I just found out there was a Rocky Mountain Forum here!!

Anyway, yeah great to see more Colorado people who garden. My garden is kindof small this year, but is doing fairly well. Yeah, we've been getting some nice rain the last few days, but thankfully the hail usually misses us. I had a good crop of peas this spring, and a rare red-seeded pea is still forming new pods now. The watermelons are doing fantastic this year, and are actually growing faster than the squash! The corn is doing ok, but it's not really behaving like it did last year. The strange spring must have affected it. I will provide a link to my garden photos below. I will try and post some new photos soon. The pictures on there now are a few weeks old.

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden photos

Of course it is raining every day. This is the time of year when the farmers are trying to cut hay. For the unknowing, hay must be all most dry before it can be bailed.
Here is La Salle, maybe a quarter of an inch TOTAL for all week.
Kenny

Promises of rain but nothing measurable yet. Hopefully soon. I am in northern NM. Sigh.....waiting...Gloria

It's started raining in the afternoons here and rains pretty much all night until 3 or 4 in the morning. I have to go out and dump the water out of the flower pots because they can't drain fast enough. It's beat all the petals off the roses but everything else looks okay still.

We've got more than 18" of rain over the last 48 hours or so.

Well we finally got hit by hail in yesterday's second storm. Ripped up the squash but they'll recover. Knocked some buds off the pepper plants so that will slow them down. I think everything's going to live though. My biggest tomatoes are starting to crack from all the extra water. I could use a couple days without rain myself.

Well, according to NOAA, we've only gotten around an inch the past 48 hours, but I'm pretty sure it was more than that. My yard is full of mushrooms this morning. It takes a LOT of moisture for those things to spring up! My garden is loving it, but I'm hoping it dries out enough to cut the grass today.

Keen, welcome to the RMG forum! That red seeded pea looks pretty cool. Does it taste like a regular green pea, and is it a snap pea, or the shelling type?

Cinderspritzer, where do you live? 18" is more rain than we get here for the entire year. Normal annual precipitation for this part of Colorado is around 12".

We got A LOT of rain in the last 48 hours. My rain gauge blew out of its home and broke so I am not sure how much we got...the wheel barrel left out on the side has about 8 inches in it. I don't know if that is accurate but it was dry when these storms started. I spent quite a bit of time the last 2 days in the basement as the sirens were going off. It looked like their was quite a bit of rotation to the 1st and 3rd storm that moved through here. We got the H word of course. The corn(mostly 1 var) and quinoa were all flattened to the ground from the wind. The tomatoes were a heap on the ground also. I worked for about 4 hours yesterday trying to get them thinned and up on thier "trellis'" again. I got about 1/3 of the way done before the next storm blew in. The squash, chards and a few other things are all "air conditioned" with holes.

Keen101- Welcome! How do you obtain seed from the Nordic Seed Bank!?!? I would LOVE to know your trick! Also, my watermelon (4 vars)is not doing that well this year. Although, they are doing better than last year(Hail). It appears we(RMG) will need feedback from your "watermelon project" this year on what to grow next year. Good luck with your "projects"!

ProvoGirl

Thanks,

I haven't tried eating the red-seeded pea yet, but it's described as being an old field pea, so i assume that it's an old shelling type, and could use some breeding work.

I was given a link a few months back on the Homegrown Goodness plant forum to the Nordic Seed Bank. What's funny is that it's much easier and much less hassle to order from the Nordic and the german seek banks than the USDA one. Just click the english link, and click on >Databases >Germplasm. If you have trouble you can ask and i will try and help.

Sure, i will try and keep you updated on the watermelons. If i get any watermelons before winter, i will try my best to identify them by variety. I planted about 40 different kinds mixed together, with an emphasis on northern varieties and native american varieties. We will see if it turn out successful. The Landrace method is an idea i got from a man named Joseph (also a member of the Homegrown Goodness forum) who lives in Utah and has dry soil but lives close to the mountains. His climate is very very close to mine. He is having a really good success with a tomato landrace he is developing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nordic Seed Bank

Keen101- Thanks for the link! I will let you know if I have any more questions concerning the Nordic Seed Bank. I will "putz" around on Homegrown Goodness over the next few days and look into what "Joseph" has posted. I grew up gardening in Utah so I am familiar with the climate there. It is similar to ours here. I also gardened in the Phoenix area for a few years which is not like our climate here! I save a lot of seed and am always looking for plants that do well here. We get so much exposure with the weathers varying elements and the crazy H storms that it definitely is a challenge to garden here.

