Your Neck of the Woods Chat Summer 2012 Part 1

We came from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1261516/#new

98 degrees here today. No rain. Humidity rolls in tomorrow. No rain next ten days. Everything is dry dry dry. My plants seem to be hunkering down rather than growing profusely. Potatoes are only happy garden veggie. I'm asking questions that other gardeners have asked when faced with a very dry summer.....What plants to save with supplemental watering?

So, what is on your list of must/will saves? How much time, really, do you log in watering each day/week? I have no lawn, so I don't count that into the mix. I am very aware this year that I need to have a regular program of deep watering or many of my plantings won't survive, let alone the demands of multiple containers to drench once or twice daily.

I hate to say this, it almost doesn't matter how my garden does this summer as it is too hot for me to enjoy it anyway! Seems I've been keeping my plantings alive for the last several years as if the extended periods of excessive heat were only temporary and "regular" summers would be back on track soon. Hummm, a bit of denial?

Would love to hear others perspectives and weather and effects on you and your gardening or anything else you'd like to mention or chat about. Probably your computer like mine is in an air conditioned space! So cool off and chat a spell!

This message was edited Jun 28, 2012 11:40 PM

Well---

We had a brief, intense T-Shower in the middle of last night. BUT--it only lasted about 15 minutes.
I heard it--got out of bed and looked out my window--saw that one of my pots was blown
off of its place it sat--and that my plastic lawn chair suffered the same.

It was a nasty, brief storm--radio said we even had hale. Don't know--I went right back to bed.

This evening--I went out to water some plants. To my surprise--nothing was really all that dry.
maybe the rain? maybe the humidity being so high--nothing was drying out.

I try to keep all my beds watered. Priority? My Tomatoes and beans and such. I hated being out there!
Was drenched in about 15 minutes. Heat index here? 105*. Same tomorrow.

Going out right now to re-locate my Epis. They are in too much sun--looking a bit droopy.
Need to find a more shady spot.....

Gita

Yes, here in SE PA we are having similar weather, perhaps with less humidity. I have been watering every evening (I have lots of beds to cover), focusing on the thirsty babies such as astilbe and ferns and some prized shrubs. Beyond that, I try to get around to every area at least once a week. New plantings (what was I thinking?) more often. One advantage is that spot watering can keep desired plants going without helping the weeds. (I fill a 2 gallon watering can and prop it up to water the area around the desired plants. Let the weeds suffer!)

It is so strange: we had this long wet Spring, but the June heat and drought seems just as awful as the usual July drought. The only obvious difference is that our pond still has water.

Yup the surface soil sure seems really dry and the heat stresses the plants so. I have things wilting terribly that usually wait until August to wilt.

The lack of rainfall may be helping my tomatos avoid blight- those lower leaves turning yellow from the ground up.

We had a storm last night and things seems wet enough for today. I have spent time watering but yes am prioritizing. No lawn watering.

I collect buckets of air conditioner condensate.

This morning I poked around the downspout and found the extension on the bottom was off. That explains the last two occurrences of water trickles in the unfinished basement! glad to have a likely source identified and fixed.

First, I want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with all those in our area dealing with high heat, power outages and the aftermath and damage from the storm that blew through last night. Virginia is declared a state of emergency and PG and Montgomery Co in MD is on emergency water restrictions due to water plants being knocked out. Our power here was restored an hour ago but many around are still without. There were lines for ice (and morning coffee!!) at any stores that had power. Most street and traffic lites were out and there are many downed trees and branches covering streets and yards. Saw 12 downed trees and 3 damaged garages and one smashed car while delivering my paper route early am. Had to move large branches out of road way to deliver my papers but refused to deliver to twenty homes whose road was blocked by a large tree fallen across the electric wires.

