I hear you Janet. The only good soaking I am getting here is running through pipes. All the watering systems are up and running as is the water meter.

Brooke

Well, we're more than 12 below average down here. Last Wed. night we got less than 1/4 inch and a very short shower this afternoon...it's bone dry here. I'm watering daily...things are really looking bad. My grass crunches when I walk across it....yep, add me to the "need a good soaking" crowd!!!
Jan

Guess what, we just got back from church, and it's raining again...this time it's coming down nicely...maybe we'll get a significant amount out of this one. The strange thing is, there was absolutly no rain in our forecast...just goes to show you that the weather people don't always know, do they?
I'm giving God the praise for this one. :)
Jan

I know you guys south of me are really struggling for rain. I heard south FL has ordered all watering to stop and nurseries are having their stock die. I had selfishly hoped it wouldn't get this far north but guess it is creeping up here too. We only have a 5" deficit but all of it has been in the last two months. We have no rain predicted here for more than a week.

We need a rain dance - who on this forum can dance?

Brooke

Just went out and checked the gauge...we only got 1/4 inch, but hey, we'll take anything we can get!! Everything looks so fresh this morning. I don't care how much you water, things just look better with a good old dousing from a rain shower, don't they?
I pray that the rest of you who need rain will get some really soon.
Jan

We're a little behind in rain in my part of the northeast, but not in a drought like people in the South are. I hope and pray you'll get some good, steady rain soon! We've had summers up here where everything was brown and crunchy by mid-June, and it's so depressing. I can't imagine what you're going through.

Laurel

Dry as a bone, here. And we've had some bad forest fires with some very smoky days. Somebody better start dancing hard and fast!
Kathy

The Cherokee rain dance. Or any other Indian tribe that has a rain dance. Go at it,...please. We didn't get any of the rain that Jan got. So we are really in deficit here. More than 12" I hear....No rain in the forcast for us thru Tues. After that, I don't know. Ellie

Yes, here in sw VA, we need rain. Areas just a couple miles from us are getting good showers. We got one Friday but need lots more. We finally got a drip irrigation system set up for our vegetable gardens but the daylilies are suffering.

We are trying to get some irrigation going. My cousin who grows Christmas trees gave us a lot of pipe and fittings that he is not using and we ordered sprinklers. I've heard that is not the best fjor daylilies but wouldn't it be like rain? I hope they come in Tuesday.

I don't know how much below normal we are. The grass was brown but we started having our usual very heavy dews and foggy mornings and it's greened back up and is actually growing. The daylilies are just setting buds and really need water.

Janet did you get any rain yesterday? We got about a 10 minutes downpour about 5 and then no more. Today I was working in a bed as far from the house as I could get when it started to rain. By the time I hiked to the house, in the rain, got the dogs in, in the rain, went to the sunroom to admire the moisture it quit.

Hopefully the watering we did on Tuesday and Wednesday last week will be supplemented by the two brief showers. Right now, anything from the sky is not running through my meter and I am thankful for it.

Brooke

Just enough drops in the dust to see tracks when you drove your truck through the barn lot. Owen County is wet, Shelby County down around Southville and Mt. Eden is green and got a rain between Finchville and Mt. Eden yesterday around 3:00. My parents at Finchville, though they think they are dry, are on the edge of Eden. My tomatoes and cabbage down there look wonderful.

The county extension agent is supposed to be getting a supply list together for us to lay down drip irrigation. He'd better hurry the heck up. We're going to get the necessary screens to be able to pump out of the pond since they're hinting at water restrictions for the North Shelby Water District. If they cut off watering the cows there's going to be a major uproar. It wouldn't be very funny for us to drop off over 100 cows with calves at side in their parking lot.....

Janet

My wife's the gardener; there's one daylily (red/orange/maroon) in bloom today - I can see it out the window as I type.

I'm her get-it-done person: I drive the truck, move the bags of soil/fertilizer/mulch, run the tiller, etc. The next project is drip irrigation fed from rain barrels. Using rain barrels as the water source requires a low pressure drip system (example: http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=2&cat=2,2280,49657,49739,49691&p=49691 ) I finished installation of the first rain barrel yesterday. The collector system is made from a recycled soda syrup barrel and miscellaneous plumbing parts. The details are in the link, but be aware that the images are large and will take several minutes to download on a dialup.