ProvoGirl

BTW- Just got another rain storm tonight! No H here though!

The humidity is making our water glasses drip just like back home (a long time ago) in NJ. The plants are loving the moisture tho! My garden is growing like the weeds, finally. I need to go over and take photos, but here's a pic of some of what I brought home the other day:
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The community gardens where I garden are lush! Nice not to have the desert heat we usually do. The creek behind my house is over its banks, rushing like the Colorado River. I don't know, if I don't start growing mold behind my ears, I'm liking this rain (as long as no hail sneaks in!).

Six days in a row. of measurable precip., approaching 2" at the house. I have garlic that needs to get in that I might have to lift in wet soil.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, jus' sayin'...

Dan

Uncle!!!!!! I think I have had over 3" in the past week. Fortunately no Hail. I think the annual H20 is up to average so I hope it stops soon!!! I thought Aug was the time of Monsoons!!

Here is the Colo map product for monsoonal moisture for this season. Pretty nice moisture so far.

Dan

Great NOAA link. Matches my rain gauge. NE Denver sure has gotten a dumping over the past 7 days!! I thought my 2.5" was a lot.

Lakewood CO. 930PM MDT- A semi-huge TS (I say that because the H word was not present) Thunder and Lightning for over 15 min. I spent most of my time hugging one of my two dogs which was shaking and panting. The other one was asleep on the sofa.

I have not gone out to check the rain gauge but I figure another .5-.75 " of rain for the day. (we had an good shower at 6PM.)

Nice moisture if you want to live in a hothouse. Geez.

I was included in the most recent Dumping again tonite--the one Dsieber reported above. It was an absolutely torrential downpour for 10-15 minutes, and the most lightening I've seen in a long, LONG time! Luckily almost all of the lightening seemed to be cloud to cloud. No idea how much rain I got, and not going out in the dark--and WET--to look. And, there's more precip building down on the south end of the city, and if that moves the right direction, I (many of us!) could get more tonite yet!

I'm seriously tired of the Hothouse Effect too, Jnfr! The humidity IN my house most of today was SEVENTY percent! I don't even remember the last time it was that high inside! My towels are getting yucky smelling, and my washcloth was still damp from my shower last nite when I went to take my shower tonite!!! I've been working out in the yard each day for a couple hours before the "weather" moves in, and the humidity is insufferable! How often do we describe the weather around hear as "MUGGY???" Or, "close" is another good Illinois term! YUK! Like TommysMommy said above, the water glasses are sweating! At least the toilet tank hasn't started dripping yet! Delightful memories of growing up in the Midwest! I am definitely ready for single digit humidity again! Think it's gonna be a little while before we get back to that!

Glad I was able to get the grass in the front yard cut yesterday before the rain moved in, but the backyard that I cut on Friday needs it again! At least I'm finally getting some great grass clippings for veggie garden mulch! I'll finally be rid of the mud splashing up onto everything!

Thunder in the distance again, moving this way! I think I will get more yet tonite!

But, gratefully, no hail here yet!

CRASH! The thunder is back! That was quick!

It's pouring again!!!

Stay dry everyone,
Skybird

P.S. I love the map you linked too, Dan!

The lightning and thunder last night were amazing. I've never seen anything quite like that here before.

What a show mother nature put on for us last night! I'm a bit tired today as there was no sleeping through that storm.

I'm very grateful that we pulled the swamp cooler and went with central air 2 years ago. A swamp cooler would be useless right now!

I've enjoyed not having to water.

I only got one rain barrel up so far on the south side of the house and it's been full for days.

The skeeters are going to be horrendous here shortly, but other than that I've really enjoyed the rain. The mini lakes will dry out soon enough.

Dan, thanks for the link and for the heads up before the monsoon came. The info was much appreciated!

