very dry here, but rained my whole vacation- the out of state part!

are spring was also very wet.

i have also been keeping my eyes open for those nasties but haven't seen any yet.

Our ground was dry as a bone until 2 weeks ago. Serious dry from last fall and then almost no snow all winter. Since 2 or 2 1/2 weeks ago we've had wonderful life-giving rains - almost 5 inches, but spread out. And the ground is soakin' it up like a sponge. So we're almost back to normal here.

I will continue to do a rain dance for other parts of the country. Florida was VERY dry when I was there 2 weeks ago.

Pray for rain! and keep it comin' here too.

S

No drought but we could always use more rain. I saw 4 Japanese beetles today. I put down Milky Spore Disease last year and I wish all my neighbors would use it.

Comettose........how do you distribute that milky spore? Is it just a powder that you sprinkle below where the beetles tend to congregate in the summer? I think you put it down in the fall, right?
I put up one of those jap beetle traps a couple years ago and it was the most disgusting thing. They would fill it up so fast, I couldn't keep up. So I opened the bottom of the bag, so they would fall into a bucket of soapy, oily water. But a coon got into it all and messed it all up. Yuk.
I know using those traps is real tricky, and you can end up attracting them from everywhere.
I didn't have those danged beetles until I planted a porcelain vine and they loved living on it. I have since destroyed the vine, but now they have turned to my Linden tree and various other things........including my green beans. Hopefully I can harvest my green beans before the bugs really get going. Yuk. I wonder why they are so out of control. I know a couple birds eat them........but not enough!

Ugh, it's always dry here this time of year. Then the wind blows, and I swear I can feel the moisture being sucked violently from my skin.

In the normally dry season(s) here, I water everything by hand, so it takes me anywhere from 4-6 hours, 1-3 days a week to water. I don't have "beds", just plants scattered all over the place with paths around and through them. Bad planning, for sure!

Back on Jan. 26th, it hadn't rained here for a month. Winter is usually our wet season, so I decided to use a sprinkler to simulate an overnight rainfall. I let the sprinkler run ALL night for a good soaking. It worked great! The rains returned on Feb. 7th, so I only had to use the sprinkler once, but I'll keep it around for future winter dry spells.

Brenda

i thought i saw a jb last night...i remember thinking, but i don't see any white spots. so, as i was looking through my insect guide for some other odd creature (yep, this is why i like the night!) there was a dogbane beetle. looked very similar.

i do know that last year was the first time i saw jb's though, so i continue to keep a look out. they like maple trees, of which our neighborhood is almost nothing but.

I've only gotten 1/4" in the last month, and just 3/4" in the last six weeks. I can now tell exactly where the cistern is because of the dead grass - a first since we've moved here. I'm not watering much though, I decided it was time to see what was meant to be and what wasn't. I'm surprised at some of the things still doing well (liatis and coreopsis) and disappointed with others not doing well at all (coneflowers and sages). I really feel sorry for the farmers, the corn is looking bad.

There were some thunderstorms that rolled through today and I went out on my porch with a smoothie to wait for them. They were headed right at us - and they missed us and we got NOTHING! Two miles down the road there were puddles - wahhhhhh, I want puddles!

Same here, Jean. The storms come roaring toward Dayton, then the waters part and they leave a big dry hole right over us. What gives? We had 1.3 inches in one day, I guess about eight weeks ago now. And that's the last rain we've seen.

However, my grey-headed coneflowers are about to bloom!

We got some rain yesterday. It was sooooo wonderful. I could hear the garden growing!
jeanner...something similar happened to us about 10 years ago. It rained all around us, all summer long, but would miss us completely. We were in a drought, but nobody else was, so nobody talked about it. It was so strange......the rain would be heading right for us, then part until it got on the other side of us! Its hard not to get a little paranoid about that!
Up 'til now, I've had to water the garden every single day, since the humidity has been so low too. Even though I hate high humidity, it does give things a little moisture.
I live near a big city that is constantly growing. It scares me when it gets so dry, with how many people are using so much water and what would happen if it ran out.
I'm on a well........and in a drought, even though you have water, you just wonder for how long?

Zinniachick, Tami said it poured in Centerville and Kettering but they've been dry up to now. And 80% chance of rain tomorrow, I'm jsut afraid that means we've got an 80% chance of getting a 1/10th of an inch!. My gray-headed coneflowers are pathetic looking but not to worry because I know where to get some seeds if I need them :^)

We are on a well too except it is a very poor well (a whooping 1 gallon per minute on good days) so we have a 3200 gallon holding tank that it pumps into so we can draw water at a better rate than what's it pumping. When the well stops producing we have water hauled in. There's been a few times when we turned on the faucet and nothing came out - that's when you learn how much you take water for granted!

