I am so sad....this morning after watering about half my plants...our well ran dry. sigh. It has been nearly 3 months since we have had a drop of rain and I knew this was a risk given that we have only a dug (not a drilled) well and I have a garden-center's worth of potted plants that I have had to water daily or twice daily in blazing heat for these 3 months. now..the show is over. The water level may return enough in the next day or two so we can wash our hands and flush a toilet..but I will not be able to water the flowers unless Ophelia dumps a foot of rain on us Thursday or Friday. For now I will have to move all 47 containers of brugs into whatever limited shade I have and hope they survive till we get at least some rain. Today will be 90 degrees and humid; 89 tomorrow and the next day. It will only take a day for them to wilt, and then they will probably drop their existing buds and maybe their leaves. If even Ophelia does not give us any rain - how long do you think I should let them go before I just hack them all down and cut them up to try and save the cuttings? sniff. I'm trying to keep my perspective, count my blessings and remember that my problems are small next to our poor friends in LA,MS and AL who have not only lost their flowers, but their homes, their pets or even their family members. In light of that...this is nothing..but I am still sad.
Diane Krny
The show is over for me - my well has run dry :-(
Gosh, that's a bummer. Not just for the plants, but for you two too. I don't have a well, so I pay the city $140-$150 a month in the summer.
Oh KRNY.. I am so sorry.. I hope you get rain
sorry hope you get rain well be full.. 47 brugs.. whew.. you need the water... blessings.
Twyla
What a shame, Diane!! My hope is that you get rain, and quickly or, if you don't that they will be okay, I can only imagine how disappointed you must be. I wonder if you could get some kind of big container that would could transport water to your garden. That wears me out just thinking about it - my watering is set up about as conveniently as possible and it is still a PITA. I have a product called Wilt-Pruf, sp, and I have not used it but I think it's supposed to help, but I would think it would have to be applied before a drought, but I'm not positive. If I was you, since they will likely live, even tho they might drop their buds/leaves, I wouldn't cut them down or back until as late as you can possibly wait for the first frost. OTOH, it looks like you have plenty of room, and I do think that would work. Does this happen pretty frequently there?? Our driest time of the year is now, no rain for a couple of weeks and we are very dry too, but fortunately with water. If you lose some I might have, I'll send you cuttings when you are ready. Good luck!!!
thanks, Sherry - no this doesn't happen often - this is the first time ever for us. John built the house 30 years ago and this has never happened. This is the hottest, driest summer I have ever seen. Alot of this town has city water - but our house is so far back off the road it would cost us a fortune to have them pipe the water back to us - so we have kept the well. We would not have had this happen were it not for my gluttony for brugs..LOL. There is a new well that has been dug for the new garden and I asked John if we could suck some water out of that for the plants to hand water them. He said perhaps some..with a sump pump - but we would have to go easy on that too as it will still be pulling from the same water table in the area. I do think the brugs will survive ok..for some time..if we can just get SOME rain and I give them just a minimal amount of water to keep the rootballs slightly moist. I should not have to cut them back for a month yet - but I will if they I think their survival is threatened as I know I can keep the cuttings alive in a bubbler. I am just so dissapointed as everything is so budded up and I was about to finally see blooms on special ones like Vixen, and Butterfly and Adora as well as 8 new seedlings that have set buds for the first time. :-(
Diane
Diane, they are saying the storm is coming up your way..Hope your brugs can hold out until then...Wish I lived close I would haul water for you....I know how my brugs mean so much to me and Im sure you feel the same way...sending you a rain dance....Judy
Diane I am so sorry you have this problem, seems the world is topsy turvy, either no rain, or way too much, we have had a very dry hot summer also I am on city water so was able to water my plants with the highest water bill ever. I sure hope you get rain, at least enough to give them a good drink.
Doris
I'll do a rain dance for you and pray.....I can't imagine not having any water available.....what are your options? will the well ever rebuild itself to a working level? Is county water available if needed? Will you have to drill a new well. Being a city boy i never was faced with such a dilemma.......I am so sorry you have to go through this...
Diane, I am so sorry about your well. I'll be praying you get some rain. Can't imagine how painful it would be to watch plants wilt :-(
Sharon
Xeriscape - thanks for the raindance..LOL. Well..my options aren't that bad - John says the well is not completely dry - it is just very, very, very low and is beginning to draw silt from the soil level at the bottom of the well. If I stop watering my plants (which I have, of course) and all other extraneous use of water for a day or so the water level should come up a little making water available for essential stuff like, flushing toilets, rinsing dishes. We already have 4 cases of gallon size bottled water delivered to us monthly by the town to use for drinking and cooking (this was done 15 years ago because the dump behind our property polluted our well water for drinking, consumption purposes) But it is still fine for all other uses). So we have bottled water for drinking and cooking, and should have in a day or so enough water for bare essentials like the toilet and washing our hands and HOPEFULLY we get some rain REAL soon - like by the weekend??? We can do the camp-style sink wash up stuff for a day or two - but then I'm gonna have to drive over to my father-in-laws to shower - LOL. Boy, I never thought I would be hoping for a hurricane to track in my direction!
Diane
Diane,If I were in your shoes I would put the brugs in shade and sink the pots in the ground.If that were not enough I would strip all the leaves but the tiny ones at the top.
I had a friend in the hills in Virginia that had her well go dry. Since it was happening to all her neighbors they had water brought in and filled a storage tank they normally kept full of well water. She said it was expensive. Took 2 weeks for the water table to normalize. We'll have to hope that you get the rain without the winds from the upcoming storm. Keep my fingers crossed for you
Mary
I'm so sorry to hear of your lack of rain and that your wells have run dry! We are also hoping for some rain from Hurricane Ophelia, but it may not reach us and only rain along the coast line. If you don't get any rain by this weekend, you may want to start taking some cuttings. What a shame!
