Bill - I planted 4 ice plants in a dry, full-sun rock garden exactly as you describe and they never came back :( It's so weird since all my other succulents do!

Suz, did you buy the ice plants locally? There are some ice plants that grow on the west coast that are much larger, but not hardy here. You see them in huge mats covering rocks, especially at the seashore there.

Finally got some pretty heavy rain today. Man was that over due.

Bill - yes, I bought them at an independent nursery a town over from where I live. The tag said it was hardy in my zone, but they never reappeared :(

Finally, nice rain last night.

Rain here last night, also. It looks like close to an inch in a bucket left out (the digital rain gauge stopped gauging) and local weather stations report anywhere from 0.4 inches to 0.85 inch. Lots of lightning in the distance but not close by, and the NOAA weather radio was happily sounding alarms for hours.

The pollen/dust layer has been washed off and the garden feels relaxed.

Claire

Heavy rain here, too, but only measured about 1/4" in my rain gauge. 3 full rain barrels, tho!

Defrost and I probably got the same storm - it left 0.7" of rain in the rain gauge. So nice!

Our back yard is the problem area this season. It slopes down west towards a river and gets tremendous sun. And as daffodil33 said at the start of this thread, the weather pattern sure is worrisome.

In anticipation of a terribly dry summer (my dh is a weather geek), we didn't put in many annuals. He hasn't used the irrigation system much in this drought so our back yard is parched and dry. I'm sure we'll lose plants. It's definitely hurt the lawn.

I wonder if this is the "new" weather direction for more open areas of southern New England?

I've attached a photo of our dry garden that reminds me of Bill's. This year it's the best looking part of our yard.

Because it's not part of the irrigation system, most plants we've put there needed to have the will to live. It's tightly packed with varieties of sedum, grasses, echinacea, lavender and also volunteers like Lychnis rose campions and Verbena bonariensis. These have been planted between 4 anchor plants .... a prostrate European Larch that is hidden by the white sage, a rose, the tall Pinus sylvestnis 'Inverleith' behind it, and Miscanthus sinuses 'Cabaret' in the back. The Cabaret gets huge and covers much of that back corner.

Personally, I think my gardening practices will have to change. Not only are we getting less rain, we also have fewer bees. The drought is a problem that could be circumvented. The bees? Not so sure about that.

moliep, your dry garden is beautiful. I like the way the stone border and area make the garden stand out more.

I was just in the back yard and the ecchanecia and rudbeckia were super dry and droopy, had to give them a good watering. It may be time for a collective rain dance?

Yay, rain today here!
Had to move my succulents & some new dry-loving plants under cover from the downpour....

All the rain did here was wash the dust off foliage. Useless for rehydration.

We had about 1/2 inch of rain, maybe a little more depending on whether you believe local weather stations or the bucket and cart in the yard. Most of the storms stayed to the south of us blessing the Cape and the South Coast.

At least they didn't put up the Fire Weather Warning again for today (although there's an Air Quality/ozone Alert for tomorrow).

More chance of rain Thursday through Sunday with Saturday looking most hopeful.

Claire

So parched here. We get a small teaser rain once in a while but, like many of you, desparately need a good soaker. Surprised the plants look as good as they do, sitting in the dust. :P

It is very parched here (metro west Boston). We did not get more than a mm or 3 of rain in the recent storms that you guys have mentioned. I am jealous! Our town is on a water restriction since last week. Flower and veggie gardens have to be hand watered, but lawns can be irrigated with sprinkler systems 2x per week. Doesn't seem very restrictive to me to let people waste thousands of gallons of water on their lawns.

This is the driest Spring I can remember in 30 years of gardening. For the first time in 9 years I didn't sow Zinnias or any other annuals. I haven't even bothered cleaning up the back garden completely yet. Anything planted or sowed would have required constant watering to get started and grow.

I am basically watering the essentials - the veggie garden, a few butterfly and hummingbird plants (milkweed mostly), and the many trees and shrubs that were transplanted last fall and this spring. They do not have established root systems yet
so they are wilty, ugh. I am also constantly adding layers of various types of mulch to these plantings after watering, to preserve the moisture and cool the root system.

