Thanks for the tips. I hope no watering bans are enacted. I'm worried about all the trees not just mine.

Thanks for the information. I've been wondering what to do with my dry garden. Think I'll send it on to my neighbors and friends in the mid-Atlantic region. Happy

Thanks for posting this information. We've had so little rain locally (southwest of Richmond) that our dogwoods are dieing. I've lost one in the yard, one other looks very bad (we're watering that one,) and those in the edges of the woods are dieing. My brother in King William said his are dieing, too. (Dead trees have brown leaves just hanging on them. If the leaves have fallen then there's a good chance they will survive.) These are not new plantings but established trees. And the oaks are in real distress around here, too, but there's really nothing we can do about them, just too much water required to keep them alive. The lawn is toast! Most yards here are brown, brown, brown! Only those with very good irrigation systems look decent. I only hope it is dormant and not dead but I've never seen mine look this bad before.

Most counties around Richmond are on voluntary water restrictions but if we miss the rain predicted late this week that may become mandatory. Several years of drought followed by two years of too much rain followed by drought again... a sure recipe for trouble.

Sandy (is going to go do a rain dance!)

"anything you've established, transplanted, or divided in your garden in the last 12 months"

That seems to apply to just about every thing in my garden!

A holly that I planted last fall died recently. It seemed to be doing fine all winter, spring and early summer. Some leaves started to brown and then it went down hill fast. I guess I did not water it enough. It was in an area with a lot of competition from trees. Also the drought seems to have done in an established pine tree...Scots Pine I think. It was not that healthy of a tree but the stress seemed to put it over the edge and turned it into food for borers. The thread linked below has some pictures of my ailing Scots Pine.

I see plantings of Viburnums along the road side that look to be on their last leg and many trees are looking very stressed. I am pretty sure that large areas of my lawn are dead. Yep, it has sure been dry.

"Finally, don't plant anything new right now"

Opps! I just planted a few shrubs and trees last weekend. How is a gardener supposed to resist?!?

- Brent

There *is* something you can do - put the plug in the tub and use graywater from showers and baths, assuming your family is basically healthy. (Just don't put it on things that MUST have acid soil or else.) I've been lugging buckets of water out to my big oak for 3 or 4 weeks now, and also dousing my Japanese cherry and its underplantings. If you don't have a good back, don't do it - I use cat litter buckets, and carrying two at once, I'm lifting about 45 pounds at once.

However ...
10) Finally, don't plant anything new right now - October is usually the best time to plant new shrubs, but not this year, it's just too dry.

So where does this leave something like the exchange? I'm loath to even try to dig stuff when the ground is baked hard, and if it has only a poor chance of survival over the winter with all this stress ...? Right now I'm considering bringing only items that are already in pots and needing to be gotten out of my yard.

Robin

Thanks Anne!

I'm in central Maryland and my dogwoods and viburnums are looking pretty rough at the moment. This spring I planted 5 blueberries, several evergreens and a large ash tree. I have other plants still in pots. I've kept them watered by using gal size containers, milk/juice whatever works. I poke a tiny hole with a straight pin, sometimes more than one...and I place them around the plants. It can be a lot of work, especially if you have a lot to water. Having a helper makes it go a lot faster. Everything I planted this spring looks great. Once when I took my recycle to the collection center I snagged a bunch of milk jugs. (I came home with more recycling than I took.)

BTW, it's drizzling here now and there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow but I doubt it'll amount to much.

Good luck to all~

Rain oh the glorious rain. I can't tell you how happy I am.
I hope it continues.

It's been so long that I've forgotten how to drive in the rain. Didn't even remember the wipers for about 5 minutes, puzzling over how I'm supposed to see through all that.

The weather people are talking about lots and lots of rain and flooding. I think they said 1-2" East and South of DC, 2" in DC, 2-3" in the Western 'burbs, and more as you go further towards the mountains, with spots here and there getting 6-8" of rain. This is so timely; I was starting to wonder how I'd ever dig anything out for the fall swap.

Suja

Have to admit I have started small patches of new lawn in the last few weeks, and planted a couple of things the other day. So do as the AHS says,not as I do!

But now it is pouring!!! Yippee!

is there any thing special I need to do for my curly willows. They are newly planted and despite me watering (apparently not enough) they have lost all of their leaves! The trucks are still green?

*sigh*

Annette

Eureka! The rains have nourished the earth and it was a good soaking rain. Thank goodness, I was getting tired of lugging all those gal containers.

I recommend the following web pages for drought information and forecasts. The forecast page is especially useful for gardeners because it gives the outlook for the season ahead. For example, the forecast for the mid-Atlantic region was changed for the better on Oct. 6 (solid green on map = previous drought condition improving or ending).

US Drought Monitor (current conditions)
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

US Seasonal Drought Outlook
http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html

G'Day!
We finally got some rain too! About 2". All summer, i have been thinking. "Thank goodness for soaker hoses!" If i knew who invented them, i would send a thank-you card.

i think most of the plants i put in after the Spring Swap will make it. The only ones that none survived are the the birch and Carolina Allspice. Half the azaleas didn't make it - but half did. Same with asters and mums.

Garden looks pretty ratty just now - no second strawberry crop this year - so i'm glad to have those cosmos in.

Harvested a record crop of basil; made over a dozen quarts of pesto. i think my mum is coming down from NH to swap half of that for blueberry jam.

Guess she's got some rain now too.

Happy gardening,
-vlad

Man, you should see the bar graph on the Washington Times' weather page! It shows the normal/actual amounts of rain for the past 3-4 months. Obviously, the acutal amount shown in Sept was really short, but this month? Wow! That bar looks like a skyscraper!

Yeah, today's the 21st, and it's kinda raining, but we're well over the rainfall amount for this month now anyway. It's feast or famine....