Barb

What a show last night here is La Salle. Forth of July and new years all rolled into one. I would be about 20 miles north of skybird. Once again no rain,,hardly got the ground wet. Maybe a quarter of an inch total in the last 10 days.
KennyP

Boy did I blow it in that last message. I talked before I looked. Any way, some time during the night when I was sleeping I got eight tenth of nice rain. My raised bed tomatoes should like it.
KennyP

We're water logged in NE Arvada!! Supposed to get more tonight. I feel like I'm in a sauna!! Hope the grass dries enough to mow today!

It rained all through my son's final baseball game last night, but woke up to sunny skies this morning. After 6 days of at least some measurable precip each day, it looks like we are headed for a more normal July weather pattern here.

My veggie garden is very appreciative of the rain, and I haven't had to water in a week, which is a big deal when part of your garden is not on your property!

I pulled a mushroom out of my squash bed this morning. We get them sometimes around the trees, but I've never seen one in my raised beds before.

HAIL HAIL HAIL!!! Slowly drove home in one G. Awful Hail storm (1/2-3/4") Ran into the house and on to the deck. My Containerized Meyer Lemon tree that I have had for 4 year was pounded!! 4 lemons that formed inside during spring gone, 4 large branch ends gone, lots of the new growth since putting it out gone, blossoms that opened during the past week gone. I do see several blossoms that have not opened on the tree so hopefully I will have some lemons this year! If only I did not stay late at work I could have yanked it into the kitchen. However, in the grand scheme of things this could have/should have is trivial compared to life�s CH/SH.

On the hail damage to my Meyer lemon on the deck, I did an inspection and I count 5 minifruit forming must have been from the first flush of blosoms after putting it outside. (mini fruit must be extra tough). I have pruned the ragged branch breaks hopefully I will get a new burst of growth. The tree was going like gangbusters so it may continue. After seeing where the hail came from I will relocate it under the roof overhang which should protect it from any future direct strikes but still provide a great southern exposure... Live and learn!!!

Sorry to hear that, dsieber. The H word sucks.

After being extremely lucky during this weather pattern in Aurora, hail hit last night. Shredded the cucs pretty good and extensive damage to the spaghetti squash. I will clean up what I can and hope they come back. Tomatoes and tomatillos seemed to get very little damage. Hostas also got some chewed up leaves but not as bad as in years past. Puppy is over having to hide under the bed all night. Pretty sure we all aready for a few dry days (not today though as a storm is moving through right now)!

Kath

Okay, see my post above, HAIL sneaked in last night! We were doing so well, and I was always prepared. Last night I heard a bang, another bang like 10 seconds later. Finally when looking out to see who was making the noise, I realized it was the beginning of "The Reign (Rain) of Terror (Hail)". Ran for towels to cover some plants, moved others under the eaves, then stood in the hail and rain with an umbrella over my Angels Trumpet tree (planted inground) which has big fat buds on it it. Got soaked of course. Caught a hailstone in my eyeball too, that bounced off a nearby light fixture! Visited the community garden today and there was damage, but I've seen worse. Had to right corn plants and tomato cages. Chard looks sad. Otherwise, not too bad.

Sounds like it was a major mess out at DIA (airport) with planes damaged, etc.

I really, really dislike hail. Today I was out pruning some of the fruit trees that survived our storm 4-5 years ago, when we got 4" of hail on the ground in 15 minutes. September 10th when the veg garden was at its peak, pounded that into a pulp. The bark has yet to grow back completely and they still look lopsided.

Anyway, this one you front rangers just went through was pretty nasty and widespread.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to info on the storm

A high percentage of the homes in Lakewood needed new roofs due to the early hours hail storm of July 2009. It was a lot worse than yesterday. In Addenbrooke park most of the conifers are bare on the west side of the trees due to this storm. Here is a link to a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6mooSaO2CA

Planned to get back here for an update yesterday and it just didn't happen!

Tuesday nite, when we got all the rain overnite, I wound up with a total of 1.6 inches! I was amazed when I checked the rain gauge in the morning! It looked like a tsunami hit the walk that goes into my backyard! Can't post the pics I took yesterday, but there was enough standing water that the mulch along this walk all floated out onto the flagstone in this pic! Much of it floated from along the walk toward the top of the pic and "came to rest" on the bottom part, about a third of which wasn't visible at all--and the rest of it was about 50% covered! And the water was deep enough that when the mulch "landed" it completely covered some of the shorter plants! I almost fell over when I saw it! I'm glad the water had "receded" by the time I saw it, 'cause I would have absolutely wigged out if I had been watching it happen!

