Grasses and Chamisas

We got more rain again last week. I keep track of rainfall in my rain gauge, and this summer we've had over 9 inches of rain, most of it coming in long gentle soakers rather than in the typical brief thunderclap downpour that just runs off. 

We've had years in the past where 10 inches was the total precipitation for the entire year. So this is very unusual, at least for modern times. Long time locals tell me twenty years ago it rained like this most summers.

The untended field next to our garage doesn't green up as much as it "grasses up".

It's late in the season, so everything is muted, turning tawny rather than lush green. But it's tall and wavy and such a different sight. On the hill behind the grasses the blue tinged clumps are rabbitbrush, or chamisa. Chamisa grows prolifically all over, with showy yellow flowers later in fall. 

For some reason the patch next to our garage has not been colonized by the ever present chamisas. There's one plant, over on the left side of this shot, but only one.

In the 8 years we've lived next to this plot of sand and caliche and grasses, the chamisa shrubs from the hill have never crossed the walking path to set seed on our side next to our garage, except for that one shrub. 

They seed absolutely anywhere you leave sandy dirt in untended spots. Everywhere -- along walking paths, by roadsides, in open fields and throughout arroyos. They form colonies. They want almost no water.

But not in this little strip. 

Which is just as well, I don't really want any more chamisas around me, and not so near our house. Some actually stink in bloom, it's not very pleasant. Still, it's a mystery why only one lonely shrub has ever come down the hill to grow in our little triangle of grasses.