April was surely the driest on record in NE Iowa. On our farm, we measured onlyl .75" for the entire month (and actually, for the entire 7 weeks from 1 April until last night, when we finally got another shower).
Certainly worked for us this year. Landscaped the new guest house. Required watering every other day to keep it in the game. The broadcast overseeding in our pastures was a complete waste of seed, other than as bird and rodent diet supplement.
Maryland is heading there. 0.8” all month, only 2.04” for April. Almost none in the 10-day forecast.
It looks like a probable East Coast drought. The dry areas in the northeast and southeast seem to be converging slowly.
Here in the Hudson valley of NY, the last few years we’ve seen a long dry period during late spring and early summer. Ultimately, I’d like to build a rainwater capture system that holds at least 500 gallons. It isn’t a huge amount, but would be enough to keep what I’ve got alive through a dry month without putting any burden on the municipal system.
It’s a good year not to have the vegg garden anymore
It’s been dry here too. Snowfall was light and most of last summer was pretty drought like.
I have lots of rain barrels and the timing worked out well for me last year but it’s been dry for the last month and while they are set-up now, they are empty.
Prior to last year, I mostly just paid attention to the rain so I could skip the manual watering. Since then, it’s been more along the lines of “will we get a hit before the barrels fully run out?”
No new tree/shrub buys but a couple of things got moved so they’ll need watering.
Otherwise, it’s just the annual veggies. Tomatoes are a big priority so I’m lugging water.
We’re on a deep well but it still makes me nervous having to use it for watering when there’s no rain.
It’s been dryer and warmer than normal here. Im am in SW WA State. I have sweetcorn and tomatoes planted a couple weeks earlier than usual for me.
Anticipating drought and wildfire risk, I installed soaker hose and drip irrigation for about 2/3 of my garden so far. Still learning. The squashes and pumpkins have black plastic mulch, which I read reduces requirement for watering. When I planted the squashes, I pulled up some existing black plastic mulch and was surprised how moist the soil was under it. I use the trench method for potatoes, partly to reduce watering need there too. We have a couple of rain tanks that unfortunately never completely filled last winter but they help.
We had evergreen shrubs removed under taller trees, and took out all evergreen shrubs and most other shrubs near the house. It’s been a three year process but we are getting there. Remaining evergreen trees are more distant from the house but we removed all branches below ten feet high. We replaced wood chip mulch around the house with noncombustible lava rock. There are no grasses or shrubs near the propane tank. Reducing fire risk has been a multi year, evolutionary process that we consider when doing changes or maintenance. When it’s time to replace the roof, that will be metal. However, the current roof is still good. We did clean evergreen needles etc from the roof. Preparing homes for wildfire.
It may not be enough, but at least we are trying.
Nice to read someone talking about trying to protect homes from wildfires. I have a cabin in the Skykomish area and have been cutting down a few trees that are too close to the house. Eventually I want to remove the low wood deck that’s on three sides of the house. A lot of maintenance, I think a rock garden would be much cooler, and it would remove this giant flat combustible surface.
I checked out the Preparing homes for wildfire link … looks pretty informative.
Wildfire season used to also be late Summer/Fall when I lived in Southern California, now we’re hearing about one already in May.
On my tiny lot, I still am thinking through the best $$ to capacity balanced rainwater capture setup… which means I have little saved. I do tend to use our kids bathwater on the non-edibles. Sounds like City water will have limits/price adjustments at some point this season.
Well, after dancing on the edge of drought conditions for May and June, we’ve had somewhere between 7-8" since Jul 1st. Now I’m just hoping for some moderation…
was the same here but we didnt get that much rain but things are growing well so im not complaining. cane borers are bad this year but disease and other pest pressure is down.
Pest pressure was down. Until a couple slugs got into my tray of radicchio and chicory seedlings… the rain brought them out in force, and that set me back about a month. I replanted, but it might not be enough time for the radicchio.
Please tell your rain clouds to head west! Although at least as of last Tuesday (the cutoff for this map) NH and Maine were still abnormally dry or in moderate to severe drought:
I’m guessing the new map this Thursday will tell a different story for your region, though.
That’s what I’m thinking. My sovêr sliver of NH has been out of drought for a bit, but I think it wouldn’t have taken much for it to go back in.
some pretty heavy showers saved us in late june-early july here. supposed to have a chance of showers the rest of this week.
