Drought Watch
The normally soggy New England continued its abnormal dryness through September. Well, at least around here. Now I realize that other parts of the country are suffering from worse drought (the South and West come to mind), but that doesn't diminish what we're experiencing here. It just underscores how bad things are on a national level. Residents of Texas and Oklahoma are certainly welcome to take exception, considering the way above normal levels of rain they've had this year.
In my area, we received less than 3/4 of an inch of rain last month. Normally, we get over 4 3/4 inches of rain in September. For the year, we're down over 10 inches of precipitation, which amounts to a 26% shortfall.
One silver lining to all this is that my wife is actually interested in getting rain barrels. She proposed the idea a couple of months ago. It's something that I've always wanted to do but didn't think she'd go for it. I always thought she'd dismiss it out of hand. We're a little bit like "Living With Ed," though neither of us is as "polarized" as the Begley's.
After I wrote about the possibility of an early Fall, we received the forecasted rain. But since then, I've watched storms drive west and north of us. The mere pittance of rain that fell wasn't enough to get past the leaves on the trees and hit the ground. And we've got sunny skies forecast for the next seven days.
How has this played out in my yard? The beds are so dry that I was able to pull a dead azalea out of the ground with my bare hands. Lawn mowing continues to be down (a good thing), though the grass is certainly hurting. I may mow it this week just to mulch up the leaves. Maples, birches, and beeches continue to showcase their colors, with the smaller trees leading the way. The larger ones are still able to tap moisture reserves. The cottonwood and hickory trees are joining this group. Fortunately, the oaks remain resilient.
Surface root plants like moss and weeds are dead or severely wilted. Small scrub is all showing some form of wilt. A fire would easily take hold and wipe out the understory. There's plenty of fuel available.
Over in the evergreens, conifers seem to be doing ok. I think that they're better adapted for dry conditions that the others. While the fir, cedar, and hemlocks are unscathed, the black pines have yellowing needles. It doesn't look widespread so it just might be seasonal shedding.
The Japanese Andromeda are extra thirsty and have shown leaf wilt and some loss. I'm trying to keep up with watering them and the hydrangea.
The rhododendrons and pachysandra aren't looking so good either. During the winter, the colder it gets the more the leaves curl up to prevent water loss. I'm seeing the early signs of that behavior, despite the fact that temperatures are nowhere near freezing.
All of my extra watering is akin to deficit financing. I'm taking the water out of the aquifer now in the hopes that it will be replenished with rain and snow over the next few months. So far, so good. The well seems to be holding up and I won't have to keep watering for long as the plants will be going to sleep soon. I wonder though how many will wake up next Spring.
\_/
DED
In my area, we received less than 3/4 of an inch of rain last month. Normally, we get over 4 3/4 inches of rain in September. For the year, we're down over 10 inches of precipitation, which amounts to a 26% shortfall.
One silver lining to all this is that my wife is actually interested in getting rain barrels. She proposed the idea a couple of months ago. It's something that I've always wanted to do but didn't think she'd go for it. I always thought she'd dismiss it out of hand. We're a little bit like "Living With Ed," though neither of us is as "polarized" as the Begley's.
After I wrote about the possibility of an early Fall, we received the forecasted rain. But since then, I've watched storms drive west and north of us. The mere pittance of rain that fell wasn't enough to get past the leaves on the trees and hit the ground. And we've got sunny skies forecast for the next seven days.
How has this played out in my yard? The beds are so dry that I was able to pull a dead azalea out of the ground with my bare hands. Lawn mowing continues to be down (a good thing), though the grass is certainly hurting. I may mow it this week just to mulch up the leaves. Maples, birches, and beeches continue to showcase their colors, with the smaller trees leading the way. The larger ones are still able to tap moisture reserves. The cottonwood and hickory trees are joining this group. Fortunately, the oaks remain resilient.
Surface root plants like moss and weeds are dead or severely wilted. Small scrub is all showing some form of wilt. A fire would easily take hold and wipe out the understory. There's plenty of fuel available.
Over in the evergreens, conifers seem to be doing ok. I think that they're better adapted for dry conditions that the others. While the fir, cedar, and hemlocks are unscathed, the black pines have yellowing needles. It doesn't look widespread so it just might be seasonal shedding.
The Japanese Andromeda are extra thirsty and have shown leaf wilt and some loss. I'm trying to keep up with watering them and the hydrangea.
The rhododendrons and pachysandra aren't looking so good either. During the winter, the colder it gets the more the leaves curl up to prevent water loss. I'm seeing the early signs of that behavior, despite the fact that temperatures are nowhere near freezing.
All of my extra watering is akin to deficit financing. I'm taking the water out of the aquifer now in the hopes that it will be replenished with rain and snow over the next few months. So far, so good. The well seems to be holding up and I won't have to keep watering for long as the plants will be going to sleep soon. I wonder though how many will wake up next Spring.
\_/
DED
Labels: environment
posted by DED at 9:33 AM
5 Comments:
Hi ded,
A severe drought in your area would doubtless be much more destructive than a drought here. Many of the plants here can lay dried out and dormant for years. Fire can rage through the grasslands and scrub oak and they will still bounce back. Not so in the northeast. I hope you get some substantial rain there before the older trees start dying. A rain barrel is a good idea. I catch rain off the roof in buckets and such even in the rainy years. It is better for the plants than treated water, or well water for that matter. It also aids conservation efforts.
Right. A fair number of our trees, like that Sweet Birch I photographed a couple weeks ago, require moist soil. They're not used to these dry conditions.
Why is regular ol' rain better than water from a well? Other than the fact that I have to use electricity to pull it out of the ground.
Hi ded, you said:
Why is regular ol' rain better than water from a well?
I may be confused here. Our tap water out at the farm came from a well, but we softened it with salt. The salts sometimes occur naturally too. Not all wells have this problem though. I think rain water has more nitrogen too, it seems to really set plants off on a growing spurt. I could be wrong about that too. Of course if you have acid rain then all bets are off. I should think before I make blanket statements.
OT - hey ded, have you seen this video? I saw my first Prius today. Very spiffy.
We have acid rain thanks to the coal plants west of here. The acidity even percolates down into the aquifer. We have a deionizer/water softener that neutralizes the pH and takes out the hardness. I use KCl instead of NaCl as it's better to have extra potassium ions floating around in our bodies instead of extra sodium (we get enough of that already).
Anyway, I wouldn't have had it installed except for the fact that after 30 years, the acidic water was finally eating away at our copper pipes causing pinhole leaks. Fortunately, all of the leaks occurred in the garage. It might not have been a problem except that the contractor who built our house cut corners on the copper pipe. He used closed circuit radiator grade pipe instead of normal pipe. The radiator pipes have thinner walls than regular copper pipe, thus being cheaper. Bastard. We've replaced most of the copper pipe with flexible PETE so should I disconnect the water softener (buying KCl will be sacrificed if we get in a financial pinch) this won't be a problem, except for the copper pipe that we couldn't reach (would've meant ripping out walls, ceilings, etc).
No, I hadn't seen that Solar Prius. That's way cool, though it probably wouldn't work too well around here (this year's abundance of sunshine being the exception to the rule). Anyway, thanks for sharing. :)
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