The bird songs were exceedingly joyous and could be heard above the sound of generators. The resident deer population seemed either very curious or very confused by the masses of tree debris or maybe just hungry for some fresh greens and roughage. The eagle nest and tree was standing at 5 am.
It is extreemly lucky that with the very dry conditions here that those intense lightning flashes did not spark some fires.

Just as the storm hit here last night, I was on line trying to determine if my perceptions that my area is in a drought condition has any basis in reality since most other MAF posters (Gita and sallyg) haven't really mentioned the kack of rainfall in their gardens. Sure enough, according to NOAA data all along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, the eastern shore and most of Delaware are in "moderate drought" and at least 7 inches of rain less than average for May and June. Gita's area is almost normal and so is Sallyg.
My trusty rain gague shows less than a quarter inch from last night's storm and an unofficial total rain for May and June in my yard of less than one half inch (including last night).

So, my requests for watering triage advice is spot on and not just my alarmist perspective!

I've had tons of wilting plants, if not actual lack of rainfall. Many cannot cope with these hot hot hot sunny and/or dry breezy days we've had.
That was a HUGE red zone on last night's weather radar!!! I 'think' my rain ended up closer to half inch. I got about 25 gallons in my new rainbarrel, so that boosted whatever fell on the vegetable garden.

Official an F1 tornado hit us here, sustained winds of 72 mph with gusts over 90. There would have been much more damage if many of the large old trees hadn't been taken out in the last microburst. Many totally uprooted or snapped in half. No wonder the deer were wandering around in shock!

Long lines at the one gas station that has power. People coming from as far away as Bowie to get gas. Most bulk gas suppliers (baltimore) also out of power. I filled up.

Wonder which of our plants do the semi dormant thing like zoszia grass? Seems cruel t9o keep watering them when prospects are so dim for return to state of normalacy weather wise. Less than an inch in my rain barrel. Putting out pans of water for birds and critters. Everything is as wilted and droopy as yesterday .

The leaves and branch parts blown down are full of holes and munchings and spots of all sorts, definitely what happens to a repeatedly stressed tree despite a homeowners efforts.

Our area fared pretty well. What might help is all our power lines are underground.
Seems no one in my immediate area lost power.
Worked today--how troubling--people calling all day non stop to ask if we had any Generators.
Nope! All stores totally sold out. I almost wanted to say: Thank you for calling the White marsh HD--
We have NO generators. But--that would have been rude....

Later as I was the greeter (5-6PM) couples and people were coming in looking for generators in despair.
50,000 people are out of power. BG&E sait it may take 4-5 days to even come close to getting to all of them.
People with sweat-soaked clothes. Desperate about their food and freezers.

I tell you now--if there was any one in my neighborhood w/o power--I would take them in.

Anyway----last night I was really tired and went to bed around 9PM. I woke up as the storm was raging.
My bed is right next to a window that looks out to my back yard and the maples.
I heard the howling and the thunder--but was too afraid to look out the window.

Damages? Nothing serious. Many pots blown over---my big trellis that holds up my Climbing Rose
almost toppled. My fault. When they put in all my new gutters and downspouts--
I forgot to cable-tie the trellis to the new downspout.
My heavy, square pot against my shed with my big Hosta in it---over it went--as did all my pots of Clivias.
They cannot fall off to the ground--as they are right against my big, old Burning Bush- but all were on their side.

Grateful that is all that there was. Another similar storm coming again tonight.
Hunker down anything that may get blown over.
Gita
Some pictures:--2 sends...
Other than that--a bunch of dead branches all over from the trees. Just cleaned them up.

Here are a couple more.....

So many times the squirrels also topple my CC pots on this fancy steel stand
that is about 5' tall. They just like to run and play on it....

And the trellis---Tied it back to the downspout just now.

Still fortunate that that was ll there was.....

Boy I feel out of touch. I hardly watch local news and if I'm not driving somewhere I don't hear any. I was home all day but for a quick trip to Aldi for a few items. Maybe this is why Aldi was so quiet- poeple out of power, not buying food...

