Most of my gardens in the back yard are raised beds so they are okay. My back room in the basement has water in it but that's not unusual after several days of rain. There is some water that seems to be seeping up through the basement floor in a few new places but it's a basement, I kind of expect that to happen.

Pkton, is your basement finished? I think expectations have changed quite a bit over the years when it comes to basements. Most people want to have it become an extra room instead of using it for storage or laundry. So they install carpeting, put up drywall, make it look grand and then when we get weather like this.... well, you can imagine. Half of our basement was finished when we moved in. We have since then had to rip out all of the drywall and the carpeting because of water problems. We had mushrooms growing on the carpet and mold all over the bottom of that drywall. The drywall seemed to just suck up the moisture. We threw it all out (what furniture was down there too, the new stuff is up on legs!), covered the floor with cheap indoor/outdoor carpeting and just painted the ciderblock walls white. It looks fine. (We have 3 kids with the oldest only just turned 7. It's mostly a place for them to go when they need to burn off energy and it's too cold or wet to play outside.(Plus opening back up the basement (by taking down the center wall they installed) made it much more enjoyable for me to do laundry and my husband his woodworking because the unfinished side was dark, dreary and home to many creepy, crawly things. We also had to tear down drywall on the ceiling near the stairs leading into the basement because by making it look pretty, they covered up the access to the telephone wires. Not fun when the phone stopped working and we needed it repaired!

If you have Everclear (where they excavate around your house and waterproof it) or you live in any area where it is extremely rare for it to leak in your basement, I can understand making the basement more livable space. Unfortunately our house does not qualify. We don't live at the bottom of a hill or near wetlands of any kind. Just a corner lot a block away from a busy road in West Racine. Yet in the 5 years we've lived here, every time it rains for more than a day or so we get water somewhere in the basement. Since we can't afford to try the Everdry treatment, we've just learned to live with it.

But I do hope this rain stops soon! Pkton, you may be right about needing that ark soon!

Kimberly

We've had a break from the rain today. I finally got to go out and do some deadheading and weed pulling. My phlox look horrible. My wave petunias that are in the front border of one of my gardens look pitiful. We don't have a basement, so at least I don't have to worry about that. I looked up Milwaukee's average rainfall and for August it's 4". We had 2.5" on Sunday. Since August 4th we've had 12". I've heard a few counties had 12" in 24 hrs on Saturday alone! When we came back from vacation on Aug. 4th, it had been hot and dry in Milwaukee. Lawns, including ours, were turning brown. You could tell who watered and who didn't. Well it started raining that evening and in a few days the lawns were all green again. I feel sorry for the people who have all the flooding.

Kat

I could sure do with less rain (I am in north central Racine County.) However, almost all my vegies are in raised beds. That was a bummer when it was hot and dry, they need more frequent watering, but now it is their salvation. Especially because they are growing in mostly compost type soil and that drains better than the native clay. My Cherokee Purple tomatoes are all cracking, though.

We have lots of dirty old pint canning jars on the concrete slab in front of our garage. Left them out to wash themselves in the rain (they came from somebody's old barn, there are over a hundred.) They are all full to the top, so that will make the washing easier . . .

Marcia

My fault - I planted my first real garden on the 5th with drought tolerant perennials. Since then 9.5 inches of rain.

Got back home from vacation out of state yesterday afternoon. A lot of flooding around the Madison/DeForest area - we did take in water at the bottom of our LL stairs (about 1' x 3' area) and a circuit breaker in the bathroom down there popped and it won't re-set. Electrician coming tomorrow. Very unusual; we are on top of a hill and this 30 year old house has never had nor needed a sump pump. Still didn't...the water never got that far.

Some compost in the new hosta beds washed out and crabapples from the tree near the garage washed all the way to the street.

My two ditch beds have plants laying on the ground from the force of the water going through the ditch. The lady that watched our cats during vacation said she's never seen that here in all the 30 years she's lived here. All in all though - not too bad compared to other parts of the state.

Char

Grinder12000, even drought tolerant perennials shouldn't dry out in their 1st growing season. As long as they're in soil that has good drainage, they should be ok.
Looks like the Milwaukee area is going to have a dry weekend. Maybe we'll even see the sun! LOL!!

Kat

Not the best drainage but, it's a learning experience. I'm building a Lasagna Bed this weekend for garden #2 . 14x8.

problem is our yard is all slope but that should solve any drainage problem. I'll plant next spring.

I sort of wish I could have done garden #1 differently but . . . .

BTW - last night .79 inches more!

For anybody that cars I have my own weather site that updates 24/7 every 10 minutes

Here is a link that might be useful: Columbus Weather

Grinder, that site is really something else! You've done a great job with the maps/graphs and everything else. Thanks for your link.

Kat

Cool site, weather dude! (Grinder)

Your weather is about the same as ours lately (Sturtevant, just west of Racine).

Right now the SUN IS SHINING! I'm going out now to continue work on extending a garden (laying down newspapers 10 layers thick topped with 3-4" of mulch, to kill the grass so it's ready for planting next Spring). Need to hurry up and do this before the next batch of predicted T-storms and flash flood warnings come.

BTW, you all can get a free weather sticker like this for your own home page or adding to forum messages. I'm including a link to mine. All you have to do is put your own zip code or city in the top box. It will bring up a new window with your city's weather stickers - there's a whole bunch of them. Click on one you like, and you'll get the necessary code needed (to copy in your message, for instance). The weather info is updated on a regular basis. I expect the sun/cloud icon to shange later today to cloud/rain icon, thanks to the weather dude who started all this drenching in the first place! (just kidding)

Julie

Here is a link that might be useful: Free weather stickers