I put out a hummingbird feeder last week because even though the Monarda and Salvia B&B are starting to bloom, they have minimal nectar.

PS Bill and molie your dry gardens are very pretty.

I just checked the Town of Plymouth website to see if there was a change in the local watering restrictions, but they are pretty much the same as they have been since early in the year:

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Is there a watering restriction in effect?

This restriction shall limit outdoor watering to no more than 60 minutes per day. Odd numbered homes shall be permitted to use outdoor water for 60 minutes on odd days, and even numbered homes shall be allowed to use 60 minutes of water on even days. Watering is permitted between the hours of 5:00 am to 7:00 am and 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Claire

Thanks for the kind comments on our dry garden. Sadly, the rest of our gardens are just awful!

Several years ago we planted a Cinnamon Bark maple, and it's about 15 feet now. It's begun to drop leaves ... they're actually shriveled and dried. The leaves on our River Birch have started yellowing. The Knockout roses that we put in when we first created our gardens about 10/12 years ago and have thrived for many years without extra watering are sad looking and scrawny for the first time.

Like you, terrene, I didn't plant many annuals. I don't think any of the zinnias I direct sowed have survived. I also haven't worried much about weeding. I figure that leaving them helps to keep the long garden from completely drying.

Moliep, I just came upon this post and haven't read all the responses but the answer to your last post is to deep water those trees. Just leave the hose running at the base for an hour or more.I have spent the last few weeks deep soaking trees in my nursery and it has paid off. In the attached photo are 2 weeping Katsura trees that were both dehydrated from wind and drought. I deep soaked the plant on the left for 30 minutes 12 hrs before taking the photo. zoom in and see the difference. Know that taking the time to deepsoak now could mean healthier plants next year. Often Acer griseum (and other plants) experience dieback of branches after drought. Deep soaking a few times during the summer can help avoid this.

Thank you so much, Katsura Gardens, for responding! Your photo clearly shows the difference that deep soaking makes. In fact, when my dh read this post, he went right out to set up a hose. This growing season has us worried about our favorite trees .. those two and an 8-foot Pinus sylvestris Inverleith.

I just got an email from the UMass Extension people with all sorts of information on drought conditions in MA:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conditions in the region were dry last fall, the winter lacked normal snowfall amounts, and now some areas of Massachusetts have a rainfall deficit in excess of 6 inches for 2016. The heat that has now settled in has only exacerbated the challenges for landscape care. Almost 30% of Massachusetts (a band from eastern Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties across Worcester County through Middlesex & Essex counties) is now classified as "Severe Drought".

For resources from UMass Extension on drought conditions in Massachusetts and water conservation and management in the landscape, go to:

https://ag.umass.edu/news/dry-dry-dry-resources-for-landscapers

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Too much information to copy, but the map of Municipal Water Restrictions jumped out at me

Municipal Water Use Restrictions in MA

Claire

I rotate through the specimens: Katsura two weeks ago, Acer gris earlier this week, today the Stewartia and huge viburnum Mariesii. Slow and steady.....may forestall death by drought

Our area officially went from moderate drought to severe today. No surprise.

Drought Map

Susan

It's dry here too, but I'm not so sure it's any drier than it's been the past 3-4 years. For some reason, I think I have gotten a little lucky to have gotten a couple of soaking rains when showers were forecast. We have water restrictions, but I can still use my sprinkler on the even days and I can hand water any time. I don't think I've used my sprinkler as much as I did last year. I have been hand watering the front garden where I have tomatoes and peppers and annuals. I always have a good amount of mulch on the gardens too.

I had a problem with my boxwoods and it's taken me all season to finally get the front boxwoods straightened out. I had to severely prune them back and take some of the interior branches out. Then I've been spraying them to prevent an infestation of those bugs that curl the leaves. [cayenne pepper, garlic and a couple of drops of soap] And I've been soaking them. I've been leaving the hose running at the base of them at least once a week. And I've used Neptune's Harvest on them once a week. They are looking much better right now.

Hydrangeas are droopy every time the sun hits them. I just can't keep them watered enough this year. The lawn has gotten very little water and is definitely not green and lush like my neighbor whose automatic sprinkler goes off every morning. [g]

We're supposed to get rain this weekend, right?

