It is and I'm getting worried, especially with no rain in the forecast. I started my watering schedule yesterday and plan on soaking all of my plants, even established ones. Also even my rock garden whose plants are all drought tolerant.. Soil moisture is ok for my garden too but I want to water it before it completely dries out. Because once it dries out you're screwed as the water won't go past the thick mulch. Am I watering too much?

Heruga, a moderate rain (roughly .5“ to 1.5“) should penetrate the mulch. What kind of mulch are you using? How thick is the mulch? Is it compacted by foot traffic? Do your plants look stressed? Do you feel stressed? Just kidding on the last one, but the other questions are legit.

Finally my house isn't cold in the morning.......

Getting really hot here and it's already dry. I've begun watering.

Has only been in the low 80's a couple of times this season. I've ran the AC twice now.

Generally, been somewhere in the 70's and still getting down into the mid to high 50's at night.

I was watering some of my more water reliant plants after a week of windy, sunny weather (sandy soil) but heard it raining during the night and woke up to heavy rain (about an inch in the gauge so far this AM with more in the forecast).

Nice to get things soaked up before the real summer heat arrives soon. :-)

I use hardwood mulch, about 2 inches deep and I walk on it often so I think it is compacted. Plants don't look stressed other than wilting during the day. Last year or year before during one of the droughts I ran an oscillating sprinkler on one of my dried up beds for an hour and while all the mulch was soaked, the soil underneath was barely wet at all. This is why I want to stay ahead and keep everything moist before it dries up.

I, too, have begun eyeing the tropical weather systems.

It seems to rain every other day here. I have not experienced growth on woody plants like I have this spring/early summer. We haven't hit 90F yet, but we'll be close today. There's more rain predicted overnight, and then we're back in the 70's. It sure beats drought.

' I'll be too busy dragging hoses around '

' It sure beats drought '

This is the first year in the last 4 or 5 that we're getting regular rains again. It hasn't all been a total drought except the last 1 or 2 have been close but a lot depends on the timing and amount of our rains.

Middle of May through June, when trees and shrubs are expanding their growth is crucial here. Otherwise, if too dry, these all decide to cut growth for the season just to survive. Of course, this is all connected to droughty soil that requires moisture at regular intervals.

Speaking of looking at the bright side. I was in the town of Pine River the other evening for a ball game when the Tornado warnings went off. We got dime sized hailed on, but the town of Cross Lake got hit by a twister pretty hard with massive power outages and some homes were destroyed.

One man, who had a large lake shore lot, that was filled with large trees and garden was in the bullseye. Not only were the buildings destroyed but when the trees were flattened/uprooted, it dislodged all the ground wiring and sprinkler systems. You couldn't walk 6 ft. without climbing over a large fallen tree trunk.

:^\

We seem to alternate between monsoonal rains and sudden, "flash droughts". This winter was VERY WET (mostly all rain), the flooding events continued into the Spring, so annoyed seening people water their lawn when there is FLOODING going on. Then, the spigot got turned off, just like that. Winters overall are much wetter, summer rainfall seems very erratic, depending on the year. Overall, annual precip seems much higher, it's the distribution! Just my informal observation as a gardener here for a few decades.

It's just that everyone is speaking about their own specific location, which varies widely across this great nation of ours. A post in a public forum should reflect on what area you wish to hear from. If you wish to hear from everyone, you'll get a hodge podge of different views. imho.

In NJ, it rains when it doesn’t need it(winter-early spring) and often doesn’t when we need it(summer). The weather is never cooperative in our state.

But, Heruga, somewhere years ago, I saw a map where someone had somehow calculated the likelihood of drought on a state by state basis. New Jersey was one of the lowest states.

I'll see if I can find the map again.

41 North, I have been gardening since the early 1990s. I too feel like the rain, especially in summer, now comes in increasingly heavier albeit more infrequent downpours. So instead of a month where you get an inch of rain each week, we seem to get something like 3 inches, then a 2.5 week 'flash drought' as you called it, then 1.5 inches, then the rest of the month dry.

We need an 'an all day soaker' . Hope the weather man is wrong...

davidrt, the St Lawrence Seaway area is one of the least likely areas for drought because it's such a common track for low pressure systems.

“It's just that everyone is speaking about their own specific location, which varies widely across this great nation of ours. A post in a public forum should reflect on what area you wish to hear from. If you wish to hear from everyone, you'll get a hodgepodge of different views. imho.”

That is obviously, true. My username is pretty specific though, Zone 7a/b coastal NJ, but would guess these observations also hold true for a great deal of the Northeast and Middle Atlantic, and several of the posters above are in fact, from the same general region. I personally cannot speak for any other region of the county because i have never lived anywhere else. if you live in the Midwest, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Alaska or Hawaii, feel free to respond or not, and describe your own experiences of how your gardening world as changed, or not.