Then, yesterday, around 8:30, the HAIL finally found its way to my house! Hail is a little bit like an earthquake! All you can do is stand and watch and wait, and hope nothing TOO bad happens! What I got was about 1/2" diameter, and it only lasted about five minutes--thank goodness! It sure is "distressing" to watch it! It was too dark to go looking by the time the rain let up, so I didn't get to check out the damage till this morning. Definitely not as bad as it could have been--if it HAD TO BE! Things with smaller, more flexible leaves are ok for the most part, but stuff with the bigger leaves bought it! The tomatoes had some leaves broken off, which I don't really care about at all since I cut a lot of the leaves off anyway, but some of the small cherry tomatoes were completely knocked off of the plants--and there aren't that many of them yet! I brought them in, hoping they'll eventually ripen inside! The eggplant leaves are totally shredded, and when I was hovering over them, trying to soothe them (or me!), I noticed that there was a small eggplant developing that I hadn't even noticed--when the plant still had leaves! The eggplant looks like it's still ok to me--at least it's not laying on the ground! The squash leaves are a disaster, needless to say--and the few flowers I finally had, but they'll come back! And the cukes were hit pretty hard too, but they'll be fine again too, and in a week there will be so much new foliage I won't even be able to tell they were hit---well---IF they don't get hit again! The pole beans, which grow up chicken wire on the fence, had a lot of damage--anything that gets slammed into something hard like the wood fence seems to me to get more damaged than the things that are out in the open and can just kind of Go With the Flow!

Holes in my perennials too, of course! Won't be to noticeable once I get them all cleaned up again! Most discouraging was that two of the little bud stem tips on my, now blooming, Crocosmia got knocked off! They're inside in a tiny vase--along with a few other things that were bent or broken off, and I'm hoping they'll actually open. I've never cut and put them in water before, so I have no idea if it'll work--but trying is definitely better than throwing them directly on the compost pile!

I was out for a while picking up the shredded debris from the ground, but I decided to leave the shredded leaves that are still attached to the plants, on the plants for today, since we could get more hail--and I'd rather have the same set of leaves re-smashed, than have a whole new layer of leaves catastrophized, and then need to cut off even more tomorrow! So far, so good today! Radar is lookin' good at this point, but with the overnite rain we've gotten in the last couple days, I'm not gonna believe it till morning!

I never got the rain gauge emptied yesterday, and when I checked it this morning, I was up to 1.9", so 3/10ths more than yesterday!

I've had 3.7" of precip in the last week!

But, boy, am I ever OVER the humidity!!! I forgot to talc my diaper--and all the rest of me--before I went out to work, and in about 5 minutes I was saturated! Yuk! I don't think I ever remember such high humidity going on for so many days in a row out here, and I SO remember why I hated living in Illinois!

And the mosquitos! OMG! The mosquitos! The first thing I did outside today was to take a new can of flying insect killer out and spray under and around all the plants and behind the shed, and over the compost pile, and under the rhubarb leaves (which are mostly destroyed), and---everywhere! Used most of the can! But it really did help when I was out starting to clean up! Of course, by mid afternoon they were reappearing from all the yards around me! I discovered a few years ago that mosquitoes don't actually need standing water to breed in. They seem to be quite efficient at breeding almost any place that stays wet for enough days, like the underside of big (hosta) leaves, in mulch, under inverted empty pots! I've decided they're going to survive right along with the cockroaches when the next major extinction happens on earth! Luckily I've been "vaccinated" for West Nile Virus, so I don't have to worry about that---but then there's the itching! With this major mosquito event we're having along the Front Range right now, you all might be interested to know that pure ammonia will take the itch out of mosquito bites! Just fold a small "patch" of paper towel at least 2 layers thick, saturate it with ammonia, and plaster it on the bite and leave it there for about a half an hour. I think you need to do it fairly quickly, like maybe within an hour, but it really will make the itching go away! I am currently keeping the ammonia bottle and a paper towel I'm cutting up right next to me here at the computer! As soon as I figure out I've been bitten--a/k/a start scratching--I make a "patch" and slap it on! And, no, the straight ammonia doesn't seem to damage my skin at all!