We're supposed to get rain. And it probably will rain because we have a big outdoor party planned.

In the last 48 hours we have gotten about 0.8" of rain, not enough to make up for the season's overall lack, but enough to reduce fire danger and help out the plants. I think we've had about 1.5" in the last two weeks, but I certainly wouldn't mind some more. Susan's link says Concord, NH is in moderate drought, down about 5 1/2" for the year from average. We may be down a bit more since there have been several days that I was in Concord when they got good rain while DH at home said no rain ever arrived. I've been watering the gardens and some of the trees, and I hope that between the supplemental water I've provided and the rainfall that everything will pull through all right. I feel lucky that I have a well that has thus far seemed bottomless, despite watering on top of visitors whose presence required more than the usual showers and laundry. I imagine that closer to the seacoast where the aquifers are shallower and need rain for short-term recharge, things are quite a bit tighter.

Defrost - I hope your guests were able to dodge the raindrops.

Babs, we got about a half an inch last night at 8pm and nothing today. *sigh* At least with multiple cloudy days, there is less demands by the plants for water. I'm sure I'll be watering this week again.

Just hand watered for two hours, phew. May have to start to think about xeriscaping...

Good article here:
http://www.boston.com/weather/weather-wisdom/2016/07/13/keep-plants-alive-summers-drought 

Thanks, Babs, the party went on despite the rain with the only problem being we couldn't use the two bouncy houses when it was raining. The one with a water slide might only have been used for one hour. The kids loved it but it was too cold as well as too rainy. Are some discussion and debate, we had both a large tent and opened up our two car garage for dinner and a dry spot. The traditional camp fire was made under the tent and turned out to be a very good idea because the tent trapped the heat. I thought smoke would be a problem but it wasn't.

I can't go without a couple of planters and hanging baskets full of annuals. The perennial beds have been doing ok, not great, without regular watering but we have a high water table. The adjacent wet meadow isn't as wet as usual but keeps us from getting too dry. Our property is down hill so ground water is flowing underneath. There's a tiny seasonal stream in our back yard. The vegetable beds get regular watering otherwise the ground is dry as powder. I don't have everything mulched yet, just the potatoes and garlic. Some beds are just densely planted not requiring mulch.

Defrost49 got me thinking when she said that her "property is down hill so ground water is flowing underneath"... and that's our situation, too. Plus we're on a river which provides a great deal of morning mist.

Even so, without regular watering, our gardens are poor compared to previous years. I posted an early photo of our dry garden area. In the far left corner is a M. 'Cabaret' grass that's usually 6/7 feet tall and even wider by mid-July. Right now it stands at 4 feet. All our daylilies have fewer blossoms, faded colors and crimped petals, one Agastache is gone, and ... well, I could go on. However, there is one positive thing to share.

Here are pictures of 2 of the 5 of the clematis around our garden shed. All of them are brown, stressed and not re-flowering. But this morning my dh asked me to come inside and look! As he was getting bird seed from the buckets in the corner, he saw three of the clematis happily blooming inside the shed. Thought they're on the southwest side of our yard and get tremendous sun, the coolness of this covered area is bright enough for flowering. Their stems are thick and the leaves bright green.

That got me rethinking my fall "planting" schedule in preparation for next year. We definitely need more shade. But we don't want to plant more trees and block the river view. So here's the plan:

1. Transplant more perennials to garden shed in order to shade the clematis more next year.

2. Put short/wide-spreding annuals (like zinnias) in front of some of my favorite daylilies and other perennials.

3. Mulch the front of the long garden where the sun is so fierce with grass clippings then put down commercial mulch in the spring.

4. Lay down stalks of Verbena bonarenisis, Digitalis, or other re-seeders to create more dense plantings.

5. Learn to love weeds. I remembered that my mother used to find and interplant milkweed, Queen Anne's lace, and wild chicory in her perennial gardens. (Thanks, Mom, for this tip!)

Moliep, good point about shade. We have a couple of trees that provide some shade so one bed with a combination of shrubs and perennials gets shade part of the day. A circular bed get sun just about all day and there is an obvious difference in ground moisture. The south side seems to be doing ok with apple spice yarrow and Walkers low catmint. A new day lily planted last year looks pretty scrawny. The rest of the bed is very dense with tall garden phlox (white), Shasta daisies, Echinacea, a small clump of day lilies and a yellow leafed hosta. A couple of small lupine are struggling but I think it's from root competition. The phlox have a very dense root system.