So the worst storms were south of Balto and Millersville.
Coleup, we are glad you were safe.

Glad you are okay. Lots of damage up here, too. Thank you for confirming the tornado. Was that road Harness Creek Road with the tree on the power line? Saw one there today. Lots of ful, trees down and some with tops torn off. Haven't heard if our son got his power back on yet. Hope so. Had a detour around one town cuz of downed power lines. Our trip home from Annapolis ended up being 3 hours long. Back up on the bridge due to an accident, then a detour in Delaware.

We have 5 gal buckets with a couple of small holes drilled in the bottom so we fill them up, let them drain and then move them to the next spot. Try to concentrate on the shrubs and trees and tomatoes. Not many annuals cuz we'll be away.

I am in Harford County, and we had lots of thunder, lightning, and rain during the storm, but not even close to the amount of wind that other areas experienced. We were very fortunate!

Back to the "what to save with supplemental watering?"

I water the plants along the front of my house (hydrangea, otto luyken laurels, hosta, dwarf blue spruce, and others), because I've spent the most time and effort (so far) there. Sharing equal watering privileges is the vegetable garden. I also water my containers on my front porch.

I never water the lawn. It takes too much water, and in the intense heat it doesn't seem to make much difference anyway. The rest of my plantings are well-established trees and shrubs, and I just cross my fingers that they'll survive if we have an extended period without rainfall.

Hey firebird, welcome to the Mid Atlantic forum. Hope you'll chime in on some other threads here..We are a friendly chatty and widely diverse group with lots of wisdom and plants to share. I see you like coleus....you are in good company.

As I said at the start of this chat thread (which means any one can post on any topic here without following suit or even garden related) here on shore of Ches Bay we are in 'moderate drought' and after Fri nite storm we are on water restrictions because our water treatment plants and water pumping stations are running on emergency power. We are to restrict personal usage as much as possible (showers, clothes washing, even flushing) til power is restored which might not be til end of week! Not sure how any of my plants (coleus, tropicals, Japanese Maples in containers, and shade perrenials, veggie garden) outside of those 'cross my fingers and hope' wellestablished trees and shrubs will survive high heat and no rain in forecast.

Not sure how any of my regional with out power neighbors will survive either. I worry about the oldters on my paper route...Heat and dehydration greatly diminises one's ability to think and do for oneself.

Haven't heard from a number of folks like ruby, aspenhill, greenthumb and pat, ssgardener, Bec, speedy and catbird to name a few...Hope they will check in soon and that they are all ok.

First time in my life that I was ever scared in a storm. Wind was fierce, limbs were hitting the house, power went out, and all I could think about was getting to the basement as quick as possible. The storm came and went in under 20 minutes, but lots of destruction here. Many trees are down and the power is still out with no estimated time for restoration. No land line telephone and no sprint cell service either. Have the generator hooked up and have the refridgerator, freezer, and a fan plugged in to it. Biggest issue right now is the huge oak tree half way uprooted and leaning over the house. Too dangerous to try to cut down ourselves, and will be trying to get an arborist out to take care of it. Best we could do was to tie a cable to it and put tension on it. First picture is one of the downed trees, second picture is Mike and our friend Bunky getting the cabling in place for the tree leaning over the house. I also hit some debris in the car and tore the transmission line - car has been towed to the dealership, but it was closed so I won't know the assessment until tomorrow. What an ordeal this weekend has been, but we are safe and sound.

Aspen -- that is very scary stuff. I pray you are safe, and that you can get the arborist out fast.

Oh, my Dears. I am so, so sorry for what you are going through. I don't think we have ever lost power (other than a night) in the summer; our outages - and downed trees - most often seem to be in the WInter - so we suffer in the cold rather than the heat. We have had a rather rough Spring with lots of lost boughs. Anyhow, my thoughts are with you all (and my older sis who lives in Bethesda).