The lawn will not get water; Bermuda can go brown for weeks and revive with the first good rain. I do want to keep the flowers alive, especially the ones we transplanted from the garden of my wife's mother (who died in March).

The initial 200 gallons of storage isn't much, but I can make the white barrels "look nice" (paint to match the brick or hide behind shrubs). If I had a place to put a BIG storage container, the runoff from the roof could potentially provide over 20,000 gallons of water each year.

Maybe Georgia will get on board with the government agencies that really understand water conservation, such as Austin, TX. Austin offers rebates on installation of rain water collection systems and low-flow toilets, free low-flow showerheads, and free seminars on water conservation. To me, that seems much better than the strictly punitive system here. Outdoor water use in Georgia that's not within the state-mandated restrictions can be expensive:
first offense: warning
second offense: $250 fine and/or 5 days in jail
third offense: $500 fine and/or 10 days in jail
Some counties will shut off your water on the third offense.

July is historically the second wettest month in metro Atlanta (30 year rainfall average), so I'm hoping for a little rain then...

John

Here is a link that might be useful: my rain barel design

Nice design John. We are going to collect rain water for the greenhouse but put it in a storage tank in the ground. It will only be used for the greenhouse and not to water the main gardens. When the gardens need to be watered, I don't get any rain to fill the barrels!

ALL my rain since Sunday amounted to 1/2". We just got another downpour with hail but guessing it probably was only another 1/4". The hail knocked some holes in the hosta but no scapes fell over. With the horrific gardening season to date, I figured we would lose all scapes. Whatever the amount of rain, it keeps me from having to water through the meter so am thankful.

Brooke

You know if you really wanted to get industrious you could go to Tractor Supply and buy one of those 1500-2000 gallon plastic water tanks and set it up using John's method. Then you'd have a REAL rain barrel!

Janet

Hubby is looking at a 250-300 gal. one from TS but it is going to be buried in the ground to keep the temp stable. He always thought he would get an RO unit but when he found out you waste 3 gal. of water to make 1 gal. he started looking into the storage tank.

At 5 we got hit with another storm with lots of hail. More shriveled leaves on the hosta but I don't see any scapes down on the ground. The rain gauge appears to have 3/4" in it now or at least that is what it looks like through the binoculars. I would go out to see it but it is still RAINING!

Brooke

Major hail yesterday. It was quarter sized but the good thing is that it wasn't the smooth hard hail. It almost looked like a blackberry. Was within a mile from home when it started complete with tornado sirens going off. By the time we pulled up to the farm and ran for the basement it was coming down pretty good. When it was over it looked like we'd had a green fall with leaves about 3-4 inches deep under the trees. Remarkably there were few limbs down cause the wind blew like a banshee for a while.

I still have about 100 asiatic and oriental lilies in pots outside the basement door. Everything that had open blooms on them don't anymore. The ones that hadn't opened yet amazingly still have a lot of buds intact. The hail didn't reach the daylily field. If stopped about half way in between. We got about six tenths at the main farm. Don't know how much at the daylilies. Now if we could get some more... Rain that is....

Janet

We had several short showers yesterday also. There was almost 1/4 inch in my guage, not nearly enough to shave much off the 18 inchs that we are behind, but I'll take any and all I can get. I do have a well, thank goodness, just for watering my gardens, so don't have to buy my water. My neighbor told me last night that her water bill was $193.00 for this past month!!! Mine was just over $23.00. I am so glad my dh got the pump put in last fall. I'm praying that everyone in the drought areas get's some nice rains soon.
Jan

Jan you are lucky to have a well and not have it effect your useage. I know Ellie can run her well dry so her garden suffers. It is only my wallet that suffers.

Our hail yesterday did knock some buds off of some scapes but no broken scapes. It also ate off some of the petals of the blooms that were opening today. They were really strange looking. My few hosta that weren't turned to mush in April, now have holes and shredded leaves. The hosta that resprouted after the die back, also have their share of holes. Needless to say, we haven't taken a picture yet.

Brooke

This spring has surely been filled with problems, weather wise, for lots of us I know. Hopefully next season will be much improved.
Wasn't supposed to rain here today, absolutly zero percent chance...guess what? A thundercloud formed just south of us about 7 pm, from out of nowhere, and dumped another 1/2 inch on us. Praise God, He is still in control! I sure hope the rest of you who need rain will get some soon.
Jan