I've heard some parts of New England may have gotten some beneficial rains recently, however the drought has worsened in our area (metro west Boston). As of Aug 1, our town has implemented an Outdoor Watering Ban, which means no lawn watering, no filling swimming pools, no washing cars, etc. The only exception is "Residential Gardens – Handheld Watering Only".

I've been hand-watering and hauling buckets & watering cans for MONTHS, and a couple weeks ago I started doing something I've never done before - collecting water at the kitchen sink which is the sink I use most of the day for washing and rinsing. Put a 2 gallon Rubbermaid bucket next to the sink, and collect washing/rinsing water from the kitchen sink all day long. Surprisingly, the bucket fills 3-5 X per day and I take it outside and and dump it on a thirsty plant. This totals about 6-10 gallons of greyish water each day.

This is as bad as I remember it to be unfortunately, no real rain in the forecast either. It's August and for the first time in my life I am awaiting fall/winter.

We haven't had rain in the last two forecasts that suggested we would. I heard on the news the other day, that the brown lawns now are not just dormant, but damaged. I am concerned for some of my neighbors who are not in the habit of watering at all, that they may have lost their lawns. One in particular who has a nice lawn too, but a lot of trees. We have a once a week water schedule now and you are allowed to water a vegetable garden any time and you can water by hand any time. So we've been doing that. I've lost some ferns and a few perennials. Even epimediums have brown top growth. I've watered the lawn enough, to believe that it will come back, but it is brown in areas where it is sunnier. I have soaker hoses under my arborvitaes and one large taxus that I try to keep up with.

Terrene, I've been collecting water at the faucet too. Not as much as you've been doing, but instead of letting the water flow while waiting for hot water, I collect that now. That's a first for me too. I've probably been doing half what you are.

A few of my neighbors already received $100. fines for breaking the water restrictions. I notice the local reservoir is very low right now. I hope we get fall rains.

Despite lack of rainfall, I guess we are luckier than most. Wild ferns are doing fine. I was very surprised that PYO blueberry farm that doesn't water still has wonderful plump berries. Sometimes I ask my husband if it's ok to water since we are on a well of unknown capacity. I usually limit to 2 hours (one hour each on two beds) just vegetable gardens. I hand water hanging baskets and planters. Then I figured that if we were a family of 5 showering every day instead of a family of 2, we'd be using a lot of water just for showers. When the farmer did second haying, there were clouds of dust as the tractor went around the field with the tedder. He is not selling any hay this year, he figures he needs everything he has (120 head).

I collect gray water like Terrene too! I've always saved the dehumidifier water from our cellar level and used it to water plants year round. But I also save "clean-ish" used water from my kitchen sink. I have some big plastic jugs with watering holes punched in the caps lined up under my counter, and when one of the jugs is full of precious water I upend it in an area of the garden that needs a good drip feed.

Defrost, that is surprising about the blueberries with no irrigation.

Barrett - I forgot, we use our dehumidifier water too. I like the idea you have of using a container with watering holes in the caps. What kind of containers are they and what do you use to punch the holes in them?

Prairiemoon, they are ordinary plastic juice jugs in varied sizes from half-gallon up to some 2-gallon size (for my biggest hydrangea). I poke the holes with an old barbecue fork (only used for this purpose now) heated up in the gas flame of my stove. Usually I need at least three holes, but some of the bigger bottles' caps have 4 or 5. Sometimes the holes get blocked up with debris, so I have to clean them with a toothpick or punch new ones.

Then I upend them, balancing with a rock or several to keep the bottle tilted. Sometimes I have to loosen the cap to get the water to start dripping out--you need air to be able to get into the bottle.

The only awkward part of the system--in my opinion--is that I need different-sized strong funnels so I can get the sink water into the neck of the plastic bottles without spilling it... Or else I need different plastic bottles with wider mouths (& thus larger caps) but I'm keeping my eyes open at yard sales....