@aspenhill:

I don't know if others' scary stories help or not, but I know how you felt. A few years back my spouse and son were on a long trip in the wilderness and my daughter was in Europe. It was mid-Spring and no storms were forecast. I heard the most godawful noise outside - cats howled and I thought a plane had come down nearby. A huge old tree, into which we had invested lots of wiring and pegging by arborists, came down about 10 inches from the living room wall of my house. When I started to go out to look at it (yes, dumb), branches and boughs from trees all around the house rained down. My phone was out, and I REALLY was afraid.

It is very traumatic, and you should both take care of yourself and accept that this is not an easy thing to get over. Be kind to yourself.

Terri, hoping to hear some good news from you soon.

So good to hear that you are okay aspenhill.

If any of you reading this have a way of checking in with any of the above or other DG neighbors, knowing that they like terri may be out of power and cell phone service, please do so and convey our prayers and wishes for their well being. Thanks

Judy

Oh Terri!
You've sure got some recovery to do. I'm so sorry.
Your heart must have been in your throat watching (Mike? Bunky?) on that ladder!!!!

What a scary thing you had, Terri. We are likewise without power, phone or water. Lost the tops of some big trees but no serious property damage. Very thankful we had 12 big oaks taken down last year. The storm seemed to go on forever, and we actually lost power before it hit us. Lots of rain and then almost continuous lightning flashing for what seemed like hours. The first power company report said we'd have it back yesterday before noon. Called the trouble line last night and it said 6 p.m. today. This morning's call got yet another update that said 1 p.m. tomorrow. Sure would have dealt with the food in the freezer Saturday if we'd known.

Glad that those who have checked in are with power except for Terri. Arbor Artists in Lucketts did a good job on our trees last year.

Pat

Pat, I had heard pretty good things about Arbor Artists and knew they were local. I've been trying to line them up for taking care of the tree - needless to say, they are swamped, but they think they'll be able to stop by and give an assessment today. Glad to hear that you don't have any serious property damage and that you are ok.

Sally, that is Bunky up in the tree - he has all the right climbing gear and has some climbing experience. He went up the ladder as far as it could reach, and then went another 15 feet to get the cable above where the tree starts branching - he was well above the three stories of the house. That kind of height is not something I would ever want to attempt! Mike was below holding the ladder steady and feeding the steel cable up to Bunky. One of the things that I love about Lucketts is that there are always people ready to help out whenever it is needed. Bunky has helped out many times - drywall, concrete, and now this with the tree.

I got lucky here at the townhouse, never lost power and no trees down near us. Others in the neighborhood have trees and large limbs down. A 25 year old man was killed in Harwood MD when a tree fell on his car, I think my sons know him.

Checking in! We have power now and all the plants are still upright.

Those winds were ferocious and pretty scary. I'd say every third oak tree in my neighborhood has lost a large branch or two, but no serious damage. Aspenhill, here's wishing you a speedy clean up!

Things are very good here mostly missed us. A few places in our area had a lot of tree damage but not much.
Terri glad to hear you are all OK. Seems like these last few years the weather has been really hitting us pretty hard. I can't image what it is like for those communities where they loose it all, like those poor people out west dealing with those terrible fires.
Coleup as for your watering question. We water every day in weather like this. The GH gets watered 2X a day. It takes us about 2 hours to water everything except the big trees and big shrubs. That is taking my good old time to walk around and carefully move the hose If I top off the water features add an extra 1/2hr. Usually we do that one day and a quick water for the window / deck boxes, pots & new plantings the next day, that takes best part of an hour. Sure am glad we have a very good well.

Isn't all the weather happenings dreadfully awful , prayers to and for the 22 lives lost in the Mid- Atlantic region.I watched the news tonight and that was devastating.Living at eastern edge of tornado alley I have seen similar and that kinda storm scares me.Hope you can all stay and be well during your trying times. Every time you turn on the news it seems a constant turmoil .

