenly I was thinking of the Tootsie Roll scene from “Caddyshack.”
I hope your land is stable and your gardens just as wet as they need to be in the New Year!
Denise, I fill a tad silly saving water in buckets and barrels. But we’re Californians and know all good wet things will come to an end.
Helen, thank you! I’ll settle for a little rain compared to what you’ve got!
Loree, so far all I see is one casualty, a tiny plant that got smothered by a much larger adjacent grass. Most of the plants look deliriously happy–or dormant for the winter. (They don’t know what they’re missing.)
Gayle, no, it’s not just you! We have a lot of hardscape, even worse than clay. This happens one or twice every other year and dissipates within a few hours–nothing as bad as your yard with its clay.
Ryan, we have drains in a couple places and the grade of the yard at least keeps the ground flooding contained outdoors. One of the rain days was so intense it sent a little water inside my studio through some unsealed cracks that I’ve now caulked.
Jenny, it’s good our water has a place to go–downhill. But we have neighbors uphill that are probably glad we’re here to drain onto.
fer, that diaper thing is hilarious! Definitely one I’ll have to remember.
CM, you definitely don’t want to lose your great view by sliding down the slope! For the most part we’re doing pretty well down here too. More rain is just arriving as I write this, but thing shouldn’t flood the way they did ten days ago.
Wendy, soak city! If only we got our deluges during hot summer weather we’d have the perfect climate.
Greg, if the problems are just displaced bark mulch, I’d say we’re doing pretty well. I went out when things started to dry and corralled up most of the stray bark and put it back where it belongs. No need to mulch concrete walkways. Some background music might have made the scene a little more Ester William and a little less Caddyshack. Anyway, thanks for the 2011 wishes. Enjoy your new year!
James, La Nina Loca rocks on (& floating mulch is a good thing). Rain started drizzling in again around 4pm and now, at 10:58pm, it seems to be continuing, unabated. We’re pretty water efficient, but hoping our next monthly billing from Rancho California Water District will be a joy to behold!
I took vicarious enjoyment from the sight of your bark mulch making delicate pirouettes in a bid for freedom! Hope there was not too much clean-up, and that you don’t get quite that quantity of rain again in such a short period for a long time. Little and often works so much better, for underground parking complexes as well as gardens! Happy 2011.
i’m glad you are taking time to chronicle the damage. reports of damage in our town have been delayed, so people have no idea how extensive it has been. one of our nurseries, laguna nursery, in our main canyon, lost everything. at least 50 families also lost everything. it was a miracle no lives were lost.
Those before and after photos are astonishing! I’ve never seen that much flooding in person before, I’m glad everything is clearing up for you.
Arleen, from the reports it looks like you got it a little wetter than we did down here, but we still got rained on pretty heavily. And now the rain is gone and we’re about to get the January cold. I’m not looking forward to the scooter ride into work before sunrise tomorrow morning.
Janet, thanks for the wishes! Cleanup at my house wasn’t too involved. It definitely could have been worse. I think that I’ll look back in disbelief at this season once the rain spigot shuts off tight in April or May and we won’t get meaningful rainfall for six months after that.
Janine, I’d heard Laguna got hit bad. The LA Times keeps going back there for dramatic stories of flooding and recovery. I’m sorry to hear about the nursery and the families that got flooded out.
Eliza, this shopping center floods frequently and I think they’ve made some parts sacrificial during the wet weather. Still it still seems a tad crazy to keep building 100 feet from the edge of the river–at below river level. If you build it, it will flood. And it does.
Hi James
I sent you an email and hope it’s the correct address.
We’ve also had the heaviest December rains in 30 years. Luckily not terrible damage or flooding, as my little town gets hit hard every couple decades when 300 properties are vulnerable to five feet of water when conditions all come together and overflow.
The fact that building goes on at this point in time in highly vulnerable areas does not make any sense. It was the same in Chicago, where homes were being built right on the lakefront north of the city.