Another Dry Summer?

[Tdog]

Looks like we're off to a dry start again. I swore last year that I wouldn't plant a vegetable garden again if it looked like we were going to suffer another summer like last year & the year before & the year before. Here in south Louisiana we finished the year 2000 about 24 inches below normal. Then, we began it get a few bouts of rain in January & February. It lasted into March somewhat, but since April, nada. I spend most of my time watering. Hope my well holds out.

Guess I shouldn't complain too much. I grow stuff for my own table & as a hobby - - I don't depend on Mother Nature for my living. And we don't have it nearly as bad as the folks in Florida.

I thought people on this message board would be interested in a national drought monitor that is hosted on the Univ. of Nebraska website:

http://enso.unl.edu/monitor/monitor.html

 

[cowboydoc]

Tdog,
Just the opposite here in Iowa. Too much rain and flooding. Sure would be nice to equal it all out.

 

[kawallace]

Tdog thanks for the site info....very informative, I am in Northwestern North Carolina and like you we have had very little rain. I have been watering my garden form a pond I dug that is fed by two springs. Already one spring has dried up and it seems the flow from the second has slowed down. Wally

 

[RobertN]

People look at me strange when I say it, but think about it...
Mt St-Helens blew
Chernobyl blew to beat the dickens
Mt Pinatbo(sp!!) blew
A few other natural and unnatural events occured...

The weather patterns aint been the same.................... First there's natures odd patterns, for which we have no influence. Add some "human" interference...

And, we should consider ourselves lucky. Think about the city's in the former USSR that simply are not on the map any more...

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[skent]

March and beginning of April too wet to plow/disc the garden. When I did get the potatoes, corn and beans in it stopped altogether. Finally yesterday some much welcomed rain (1/2" overnight in a slow soaking). Now maybe those kenebec's will start doing something. (will prolly be too late for 4H fair)

Steve

 

[kawallace]

It must be fate...yesterday the post on "another dry summer" and it has been raining since....we have picked up about 1" and it is still coming down....I have rain barrels on the down spouts and have collect about 500 gallons so far....let it rain....Wally

 

[Bird]

And our weather forecast yesterday morning called for a 90% chance of rain last night, so I picked 7 quarts of blackberries, 8 gallons of green beans, 5 gallons of squash, 2 gallons of cucumbers, a few bell peppers, and some cauliflower and broccoli so we could stay out of the garden a couple of days if it got wet and muddy. It definitely needs watering. And we didn't get a drop and the sun's shining now./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[kawallace]

Bird it sounds like your garden is doing well.....As this is the first year at this location for my garden am hoping just to see some plants survive......very poor soil....have added manure and tried to remove most of the large stones.....will probably take a couple of years to build it up....what has been your experience on improving the soil ? P.S. another 21/2 inches of rain since this mornings post....the pond is overflowing its banks.....didn't put in a big enough drain pipe....Wally

 

[Bird]

Wally, taking a soil analysis is undoubtedly the best way to find out what you need. My garden used to be part of the pasture, and the first summer that I plowed it up and tilled it, we put a bale of hay in the middle of it for my neighbor's cattle and when they ate that one, we put out another just a little ways from the first location, so they fertilized it (but I won't do that again because there's too much grass & weed seed in hay). Then I ran many, many 5 x 10 trailer loads of small limbs and brush through the chipper/shredder and tilled that in, and early in the Spring sent soil samples for analysis (came back good) and I have no rocks to contend with. Of course, since that time I raised rabbits for a couple of years, so I had plenty of the best fertilizer you can get, I cleaned out a neighbor's calf barn (2 dump truck loads), I got the used "mushroom soil" from a mushroom farm, and the power line crews pruning trees brought me several loads of woodchips. So far I've not used any commercial fertilizer, but that's only because I haven't needed it. I do put a little commercial fertilizer (nitrogen) on the blackberry patch after I mow them down about mid-June when they quit producing each year.

Bird

 

[RichZ]

Wally, here in upstate New York, we have the opposite problem. Our creek is slowly shrinking. I'm getting tired of watering all our seedlings, but that's the only way they'll survive. Luckily they're predicting rain for later in the week. We're praying for rain!!!
Rich