Texas Gardening: Lessons learned while gardening in a drought..., 1 by rouxcrew

rouxcrew wrote:
We have had 3.75" of rain total since last September here at the farm. We are just a couple miles as the crow flies from an oxbow in the Brazos river and the river bottom and it seems to really disrupt the weather that comes out of the W/NW. Anyway, we got about an inch from that rain, I am doing a major happy dance. It is amazing not to be covered in dust all day.
Due to time constraints and livestock "misplacement" I have had all my old stock tanks that leaked converted into planting beds for my garden this year instead of my big 50 X 50 garden/dairy goat pen. The drought has taught me that the plants in the 4' tall tanks maintain very well with minimal mulch where the 2' tanks are good only for my herbs and small plants because they dry out too fast no matter what I do. And my basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and mints have done wonderfully this year in them. And I like them just outside near the kitchen (duh).
We have even more birds here that are strangers to the farm. Yesterday morning I had 3 Sandhill Cranes stop in to the pond, 2 White Ibises, and a Wood Stork. We even have 5 or 6 Baltimore Orioles visiting, another oddity around here. But my biggest surprise was the Whooping Crane that flew through my trees about 10' off the ground till it reached open pasture to rise. I was heading back to the house for my camera when it passed me. I just stood and gaped.