Yeah, David, a LOT Of damage! Just think about how much damage hail can do to a car, and airplane skin is amazingly thin--and all those big, flat wing surfaces---and control surfaces! Ouch! Lots of folks got to sleep in the airport last nite!

Radar still not looking too bad right around Denver, but it looks like there's more storms building over and moving off of the southern foothills! What will the evening bring???

Skybird

Today was the 3rd hail storm in the last week and a half for me here!! I have yet to check my garden after this last one, but considering the size of the hail, I don't think it's going to be good. When will this end?! I don't know how much more my poor little garden can take! :(

Last night we faired pretty well out here near DIA. At DIA was another story. HB said it looked like snow on the ramp but it was 1" hail. The ramps were closed for several hours due to lightening. Skybird you are right about damage to planes! A lot of planes were damaged last night so many flights were cancelled today. Although I don't mind having the HB home an extra night!

On Tuesday night we got a pretty bad lightening storm with a lot of rain. I watched the 8 year olds blow up pool go straight up in the air with about 6 inches of water in it...decided to go down to the basement then. Found it in the front yard after the storm with water STILL in it! The kitchen door leaked and we had rain water in the kitchen. We have spent a good deal of time in the basement over the last week. I am not getting a lot of actual work done because of that.

Tonight we got more rain(2.4") and the H word. The hail was not too bad as far as hail goes...or maybe I am getting more tolerant of "holey" plants. I keep my citrus trees and coffee plant on the front covered plant after the high wind we got last spring blew all the leaves off.

Looks like the monsoon storms are not through with us just yet. Could be a few more days of rain and hopefully only rain.

ProvoGirl

If you got that much rain, Provo, it sounds like you were part of the storm that moved VERY slowly over DIA today. Apparently the ramp was closed down for an hour again today because of the rain. I can't believe you're getting hit by hail for the second year! But too late to replace the plants this year! If they all come thru ok, maybe you should call them holy plants rather than holey plants!

And, Rosie, if your plants survive THREE hail storms, I think yours are maybe Wholly Holy! If I got three hail storms in a row, I'd be doing something very UNholy by now! Hope your plants all recover!

From the looks of the radar, I'd say we dodged the bullet for the rest of tonite! A week ago "they" were saying that by Wednesday this was supposed to be mostly over with, and that by today/Thursday it would be GONE! Now they just keep extending it day by day!

At least I haven't had any water in--or anywhere near in--my house, Provo. I'd REALLY be freaking out if that happened! Hope you didn't have any damage. And your "situation" with the pool! Since you're not too far from the airport, I'm kinda wondering if maybe they picked it up on radar as a UFO! ;-)

Skybird

A trick with mosquito bites - as soon as you can, swab them with household ammonia. Thats the ingredient in those anti-mosquito-bite-itch sticks they sell, it destroys the chemical that causes the itching. It also works wonders for wasp stings.

We have an item on our property taxes that goes to the "mosquito district" in the county, created back in the pre-vaccine days when mosquito-born livestock diseases were a big problem. When I first moved here, the guys would whip by at 40 mph down the county roads with spray trucks wafting out clouds of malathion. Cough. Gag. Now, they have some outfit that hires college kids during the summer, and they come out and check for larvae, and if they find a high enough concentration, they'll dose the water with that strain of BT that goes after the larvae.

Skybird where are you located I thought you were due east of me in Denver proper? I guess not because you would have gotten the hail by 6;15/6:30.

OMG - I hear thunder again and the sky is getting dark with stormy clouds :^( I HAD been enjoying all this rain and how everything is so green this year - but ok, enough is enough! Couldn't mother nature just sprinkle (no pun intended) these rain spells around a bit over the summer, and not load them in all at once?!!

Maybe if it wasn't for the sauna-effect it ends up creating, I'd be happier with it continuing on - but then, I've been one of the lucky ones to not have had any hail (knock on wood!). So sorry for those folks who have had damage from the H stuff!!!

I've had a cold all week (drippy nose, sneezing, coughing), so haven't been outside enough to notice if the mosquitos are on the rise. Have noticed mushrooms popping up in the lawn, though! The ammonia tip sounds like a good one if the skeeters bite - I'll remember that one.