Cat, that's what happened to our county, well 1/2 a county last summer. Rains all around us, but corn drying up in the fields here. Better this year...so far. I'm not sure I have the guts to be a farmer. Not only do they have to be up on all the latest in seeds, weeds, chemicals, equipment, etc. But then they have to rely on Mother Nature.

Cat - I sprinkled it on the ground all over my lawn, but not in the woods. Since I saw those two/three beetles I've not seen any since. They are usually out the same time my Rose of Sharon blooms and they love to eat the blooms. I've not seen them on the crabapple, cherry, peaches or hazelnut either. Good! I get the feeling because of the odd mild winter we had, followed by an extremely cold spring, the insects are thrown off kilter. That is not necessarily a good thing with birds relying on them. We have no mosquitos either, but plenty of moths, few butterflies. It is usually standing room only on my liatris but only the odd butterfly here and there. My flower beds are normally butterfly magnets.

We had another thunderstorm two nights back and everything is all green and blooming. No drought at all here. My state does not get dry and wet seasons like Brenda. It rains year round here.

Catherine, did you get that rain today? We didn't get alot (about 1/2 inch) but it was a great soaking rain and then the temps dropped 10 degrees. It was wonderful! Combined with the 1/4 inch we got the other day and maybe more tomorrow, we might actually reach our normal June rainfall of an inch a week!

I think Catherine is out playing in the rain! LOL Ahhh, I'm SO jealous of your rainfall! It sounds so refreshing. *parched*

Brenda

We have also been left out of the rain. Not left out IN the rain. Ut gets dark, you can smell it coming and it just blows past our house! Jeez! BUT! Today the water pressure in the house was very low and when my middle son left, he saw a big puddle in the front yard, I thought oh, my Dog! Not break in the water line! We just put a new line in last summer! What a water bill we're gonna have! Well after three calls to the water company,a guy got here to look and determined it was on their side and joked they won't even charge us for the irrigation! We have a bubbling spout and they aren't even working on it till MONDAY! How can they just let all that water flow like that? It's just nuts and he wasn't the least bit concerned! Watch our basement get full of water now. How I wish we had some way of saving that water! Debbie

Ack, what a waste is right! Hey, you could toss some aquatic plants in there. :D It sounds like one of those "it's not my problem" problems, with regards to the water company. :(

I just read that, as of midnight tonight, southern California is having the driest year since they started keeping records 130 years ago. I hope this winter is a wet one!!

And then there's the poor folks in Texas...

Brenda

Can you pipe that water or redirect it in any way?

Brenda - if we are lucky winter rains are snow here if it is cold enough. Snow is better as it is like a slow drip irrigation system for the trees when it slowly melts. It also insulates the tender plants from cold winds.

A few days back we had more thunderstorms in the evening and then one day of rain too. I have not had to water anything except the potted plants on the porch.

The weather here is really nice - cooler tempss and a light breeze, but sunny. Reminds me of California. I hope it holds for the next two weeks as I am off work and my sister is visiting again.

Well, we stuck a sump pump in the flow and we watered ALL day yesterday. We let it flood the garden, the bog, the flower beds, we filled a bunch of 5 gallon buckets, I watered all my bushes and small trees. There was SO much wasted and they finally showed up to fix it about 9:00 this morning. I'm sorry to repeat, but since Friday, it flowed like a fully blasting hose or heavier, it just made me sick. I'm just waiting till they tell everyone to conserve water since it's been so dry!! I told the DH they probably will say we stole the water by sump pumping it! Debbie

Make sure you get it in writing they won't charge you, after they get forgetful about how it happened and the meter reader turns in the numbers.

I can imagine how frustrating it must have been, Debbie! A bunch of us are on one well out here (all of us renters), and there have been several times when pipes have burst (not at our house, thankfully!), and people are just standing around. "Turn off the water!!!" "We can't find the shut-off valve." Sickening.

That's so true about the snow, CT. A team of people measures the snow accumulation several times a year up in the Sierras to help track the runoff, as well as water needs, for later in the year. This year wasn't so good for snowfall up there. Drought always begins in the Sierras in the depths of winter for us. :(

Brenda