That's an interesting system. I was wondering, what about collecting the water in a 5 gallon bucket and just plunging a bottle into it to fill the bottle? And if you had holes in the bottom of the container, you wouldn't have to balance it with rocks. You could just bring the 5 gallon bucket and the empty juice jug with the holes in the bottom outside and dip and drop it where you want it and you're done. And it would hopefully cover a larger surface area from holes in the bottom. Just a thought, as I'm thinking of adapting that system. Great idea. Thanks.

I talked with someone who works at Apple Hill Farm in Concord NH. They don't irrigate either. She said the blueberries, currants and raspberries are all plump and juicy plus the blueberry season might last longer than usual.

Prairiemoon, yes, the big multi-gallon bucket system into which one sticks the plastic bottles to fill them up easily is what I do with my dehumidifier water--the dehumidifier gives me 3 gallons each time I empty it. But somehow my kitchen sink system doesn't seem to lend itself easily to a huge bucket.

However, the way I'm doing it now in the kitchen is pretty unsatisfactory so I might try the "big bucket method" if I keep spilling valuable water like I am now....

As for your other idea, I haven't tried it, but it sounds interesting. My only fear is the water might run out too fast for my needs. Upending the bottles and screwing the top tight slows down the water drips, whereas loosening the top speeds up the drippage--and I like to have that differential control for watering different plants. For some I do a very slow drip for half the bottle, then move it over to another plant for a faster drip watering.

Defrost, that is reassuring, I'm going to have to consider planting more blueberries and maybe try some raspberries.

Barrett - Yes, it's not an easy accommodation to have 5 gallon buckets hanging around the kitchen. [g] My back door stoop is close to my kitchen sink and I can leave it there. 3 gallons, seems like a large dehumidifier! I don't know how much ours is.

You make a good point about controlling the drip. I wonder if you could make smaller and fewer holes in the bottom of milk jugs? I use an electric drill for making drainage holes for winter sowing. I thought I could try the smallest bit and just make fewer holes.

I was reading about a system where they use clay pots that they bury in the garden and block the hole in the bottom so the water just permeates through the walls of the pot. You fill it when it empties and use a clay saucer to cover it and it provides a good slow watering. I don't have the time to make those changes any time soon though, but I want to experiment with that in some of my beds.

I used to water a small garden at an intersection in town. I had to tote water so my husband filled a garbage can with water that went in the back of the pickup. Then I had a short length of hose and used the siphon technique to get the water started. This was over 30 years ago so I can't remember the details. 5 gallon pails of water are kind of heavy but perhaps if you can lug them out to a cart and wheel them to the garden, use a hose/siphon to fill the smaller jugs. One tomato plant in a very large pot (might be 10 gallons) needs 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of water daily. We just had a breezy day that seemed to make all the plants need more water than usual.

I devised a plan for hauling water in our garden cart (a little trailer pulled by our lawn tractor) that I have never used, but that might work, which is to use a rain barrel to transport water. I notice that rain barrels have a hose connection at the bottom of the barrel, so that, rather than siphoning water from the barrel, gravity does the work for you.

However since that time, we have discovered that the garden cart/trailer itself can be filled half way with water and driven to far reaches of our property without spilling or sloshing out en route. When we get to the distant perennial beds I can dip buckets out to water plants, and when the water level is too low for dipping, we just tip the cart and let the last of the water run downhill to the last garden.

I have set up an outdoor kiddie pool for my goldfish who outgrew their aquarium. It needs to be emptied every one to 3 weeks, and that nutrient rich water is what we transport to the plants. I fill watering cans too with the "fish water" for hydrating plants closer to the house and plants in containers.

When I'm out of fish water I fill watering cans with tap water. I'm in rural Vermont and we have a well, so no water restrictions here other than our own conservation measures. The thing is though, that we have so much water pressure in our well that it necessitates an overflow pipe which runs continuously into our brook (now almost dry), so saving grey water for instance would be rather pointless. I often do carry the dogs' water buckets out to the plants when I change their water several times a day, providing I am dressed at the time.

