Ok....drought conditions 4th year in a row...anyone else?

Every year I say I'm just not going to garden anymore since we don't hardly ever get any rain. Last summer we went without rain for around 80 days. This year is no better. Today it was 94 and tomorrow its suppose to be even hotter. Plants are very stressed despite watering from the hose, and I just can't keep up with the watering since I work fulltime. Anyone have any words of wisdom....how can I make it through another gardening season when trees are dying, plants are shriveling up and I am beginning to lose hope of ever seeing a flourishing garden?! Just needed to vent, I guess!

Sandy

We have the same conditions here. So dry the grass crunches when you walk across it. I am watering daily, but what we need is a gentle rain for an extended period of time. It was so wet here this spring that I could hardly get any seeds planted, then when they are growning and doing well the dang drought.

For the last 5 years we've had a drought but this year RAIN. I know that it takes more work because of how you have to water. I came up with the philosophy "if it can't survive in my garden, it has no business being here!"
Make the trees your first priority as they are the most expensive to replace. Of course, here we plant many xeric plants because we have droughts every 20 years and many people have cut their lawns in half or go rid of them all together.

One thing I did was use my patio umbrella to shade some plants and installed a drip system.

Sandy

We seem to be experiencing the same weather. Severe drought and temps in the 90's today and tomorrow and then some more next week. Last night on the news they said that Illinois' topsoil is 75% dry. I've been keeping things alive by watering everyday but we could really use a good rain to go deep where it's really needed.

Don't give up. Put the sprinkler on and let it go. Do you have any neighbors that are home during the day who could put the sprinkler out while you're at work? Or maybe get a timer that will turn it on automatically.

Gardening is always a challenge. Just do the best you can and don't worry too much about it. The rain will come....eventually!

Toni

It is the same here, early in the year it rained almost everyday it seemed. Everyone complained. All I would say is come the days of no rain they will also
complain. Well here we are. I can not keep the pots watered well enough, but the ground is just as bad.

We need that slow rain for about 2 weeks so it soaks in. Those hard rains just
run right off and the ground is still dry except for a thin surface.

I sure hope we all get something soon. That is when I love to get outside and work when it is raining. Just a steady rain not a down pour.
Sure beats the heat. It has been hitting 97 here.

Keep cool as you can. Our car has no A/C either. :o(

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^

The last few years, instead of burning my leaves I have bagged them after shredding w/ the lawnmower. Then after planting my garden I use for mulch. Really helps keep the watering down... although I had to finally break down and run the sprinkler the other day. We're 6 inches behind in the rain department this year here in northern IL.

Hi Toni....

We have a well, so the sprinkler can't be run very long for fear of burning out the well pump. At the other spectrum, if we had municipal water, it would cost a fortune! My co-worker's 1st quarter water bill (Jan-March), when she wasn't even watering outside, was $252! It's so sad to see things shriveling up. I feel bad for the birds too....this morning they were fighting over my birdbath. I'm seriously thinking of downsizing my number of flowerbeds and borders. Only time will tell I guess!

Sandy

We were on water restrictions for the last 4 years so even when we could water we couldn't do as often as we liked. We lost both our lawns which was a blessing in disguise as we increased our perennial beds and had to choose water wise plants when replanting - then only in the fall because the new plants needed to much water to start off. We lost our raspberries and our green ash died. So I know what you are going through. Many people here lost their lawns. But then you don't have to mow it either! Our perennials are so much easier to take care of now. When I go out to garden it's not because it really needs it but I like it.

Now you can decide what you love and really didn't care for. Water your trees and any other plants that you don't want to lose and use your time for something else. You can't control the weather.

Hi Sandy

I'm sorry to hear about your water dilemma. I truly am. I love my garden and every weed in it and I can just imagine how you feel having to decide what makes it and what doesn't. I can't believe $252 for 3 months of water! Are they nuts? (Not your co-worker but the municipality). We pay that much for the entire year and I can leave the water running all day and night if I wanted too because we don't have a meter (I wouldn't be that wasteful though). Since I live in the city I have a small backyard so watering is manageable but then you have to put up with neighbors right up on your butt! Houses are about 6-8ft apart. I often dream about open space with the nearest house being at least a block away! I guess for every good there's a bad.

Mobi is right about choosing what you really love and not worrying about the rest. Save the trees and your main specimen plants that are mature and well established. Grass will come back and annuals are gonna puke out in about 2 months anyway!

Take care
Toni

mulch, mulch, mulch.

Last year I planted a bed first by covering it with two sheets of newspaper and 4 inches of straw. Plants were planted into this by pulling back straw and cutting a hole in the paper. I watered well once before laying down the paper and had to water only once or twice all summer. Other areas that didn't have this mulch were watered weekly or bi-weekly depending on the amt of rain we had. Another bonus was the absence of weeds from this bed. Even this year after the paper has broken down as has much of the straw this beed is very weed free.

Live in CA and it doesn't rain from June through mid-November (although our 3 small rainstorms this June 2005 made a liar out of me this year!).

The more humus/compost in your soil, the better. It holds water very well. Mulch heavily. Use products like Soil Moist in your containers and pots. Soaker hoses are MUCH better than sprinklers, which waste a lot of water due to evaporation and encourage mildew to boot. Use timers, adjusting as necessary -- if you don't have a soil moisture tester, run the soaker for an hour and dig a few holes with your trowel to see how deep the soil has soaked.

