Fontana Dam spilling water after a week of rain – TVA
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The Fourth of July week was an almost total washout here. It started raining on Tuesday night, July 2nd and rained, and rained, and rained… all the way through early Monday morning, July 8th. Even the fireworks on the 4th were rescheduled to Saturday night. (It did stop for a few hours on Friday evening and again on Saturday evening, long enough to have a cookout, and a campfire and fireworks on Saturday.) In five days, we had more than NINE inches of rain! This rainfall led to a record water release at Fontana Dam, with Fontana Lake spilling 200,000 gallons per second over the weekend (an awesome sight), and the dam is still spilling 130,000 gallons per second to make flood storage for the continued rain in the forecast.
The garden stood up to the torrential rain better than I expected. It helped that I already had plant supports in the tallest flowers. I have jungle-growth throughout the garden though, here are some current photos (my lens was foggy for some of these). Click on any photo to view larger.
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Bee Balm, butterfly bush, hydrangea and scarlet runners on arch
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Blue forget-me-nots, hardy begonia, ‘Caramel’ heuchera, zinnias, lamium
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Center flower bed with mixed planting
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Beautiful! The very last photo gave me a great idea for my circle driveway. Thank you!
thanks, sandytriad, glad you found the photo inspiring. :)
Such an abundance of water! I can’t even imagine it. Your garden looks so cool and shady and inviting. Nicely done!
thanks, Katie, yes we sure have had enough rain. Cool & shady? I wish, lol. 88 degrees here today and humidity 85%. I couldn’t stand it out there for long. :)
I think you have had more rain than we have. We did have a sunny July 4th and 5th, and then it was back to the rain every day since. Your gardens look like they are doing ok even with all the rain. Makes you yearn for the hot, sunny days we had last summer.
Hi Lana,
Even more rain on the way according to the local news. It’s plenty hot and humid here, this week it has been raining at night and been sunny during the day so that’s a nice change from the week of the 4th. It’s been too hot to get much done outside though. It’s always something, isn’t it? lol
Hope you get some sunny days this week. Your gardens are looking good!
The grass is always greener, so to speak. After a wet late winter and all Spring, the faucet finally turned off once summer started. The grass just started to die off when the rains returned this week. So, I’m happy. :-) Although we’ve had a couple tremendous blinding rainstorms which have toppled my beloved Conca D’or orienpet lilies right before blooming. I must get out and stake them! Love the Fontana dam picture. Awesome.
Hi anonymous,
I hate when the rain knocks something down just before it blooms! I’m glad your weather is good. Thanks for visiting :)
-Sherry
Sherry, since you obviously know what you are doing, I have a question for you. I think I ruined my azaleas by cutting them off nearly to the ground. I started off with just trimming them, but I couldn’t get them even, so I just kept cutting. I have the thick trunks, but no leaves. Will they come back, or should I just dig them up? The guilt of ruining them is making me sick!
Hi sandytriad,
I’m no expert, just a home gardener and I frequently do -not- know what I’m doing, lol, but I’ll try. :)
Yes, I -think- your azaleas will recover from drastic pruning, you probably won’t have any bloom next year though since they form next year’s flower buds soon after blooming. I would feed and water them frequently now to stimulate new growth and I think they’ll probably be fine. Good luck with them.
Thank you Sherry, that makes me feel better. Now, maybe I can walk by that butchered little mess without feeling like the mom that gave her kid the bad haircut! I’ve done that too.