Marj

The thunder, and a light sprinkle--so far, just got here too, Misty. I'm hoping it stays light, but I'm kind of glad to be getting a little bit again right now! The humidity is absolutely stifling, and wetting everything down outside will help cool the air--and the house. My AC hasn't worked for a couple years now--and I sleep upstairs! Wish I could find some way to make heat go DOWN instead of UP!!! On radar it looks like this little patch is moving off east of me--out to DIA again, so maybe, MAYBE, this will be all for tonite!

Another case of great minds thinking alike, David, with the ammonia! But do you find it to be really effective just putting it on and letting it dry? Like I posted above, I've found that I need to make the little "patch" and leave it on a while to completely get rid of the itching. I always wondered if it worked for bee stings too, and if it works for wasps, it should work for bees too. I'm allergic to hymenoptera, and if (when) I get stung again, I'll put an "ammonia patch" under the icepack! I've discovered that ice (for 12 hours!) dissipates the venom slowly enough that I don't react! Maybe adding the ammonia will "fix" it even quicker!

I use that BT (israelensis) in my tiny little pond to keep the mosquitoes out. The one I use is Quick-Kill, they make Mosquito Bits and Mosquito Dunks--I use the Bits. The Dunks are supposed to last longer, but they come in big pieces that I'd need to break up for such a small pond, so the bits are easier, even if I need to keep adding them every couple weeks. The stuff is expensive, but it WORKS!

I'm way north in Thornton, Dsieber--up at 120th and Colorado Blvd. I get to watch the reports of everybody south and west of me to see what's gonna happen! ;-)

Skybird

Skybird I would have known that if I have attended your "we are very dry spring Swaps!!!" Tonight Lakewood has just had a 5 min moderate shower. Since I have moved the mangled Meyer lemon under the roof I have got to be extra cautious on keeping it watered.. BTW I have been passing on DaN'S MOST EXELLENT NOAA link to my work collegues there may a mini blip on hits.

I missed your ammonia paragraph, Skybird, oops, shows I should read more carefully. Last week, my DD managed to kick a soccer ball into a bush with resident wasp nest and was stung when she retrieved the ball, ran into the greenhouse and slapped a paper towel with ammonia on it, and that was that.

And for those who have fungus gnats in their houseplants/seedling starting stuff, that BT israelensis takes care of them very nicely. I order a 20 oz batch, and it lasts several years. When I start my seedlings, I sprinkle a couple of grains of the stuff in each cell, and no more fungus gnats.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I think I got REALLY lucky through the last few hail storms. I definitely lost some tomato blossoms, the tomato leaves got pretty banged up, and I lost an entire branch off my raspberry bush, but all in all I think most plants will survive, and the tomatoes already seem to be recovering pretty well!
I would still really like the rain to let up for a few days, though!

Me too. It's been only showers the past few days, which is better than the huge raging thunderstorms, but we really need some dry heat here! (not too much, just the perfect amount, right?)

Luckily, down here in Parker, we have not gotten any hail except for maybe 20 seconds of tiny "spit" hail. My biggest problem has been keeping my plants watered in this heat.

It's raining tonight on my pea seeds. :) However snow is apparently predicted for tomorrow and again on saturday. I expect only light snows as rain forcasts are mixed in between along with warm again after. So it seems this year we get April weather in March, so does that mean we get May weather in April?

Rain again. :) Hopefully it will remain rain and will not turn into snow. I have a feeling it will stay rain, but i guess it could go either way.

If that's not a jinx Keen, I don't know what is ;). 1-3" snow EXPECTED for the Denver metro, but they told us that last Tuesday, too...

The rain helps melt the snow and bring back the spring visage of green, speckled with fallen tree limbs that remain all over my neighborhood from March 23.

Bite your tongue, Zach! Let's not have a repeat of the weathermen's folly of last Tues/Wed. - I can finally see my yard again!

Getting some snowflakes now.

I work in Commerce City. When I left at 3, just a fine mist had fallen over us. By the time I made it to Lakewood, huge goose down flakes were coming at me sideways, but I beat the storm to Littleton, where it had just started to snow when I got back down here at around 5... Still snowing steady, and supposed to last all day tomorrow though it hasn't accumulated on the pavement yet but the yard has about 3/4 of an inch on it.... I think I have seen my grass a total of about 3 weeks since November.