UPDATE friends - I got home from work half an hour ago - hubby told me that when he got home from work he looked in the well and there is about 2 ft of water in there - the water table had come back to usable levels. He said what it means is that we can use the water again, but that until we get some serious rain - we will have to really conserve keeping usage down to only what's necessary - showers, toilet, dishes etc. But the best news for me was he said he looked in the new well that we dug for the new garden and that is low too, but has more water than the house well (about a ft more) so, he said we can sink a pump in there and draw SOME out every day for essential watering of the brugs. He filled 2 18 gallon tubs for me and said to use that to hand water the essential plants - that would be the brugs :-) once per day. I will still need to move them out of the full sun, and it won't be as much water as they really need - but I should be able to keep them with leaves and maybe even a few flowers for a while longer. My other plants like the annuals, elephant ears, dahlias, etc. etc - well I will let them go dormant unless Ophelia brings rain on Thursday to rescue us all. We walked around the yard and looked at my beautiful brugs - just bathing the night air in the yard with fragrance. They are soooo beautiful it would just have broke my heart to see them suffer so. So I am feeling better. Weatherman says we should get at least some rain from Ophelia by Thursday although it is so hard to say how much. Oh, by the way...those of you who saw my post on the unknown orange brug I bought check my other thread - the 2nd bloom opened tonight! I'll keep you posted on how the brugs fair on their new water restricted diet. Thanks for caring with me.
Diane
What wonderful news, Diane! Your Brugs will be so grateful for the watering they will receive by hand and will reward you with their beautiful flowers and intoxicating fragrance!
Diane I'm so sorry to hear your almost waterless! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that you get some much needed rain. One season when we were on water restrictions I would put buckets in the shower to catch the water. I also would use the dish water, wash machine water, and de-humidifier water LOL... I became very handy at watering what I loved. The rest had to fend for themselves.
Diane, could you not buy a tank of water? Several years ago people in our area that didn't have deep wells would have water delivered in the summer months.
Ruth
I thought about that too Ruth, I live in southeast Arky. Yippee, Diane, I'm glad 'found' the water, great news!! I'd still do what JT said re the shade, putting the post in the soil or mulching around the posts (on the outside) to help retain the water, or maybe those plastic things around the bottom of the pot, so you won't have to use as much water. I don't do well at all growing them in pots because of the dry weather in September...
Hurray!!!! So glad to hear it !!
Yay!
Diane, glad that things are looking up, you worked so hard to get blooms. When you take your 'bird bath', keep that water and use it on your brugs. We take things so for granted - I think about you every time I walk over and turn the water on and let it run uselessly.
Diane we got rain today. Maybe it is headed your way. Say a little prayer.
Linda
OH, YEA..Linda, I did the Ophelia rain dance all night in my sleep. Woke up this morning and and looked out the window..nothin yet. Turned on the TV and our local weatherman was gleefully stating that "parts of the state have received 2" of rain already overnight". sigh. oh, REALLY?? well..not in my yard here on the shoreline..not one drop. dang.
But today and tomorrow will tell the story...PULEEZE let let it pour here.
Diane
I hate to rub salt in a wound but it rained again last night. I am loving it, I put the dogs out this morning and we walked around checking out everything, and I really think I heard some of the plants, saying a prayer of thanks.
WOHOO! It's POURING right now - it started coming down in sheets about 20 minutes ago - it is raining so hard there are flash flood warnings up for 3 shoreline counties. I'm not too worried about that at my house as we are on an elevated slope so rarely have any threat of flooding. I am at the office in Saybrook, of course, which is 10 miles east of home also right on the CT shoreline. sure hope it's raining at my house like this..wish I had a webcam aimed at my backyard. If it kept this pace up through today and tomorrow..my prayers would be answered!
Diane
Sounds like they are already answered. I just know it is pouring at your house. I can see your brugs now, the leaves are waving in the air flapping the rain down on them and yelling "thank you god, just what we wanted."
Linda
It is wonderful that it is finally raining for you Diane. How deep would you have to drill to get past the bad soil? How much does it cost to drill a well in your area? It costs $25 a foot here. My well is 250 feet down. That isn't nearly as deep as some and yet deeper than others.
How big are the containers your plants are in? I really think it helps to have them double potted . Also, not to have black pots. Maybe things you can think about for next year. I am sure others have suggestions too.
Good luck and so glad it is raining for you. It is was down to 36 here last night. I had to cut all of my brugs off about 10 days ago because I was afraid it was going to freeze. They were all budded and I lost most of the buds. I did lose a couple that rotted already.
Jeanette
Glad Ma Nature came thru for you. I am giving up on Brugs. Too sensitive, too bug prone, they need too much fertilizer ALL of the time. I love those I have...but think I will stop there...still grow out the seedlings. I am too busy and too committed to the rest of the garden/life/my business to go thru another attack of mites and the weekly fertilizing takes 4 hours out of my day...not much...but a lot for me. I will grow those I have with Joy and Pride and continue to love them... I have decided I 'can't do it all'.
Carol
Carol I know actually what you are talking about when it comes to watering and feeding. My girl friend tells everyone she doesn't dare call me until after lunch because I am outside tending to my watering. And to think I probably have about 1/3 of what you have maybe even less. But I am already getting ready for next year. The bubbler is up and running and I am already doing tradings. But I love it.
Linda
Diane, what great news about POURING RAIN. I just got back, and started reading your thread, and I'm glad it's a HAPPY ENDING.