I think this type of "weather reporting" from people across the country -- or world -- is interesting. I'm not one to sit and watch the weather channel, so this gives me some perspective on what's happening across the fruited plain and what fellow gardeners are dealing with. If nothing else, we can commiserate.

' My username is pretty specific though, Zone 7a/b coastal NJ '

' if you live in the Midwest, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Alaska or Hawaii, feel free to respond '

Hmmm, not sure I understand but it's okay with me. ;-)

I’m in Milwaukee a few miles from Lake Michigan. While we had lots of needed rain in May, it’s been in the mid nineties for the 4 days. Just awful. Can’t turn the air off, have to water pots daily and fill the water bowl for my outside cats 3 times a day….🥵

Funny, even with house privileges, the cats all want to be outside!

debra

So far, still better than last year in one major respect, currently don't have the Martian orange skys due to Quebec fires that were blowing down to NJ and Virginia. I have NEVER seen that here before. But was hearing that the biggest temperature anomalies are for places furthest to the north (like northern New England and Quebec), but suspect that is down the road, unfortunately.

This is from last year, at around noon, in mid June, from the fires in Quebec.

Martian skys

I have had cats for a LONG time, some demand to go out, others not so much and relish their indoor life style. We had a cat disappear outside and were devastated, she would throw a temper tantrum if not left out, she went out every night for years until she did not come back. Still have cats but with deer tick, foxes, coyote, psychotic Homo sapiens, not a good idea." We have ferals but unseen this summer, too HOT, but they are sunning themselves in the back every winter day.

P.S., Her name is Cleopatra and she does think she is the Queen of the Nile. 97 F tomorrow with high humidity, she parks her butt in from of the air conditioner and stays there all DAY!

Cleopatra looks less than enthused to be photographed...

I had a 12 year stretch when I didn't have to worry too much about watering.

Wow!

Maybe 15 years ago, I picked up a seriously fancy Gardenia oscillating sprinkler at a garage sale. I've used it maybe 5 times, and at least two of those times were getting it out so I could play with it.

Maachia, I am a big guy but have a huge phobia of rodents, including MICE, that is why I love CATS. Had a mice issue issue last year in my food pantry, NO MORE! That is why sailors brought them on ships up and down the East Coast from Maine to Key West. Loved Hemingway House in Cayo Hueso (Key West).

Things are very hot & dry here, and today it was windy which just dries things out even more. I am trying to triage my watering.

Supposed to get torrential rains tomorrow here, soil moisture still decent here, one it does dry out, that will push temps UP.

After a cold, cold May, we’re having a hot June

We have a 60% chance of getting dome rain today so I’ve got my fingers crossed. Of course that rain may be accompanied by damaging straight line winds. All this heat means a lot of energy to fuel storm systems. My 8 ft tall Anastasia lilies are just opening and I really hope we don’t get damaging winds!!

They are forecasting downpours overnight here, but....I take that with a grain of salt. since they usually mean 'some' areas 'might' get it and some won't. [g] I could use some downpours right about now. We've had a good steady supply of rain so far this season but now that the heat is here, everything is drying out fast. Hydrangeas are wilting even a day after I water them. I think they just don't enjoy the heat. Although, the panniculatas in full sun don't seem to be affected.

The last few years, I've tried to increase plants that enjoy the heat. Tomatoes and peppers and cukes in the vegetable garden. Hibiscus, grasses and sedums don't seem to mind at all. I didn't grow zinnias this year, but they have stood up to heat in other seasons. I just started Basil, direct seed and they sprouted in 2 days. I'm out there misting them 3x a day. [g] But Basil loves the heat. Other herbs seem to sail through as well. Oregano and Thyme are two.

Then there are rain barrels to cut down on having to use town water, and thicker mulching to slow down evaporation. And I rarely put a sprinkler on any more. I finally realized how long I had to leave them running and how shallow the water penetration was. Now I hand water with a nozzle and a folding chair early in the day.

I did put a small stationary sprinkler under two hydrangea today, because I didn't notice how dry they were until mid day and I wasn't going to sit out there hand watering. Plus the bees were trying to use the Oakleaf Hydrangea and I wanted to make sure they were not wilting. As a bonus that offered the birds in the neighborhood a nice cool off. They were having a good time out there in the sprinkler. And now the water is off and the hydrangeas have stopped wilting.

Most of our most common herb are Mediterranean, and they love heat, drought and poor soils (rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, sage),, but Basil though, needs a lot of water.

I have everything but the lavender and the basil is in a raised planter and should get the water it needs. Good tip.

BTW, Markay, I love that Anastasia Lily and I can't believe it is 8ft tall!!