Prayers also to the brave servicemen of the C-130 crew of the Dakota Air Service National Guard who lost their lives as firefighters in service to their nation. We all owe them more than can be said or given.

I'm here, I'm here! Checking in! All well with us, we were of the very, very lucky ones - we have buried power cables and hardly ever lose power...that was one scary storm, Samson never reacts to weather, but Friday nite he did - about 5 minutes before it blew in he started growling and pacing...he did NOT like it one bit and it took us a good half hour to calm him down, Bandit and the cats could have cared less! We are fairly protected here, since it's a townhouse and we have no damage to speak of - had we lost power we would have found a dog friendly hotel, I don't do well with heat or no AC so no way we could have stayed in the house ^_^

Just heard back from Donner (Sally)----all is well.
She (they) have been very busy at work---BG&E.
G.

Thanks for all those checking in. Have a call in to ruby, but no word yet. As you all probably have guessed, I am a worrier/ circle the wagons type.

aspenhill, I actually thought how lucky you must be to have removed so many pending tree disasters last year. Hope that cable holds and arborist comes pronto. We have worn hard hats/helmets while waiting for a very large dead branch to be removed that over hung our entryway. You certainly have wonderful neighbors who I might add are incredibly equiped to deal with certain emergencies that are well beyond the scope of most homeowners!

Bec, keep that early warning of severe weather dog of yours happy and well fed! Some say that guardian angels come in animal form. I agree.

juhur, good reminder to put up thoughts and prayers for all who suffer or are standing in the need of prayer. Prayer keeps our compassion muscles in good shape.

Gita, thanks for catching up with donner. I hope all utility workers working hard to solve the immediate problems will be treated graciously and all utility companies will find better long term solutions to the same communities/sides of streets/businesses losing power almost every storm.

Stay cool and hydrated and safe.

Judy

Judy - since I refuse to leave my air-conditioned house I am definitely staying cool and hydrated...and with Sammie around I'll always be safe - he is nothing if not an incredible guard/watch dog...my little 200 lbs baby boy :)

Great to hear that everyone is doing ok. Even with the power being out (probably until Friday) and the damage that has to be taken care of, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. The only thing that was stressing me out was the tree leaning over the house, but with the cable in place it appears to be keeping the tree from falling until the tree removal service can get it down safely. The house and the auto insurance claims seem to be going along with no hassle whatsoever. When it comes right down to it, everything is just minor inconveniences and with a little resourcefulness even those are mitigated easily. Getting ready to leave work for the day and will be glad for the holiday tomorrow! I think I'll stop by Dairy Queen - it has only been open for about a week and I've already been there three times - goal is to sample as many blizzards as fast as I can LOL! So far my favorite is mint oreo cookie.

Back tonight at the library and yet again NOVEC did not restore the power when they had said they would. We were able to get some water from someone closer in who has power and give some of the plants a drink. Glad to hear that Terri's cable is holding. I'm hoping that all is well with Ruby and that like us, she has no internet or phone service so can't check in.

So, what is the July blizzard flavor, Terri? Glad we can count on you to check things out for us.

Most I've gone without power was four days, in lovely sSeptember post hurricane weather. This has got to be grueling. for you folks. If we lived closer we could help- except that we'd probably ALL be without power together.

ahhh I see Bec checked in...was gonna tell you that she was alive and well....basking in the joyous heat with the rest of us...ugh

If I had them , or the funds the other way, I would send you some generators to run the air conditioning, as it is all I can do is wish you all well, things improve.

Thank you for the welcome to the forum - I'm glad to be here!

I'm sorry to see others had so much storm damage, and are still without power! The longest we've gone without power is 4 days, most recently last August after the hurricane. After losing all of our perishable food, and not having any running water (we're on a well, and having to flush the toilets with buckets of water from the lake in my neighborhood gets old fast), I was done. We sold my husband's old fishing boat (that he hardly used anyway) and bought a generator. Just big enough to keep the well pump running, and the refrigerator and our deep freezer going.

