I hear you, and have been noticing the same thing. It was frustrating to see so many much-needed rainstorms hit southern and northern NJ and miss central NJ entirely.

The sandy soil here near the shore doesn't hold much moisture, despite all the compost I've added and a good layer of shredded leaf mulch, and both perennials and woody plants are showing their distress.

I fear that the fall colors - those late bloomers as well as the foliage - may be disappointing this year.

You do realize that much of North Jersey has been in moderate drought for MONTHS now, with the official Drought Monitor just now extending the drought to more central and southern areas of NJ. I am about 8 inches below normal in the NJ/NYC Metro Area. In the North, it get worse as you approach the coast. The drought is BAD on much of Long Island (second year in a row), most of New England (especially Ma.), Upstate NY, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and much of Georgia. There has been almost nothing on it until very recently in the news, and even now, our dim-witted "meteorologists" talk about rain as if it were a plague. Fall colors?!, our leaves are are already falling.

Yes, the year of Irene was a good year..., 80 inches of rain! Not sarcasm, I hate this DRY hell, might as well be in LA!

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/RegionalDroughtMonitor.aspx?northeast

Yup, bad here in Middletown as well. I thought the rain cloud purposely here avoids us. Because I was growing flowers for my nices's wedding plus the regular vegetable garden, and the lawn, our water bills have been up to the roof... Averaging $300 a month!

Oakhurst here. It's been downright awful, disgusting and a real problem. My second job has been watering, no make that, triaging over 150 different rhodies/azaleas. Even clethera has been on the ropes along with some viburnums. I've already lost a couple of plants that I've had for over 20 years. These weather extremes that we've had suck.

What's contributed to it as well is that I've lost 3 big oaks over the last 10 years due to Sandy, sudden death, and a squall from about 8 years ago. While I have well over 30 new oaks on the property (they're no taller than 20' at this time and are not affording the partial shade that my gardens need with the holes created by those 3 big losses.

Plain and simply, it SUCKS.

I understand Ted LOL! Wow, that is quite a nice collection of rhodies though!! Well the predicting soaking rain of Saturday into Sunday last weekend kept getting pushed off......but we FINALLY got a little rian, maybe even an inch or so, onto the parched soil. Everything looked and "felt" happier the next day. May be too little too late for some but I am glad we got something.......the next several days look sunny again!

Yupper. It was better than nothing and it temporarily provided some relief for our gardens. And everything looked so much better with that shot of nitrogen and other trace minerals. Let's hope that the fall will bring some semblance of regular precip (and not any tropical storms). Just that steady day long rain of Monday.

Well the growing season is about over but it looks like this week we will have some decent rain! I am thankful for it, though I do wish we would get some of this, at regular intervals, throughout the growing season. Maybe we will at least have a late first frost!

Somewhere I read that they're expecting the early part of winter to be colder than normal, with warmer than normal temps in January-February, and that frosts might be early this year ... So have your cloches and frost covers ready, just in case.

I'm all for the rain, but our neighborhood is having a community garage sale this coming weekend so the timing is disappointing, to say the least ... especially since I don't have a garage to retreat to.

At least everything will go into winter well hydrated :-)

Well this last rain, which was supposed to be a good couple inches, missed us AGAIN!!!!! I guess I should not be surprised. Mind you the last few days have been damp and cloudy with some drizzle, but all of the appreciable precipitation went south of us! Sigh.

Cheer up, maybe Matthew will bring some rain ;-)

Actually, although I understand we still need a good bit more to bring us out of drought status, it seemed we got some pretty good rains here in coastal Monmouth. [Got to get that rain gauge out.}

agardenstateof_mind looks like Mathew is missing us too!! Well, I wouldn't want a direct hit but rain would be nice!! LOL! BTW I am actually a very positive and happy guy despite my whiny thread here but Geez a couple years of regular rainfall would be nice LOL!!

Yes, looks like Matthew is headed out to sea. But I believe gardeners are basically optimistic people ... Who else would take such time and effort to put little dry bits (seeds), pieces of root, and shriveled-looking rhizomes and tubers into the ground expecting grand things in times to come?

Yes agardenstateof_mind you are correct!! We actually find that exciting waiting for those seeds and dry bits to grow LOL! Well we did actually end up with some soaking fine rain Sunday night which is good. A frost last night however, so this season is about winding down. Got my houseplants back inside!!

I just wanted to resurrect this thread and say I am LOVING This spring thus far. First time in a long time there has been ample rain......I hope it continues through summer. I see a LOT of dead large trees in my area, particularly along 287 close to where it meets 22.......that were stressed over several years worth of drought. Nothing is lacking for moisture right now though!! Woohoo!!!!!!!.....

I agree completely; a delightful change indeed. A wet spring coming after a wet winter equals happy plants (and gardeners).

Hopefully he temperature will pick up a bit. These past 2 weeks of cold temp is not doing any good for my veggies.

Yes but I will take this over the droughts!! A little sun and warmth yesterday and today. My tomatoes are against the house and growing fairly well. My peppers just sitting there. Slugs have been bad on the peppers (a consequence of the moisture!) but all in all plants are looking GREAT!! I

Just commenting again. 2017 has been the polar opposite with frequent rains. Slugs are everywhere and although a few things have suffered in the abundant moisture I have LOVED it and appreciated the abundance of moisture. I will take this over all the drought years and everything in my garden and all surrounding parks and areas looks extra green (or maybe a "normal" green after so many drought years).

Certainly not in a drought now! 2018 and 2017 were good growing years!!