A drip irrigation system can work wonders, but I get by with soaker hoses, soaker heads, and those quick-release valves on my garden hoses to make switching hookups easy.

Group your plantings together so that the water hogs can be satisfied easily, and learn about the world of beautiful, interesting plants and shrubs that need much less water than the usual stand-bys.

We live in one of the cooler coastal zones in CA, but water is expensive here. Still, we keep a 2500 sq.ft. cottage garden thriving on $40/mo for garden water in summer (since we don't need to water in winter, which is our rainy season, it's easy to see exactly how much extra the garden watering costs). Most established shrubs can go 2-3 weeks between waterings. Our property is on a downslope so some beds get buy with just runoff from the beds above them.

I always keep buckets in the kitchen and often the water from rinsing vegetables and doing other food prep, is poured in the buckets, then used to water my container plants. This link is to a photo of our frontyd from last year--it looks the same, pretty much, everything's just a bit bigger.
https://home.comcast.net/~j.komatsu/images/content/fronthardscape/front-LR.jpg

jkom5l, the front of your home is just beautiful. You have done a wonderful job with the amount of water you have. I especially like the purple -blue flowers on the garage side of the yard. What sort of plant is it? Is your front yard mostly in sun or does it get shade part of the day?

I was born in Berkeley, raised in Contra Costa County near Walnut Creek, and lived quite a few years in the El Sobrante, Richmond, San Pablo area as an adult before moving out of state. So I know the general conditions you face. Up here in Oregon (about half way between Portland and the Calif border) we have similar weather, with just a bit more rain from June to September than you. I was especially interested in your posts and we both live in Oakland-just different states.

Hope your garden continues to grow as you want.

Dotti

I remember rain! Our last two sprinkles, we were outside & still dry. More sweat than rain!

My teenage daughter was hanging out at the Blanco River this past Wed (2dys ago) when she called me & asked me to shake the rain stick she'd made when she was about 8 yrs old. I asked her why since SHE was at the river and I was gardening in 100+ temps. She said she missed the rain... hadn't rained here in over a month and the temps have been over 100 for over a week ( yesterday it was 106 on our porch!). She wouldn't hang up the phone until she heard me shake the stick, so I shook the stick and did my little jig and that was that. Yesterday evening, it rained 0.4 in.!! It was SO wonderful. I love that rain stick!

My azealas were so wilted yesterday afternoon. It started to Thunder and the sky got coal black even the wind was strong. It actually rained.....Just enough to perk them up till today. then I had to water them. Would you call that rain?
I don't not sure maybe it was a flock of geese?

Please shake that rain stick for us and harder this time.

dottik, how great that you live in Oakland too, but in a different state! I've always wanted to explore Oregon more but haven't had the chance to do much traveling lately. One of these days.....

Thanks for the kind words, and the purple-blue flowers are the good old drought-tolerant standby, agapanthus. These are dwarf ones. With that and the lantana, tanacetum, convolvulus, lavendar and lambs ear, that particular bed can go without watering for a month even in hot weather (keep in mind "hot" here is 80 degrees, though, with 15-20% humidity). Here's a closeup:

We've been fortunate here in NY - Doug has to water every few days, but if it ever got to the point where we had to water daily - I'd probably opt to redo everything into plants needing less water (which would be sad since I'm heavily into hostas and daylilies).

There are so many changes with the climate and environment these days - who know what things will look like in 10-20 years. Not a comforting thought.

Agreeing with the others on:

Mulching
Water crystals to help hold the water (I'd love to find a bulk source) so that we could redo all of the gardens and minimize the watering requirements.

I wish I could say that 80 was "hot". I'm afraid that here in the area East of the Coastal Mountains, Hot is the 90's up into the lower 100's. Fortunately, those really high temperatures don't usually last too long, but even one day is just too long. Now, over on the coast, Air Conditioning is almost unknown. Their record highs are usually in the mid 80's. Our summer humidity is usually right in the same area as yours - 15-20%. The biggest difference in our climate is that our growing year is shorter than yours, and we do normally drop down into the teen's a few days during each winter. Most winters, we will have a least one snowstorm that comes down to the valley floor. Our USDA zone is 8a, but this past winter we didn't drop any lower than 25, and no snow on the valley floor so I estimate we were in zone 9 for this year. We are in Sunset zone 6. Dotti

80 degrees, hot? We live north of San Antonio, west of Austin...supposed to be slightly cooler here in the hill country but we had about 10 days straight of 100-plus temps; last Thurs was 106 on our porch, which is shady. It wasn't even that hot in San Antonio! The lack of rain is starting to take its toll on my flowers and veggie garden. We had a pretty wet winter and spring, which helped fill the aquifers, but they won't get any fuller w/o some rain. I did a rain dance and shook a rain stick on Wed nite; got blamed for the lack of rain on Thurs morning but reassured the "accuser" I shook the rain stick the nite before and be patient. Well, Thurs afternoon, it rained (not sprinkles). It felt SO good, and dropped the temp almost 40 degrees, AND gave us 0.4" of rain!! That stick (my daughter made it when she was about 8 yrs old) really seems to work! Its amazing sometimes. We didn't even have a chance of rain last Thurs.
Awesome rain stick!

Dogmansis, it seems to me that maybe your daughter should go into business making rain sticks, complete with video from you as to what the shaking and steps are. After all, as it worked for you, I'll bet there are lots of us here on DG that would gladly buy a set for dry times. LOLROTF. Congratulations on getting some cool-down and rain. Dotti