I forgot to mention in my previous message that I've also had good luck this season using a rain barrel for watering. I only have one set up at the moment, because I wanted to see how well it worked. I have soaker hoses hooked up to it, looped through my front foundation planting beds. The success of that rain barrel has inspired me to put more in. Since we're on a well, I'm not subject to county/state water restrictions, per se, but of course I don't want to run my well dry, so the rain barrel(s) will help a lot.

We are with power again!! Wonderful to have running water again and lights. I hope Ruby and anyone else missing gets set soon. Having fans again is great, too. Happy 4th to all.

lol Chantell is that basking or baking? Or (now that the humidity is back) basting?

Had to go out this afternoon and came back in when I started to feel like (one of those turkeys with the pop up thermometers) that I was ready to pop!

Pat, great news! Isn't running water wonderful...I ran my sprinkler today for the birds to enjoy. Funny how quickly the word got out. They sure enjoyed it and I loved watching them...like watching a well stocked feeding station in winter but different birds and different antics!

Firebird, I hear you on the generator.

I've been thinking that if the utility companies can't assure more reasonable restoration times, that instead of "smart meters" each customer should be supplied with "smart power" stored at each address an d kept topped up that could supply a 4days of emergency power that could run lights, wells, furnaces, etc and if restoration takes longer, then new packs could be brought in and exchanged and , additionally, could cover the short outages anticipated at peak times that those smart meters are designed to do.
Also, grid tied solar panels should be able to be used by homeowner when grid is "down". Also, gas stations and grocery stores should be required to have back up power generation as well as all traffic lights! We need smart outages that report themselves. And no excuses for a "911" system to be down!

Probably have more to say later but thanks for letting me release some steam.

Happy 4th everyone!

Judy

Judy -- You make some good points. Too bad they aren't in place. David has been on the receiving end of all my venting, poor guy. Seemed so strange to cook dinner tonight and turn on lights, etc.

Once we had power again, I generated more mess dumping out the melted ice from the large cooler. Placed it on the edge of the counter over the sink and unplugged the cork. Then I decided I could multitask if I tipped it into the sink rather than hold it, but the water gushed over the side, past the sink and down the other side of the island. Quickly placed the cooler on the floor, neglecting to replace the cork first. More water than we'd had in the kitchen in 4 days!

I Googled the power situation in Crozet, and it said they were particularly hard hit. Also, they cancelled their July 4th events. I know Ruby and John were in the midst of replacing their roof and fortunately had gotten a heavy-duty tarp and put it up before all this happened, and sure hope all is well with them.

Pat

Major expense but really underground would be a good investment. Especially in heavily populated areas that are prone to power losses. They have been working on underground power in the Outer Banks these last few years.
Thoughts going out to John and Ruby.
Pat glad you have weathered the weather.

Smart meters provide many benefits to customers that are not available on the older generation of legacy meters. Automatic outage notification is one of the benefits -- when power goes out, the utility company knows it right away without waiting for customers to call.

That's only outage reporting though. The power restoration effort after a major storm, however, is quite a different matter. Normally, utility companies prepare themselves well before the storm hits. Field crews from other states arrive in advance, get settled in hotels waiting for work orders after the storm. Hundreds of work trucks are parked in the staging areas with tents set up, computers networked, food/drinks provided, work supplies stocked etc. This time the storm wasn't in the forecast. So it was a pretty choatic and long process to get help from other utilities.

The unfortunately thing is that we either get thurderstorms in the summer time or snow storms when we really need heating. The intolerable temperature adds to other inconveniences that customers suffer from the outage :-(. The BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric) field crews have been working 24-hour shifts since the storm, and many people in the office have also been on storm duties working with the field crews. It just takes time to deal with large scale outages like this one. I am sure the situations are similar at other utilities in the region.

I am very glad that most of us have weathered the storm OK. Stay safe.