Re: watering and dealing with the heat
- Subject: Re: watering and dealing with the heat
- From: "Marge Talt" m*@hort.net
- Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 23:47:10 -0400
Well, it was 100F in Richmond, VA when I left at 3:30 this afternoon
and 95F when I arrived home at 6:30PM and think it's still about 85F
out there now at 11:24PM.....am gettin' pretty sick of these temps,
tho' they are not uncommon in these parts and I will be wishing for
heat come Dec./Jan...
I would not mind the hot days so much if it would just cool off at
night a tad, which it has not these last few days...icky, icky.
You have to wonder why, with 85% humidity, the ground stays so dry:-)
I have no favorite way to deliver water to the garden...except
getting it from the sky. What I do is haul hoses to assorted
sprinklers - definitely NOT a favored pastime. Don't get a lot done
in the garden when 25 minutes out of every hour is spent moving
sprinklers. No way can I stand with hose in hand and get all this
garden watered. Potted plants are watered with hose in hand on a
daily basis when it's this hot; small pots just dry out in one day if
not. Do not sow seeds to have seedlings die from getting dry! I
water pots after dark; seems to stay with them longer than watering
during the daylight hours.
Luckily, we're on city water and it comes from the Potomac River,
which is - at this point - still OK tho' other parts of the state
that draw water from other sources are not OK....our water dept. is
planning a new addition to their expensive headquarters building and
I think they may name it after me as primary funder after this
summer:-)
Someone was saying they remembered getting regular rain in summer - I
do, too, but it's a fading memory as the past 10 years - at least -
have had more drought summers than wet ones....seems to me they used
to alternate so you ended up OK. We are at least 6" below normal
rainfall here with only April and June getting the amount of rain we
should. Our drought has been going on for several years here - think
it's 5 at least - which makes this summer particularly hard on
farmers. Just reading in paper today that most of corn crop has been
lost in MD and parts of VA.
Under "normal" circs, our winters and springs are quite wet, with
only July and August being dry and rain returning come autumn. Not
any more. Problem is that plants that have been adapted to thrive
here are used to getting water and suffer and die when they don't.
They are not adapted to Xeric conditions. Those that can, go dormant
early and will return; those that are not adapted to doing this go
dormant and do not return. Trees and woody plants suffer the most, I
think, as early dormancy is not good for them in the long haul. Cut
down a dead tree not long ago and noted the tree rings were far apart
until the last 10 years or so, when they were so close together it
was hard to count them. Tree was about 25 years old....
Broad leaf evergreens really suffer...they do not go totally dormant
as a matter of course. Many broad leafed evergreens normally thrive
here and are planted in number, so they need extra water...mature
Azaleas, Pieris and Rhododendrons are not throw away plants!
You can mulch all you want, if you garden under mature trees, the
soil is dry down over a foot, even with watering, watering,
watering....
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
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> From: Cheryl Isaak <cherylisaak@adelphia.net>
>
> Hello from NH,
> where we are heading for an other record setting day!
>
> And to top it all off, a daylily buddy dropped by with a plant for
> me; he needs more room for his seedlings! I was stirring outside
> then, so I just planted it and am watering it in. I can check it a
> few times and then turn off the water with in the next hour.
>
> So - what is your favorite way to deliver water to your garden? I'd
> prefer to hand water, but I can only carry so many watering cans up
> and down the hill! I covet one of the raintower sprinklers, but
> invent my own custom one with cinder blocks or a 5 gallon pickle
> bucket and a flat rock to hold the sprinkler in place. I can then
> adjust just where I want water. For spot watering I like a little
5
> way one I found at HQ before they closed, but it is MIA in the
> basement or the garage. GRIN, maybe I'll clean the basement up some
> until the heat breaks.
>
> I am still compiling my list of extra late daylilies. I several
that
> are just developing scapes now. Maybe Sunday!
> Cheryl
> --
> Cheryl Isaak
> Londonderry, NH
> AHS Region 4, USDA Zone 4B/5A
> growing, stitching and reading in NH
>
>
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