As always everything looks completely refreshed in a way that all my hand watering and irrigation never achieves.
Then a day later it rained again, measuring another half inch. Good long soakers, both times.
It was a very dry spring, followed by a very dry summer. Just a quarter or third of an inch at a time, each delivered about four weeks apart, totaling no more than two inches total all spring and into mid September.
Those barely-there wettings and my hose watering created mildewed mulch but left the soil underneath hardly damp. The garden struggled and looked stressed.
And every afternoon all summer long has been in the high 80s, not alarmingly hot, but too uncomfortable to sit outside, and the heat lingered into evening. Mornings were usually nice, but we spent the entire summer inside after noontime in the roaring A/C.
So even though I had Greg switch the cushioned teak chairs out for our metal patio table and chair set back on July 25, we never once got to enjoy an evening out there. Til now. It was cool and fresh in between soakings and pleasant for wine on the patio.
This sudden change and long overdue rain has been nice.
More rain is forecast in the coming days . . .