Molie, your comment "Personally, I think my gardening practices will have to change. Not only are we getting less rain, we also have fewer bees." I think is the quintessential truth to this whole thread/situation. I suspect that this drought is the leading edge of the prediction of scientists about desertification coming our way. Not in this decade perhaps and incrementally as opposed to a sudden shift, but I believe it is coming. Fortunately it is coinciding with my advancing age and a desire to cut back on gardening somewhat. My perennials are pretty much a fait accompli. I'm converting another garden from both annuals and perennials to all perennials, and will then just grow annuals in pots and in the vegetable garden. I'm going to plant a few more trees this fall, and then just sit back and watch the forest grow.

Very ingenious ways of watering you both have developed. I'll have to remember that if I have those circumstances.

I've had to put the sprinkler on my vegetable garden again this morning. The rain we had was great but the soil was so dry and the trees just seem to have sucked all the moisture out again, very quickly.

Has anyone noticed the condition of their lawn? I can see that the sunnier parts of my lawn appear dead, all except for crab grass. Very discouraging. I am wondering if I am going to have to replace lawn in the fall. Never expected to have to do that. Our lawn has been pretty bullet proof until now. Only had to do a few small patches in the past.

My acre(s) of lawn is on its own. Occasionally over the years we've tossed clover and bluegrass seed at the occasional bare spot, but grass is a resilient crop, and brown spots almost always green up when the rain comes. Mowing at the highest setting and leaving the grass clippings where they lie are good measures to ensure the health of any lawn, as is encouraging diversity of plants.

Absolutely good advice about lawn maintenance, Sped. Those are all the things my dh does with our lawn. He has always loved the look of grass and so has been diligent these past 13 years about mowing high, especially during droughts, and using a mulching mower so the clippings go back into the lawn. Years ago he put in sprinkler systems in the front and back but doesn't use these much anymore because of water concerns and the cost of town water. He will feed with organics and sometimes reseed, but basically the lawns are "on their own" and expected to brown in the heat of summer and come back in cooler weather. Grass is a perennial, after all.

I'm also with you on your approach to gardening/aging. A thick swath of perennials helps with the weeding. And re-seeders are wonderful. We love that portulaca continually appears along the front of the borders. So that's a help. As for trees... we only have three in the back. If it weren't for our river views, we'd plant more. Enjoy your growing forest!

We've had several storms (and a tornado!) in our area the past few weeks, totaling 2-3 inches of rain. I've gotten a little relief from watering although I'm still collecting water at the kitchen and bathroom sink, hauling buckets, and using the watering wand to water the veggie garden.

The lawn is greening up and it looks surprisingly good. However I follow healthy organic practices, unlike my neighbor, the one who over-fertilizes, whose lawn looks terrible. I mow very high, leave all grass clippings to decompose, regularly top-dress with municipal compost, and lime every couple years. Occasionally I've fertilized with milorganite which is processed human waste, and is a renewable fertilizer high in nitrogen (the lawn loved it). Also I have many large trees, and only a little of the grass is in full sun. Northern cool-season turf grasses seem to do best in partial sun.

Prior to the outdoor watering ban (Aug 1), there are a couple parts of the lawn that were watered infrequently but deeply (about every 3 weeks) because they were adjacent to a garden where I had set up a a big oscillating sprinkler. This seemed to keep the roots healthy and minimize die back of the gardens and lawn during the worst part of the heat and drought.

Hi Terrene

Nice to see you here. I miss your regular postings. You add a lot to the forums.I read a mention of the Concord Tornado this weekend. We don't get the Globe most weekdays and I missed that news entirely. I suppose I can go on line, but did your property get damaged? I hope your big trees that shelter the nesting bluebirds escaped.

It is nice to see you Terrene. :-) Hope you are doing well. I do remember the struggles you've had with the next door neighbor and his lawn fertilizer. It seems fitting that your lawn should look better than his. [g] I'm curious, how do you top dress your lawn with compost? Do you use some kind of equipment, like a spreader? This drought has created a set back for some of my lawn and crab grass has had a field day. I think I'm going to need to do something in the fall, but I'm not sure what. I'm considering removing the crabgrass, but it's too large an area to just reseed a few spots. I don't think I want to get involved in adding sod.

We might have had an inch or inch and a half during that storm, and I watered on Saturday and by yesterday afternoon, the hydrangeas were already wilting again.

My concern is, is this the new normal?