Well, I took the kids to open house at school today, and was told to buy a bottle of anti-bacterial hand wash, because they weren't going to be allowed to wash their hands. I was also asked to bring gallon jugs of water, because they are only going to use the fountains "sparingly." Bet that lukewarm water will taste real good, huh? Especially when it's hot in the building (a lot of the rooms aren't air-conditioned).

I've given up. If a plant lives, great. If it dies, I doubt I'll replace it next year. This is the second year in a row, and the third out of five that I've watched my attempts to beautify my little corner of the world wither and die. Even the bulb catalogs have lost their seductive power...

Yes, I'm obsessed with water: actually dreamed it was raining, a few nights ago. Very, very depressing, and especially when I think about next year, since the predictions show dryness continuing to the end of the year, and only "normal" precipitation after that. Have ordered two more rain barrels (demonstrating, I guess, that I still have hopes of getting some wet stuff eventually!).

---Margaret

I've been leaving the roof off my Jeep Wrangler because usually that is an open invitation for downpours. No go so far though.

If you have an air conditioner at home, you can use a bucket to collect the condensation as it drips from the unit and use this to save some of your plants. Just a little advice :)

SJ

Since the middle of May, nothing. Less than a quarter of an inch. I quit worrying about the plants when the creek went dry, now the biggest concern is water for the house. The well went dry about 3 weeks ago and now we are pumping out of the pool, comp;ete with tadpoles, to be able to flush and shower. My garden has totally gone by the wayside this summer, Fifth year in a row,The plants I bought this year are just shriveled up and dying. Anyone want to send some rain thi way!

What's really hard is seeing pictures of all the flooding in Europe and China. It was also hard driving west from here last May and seeing standing water in the fields in Ohio and Indiana and thinking, if it would just come over to the east side of the mountains. It's actually not as brown around here as it has been in previous years, but the water table is the lowest it's ever been--lakes that are almost not lakes anymore, a river that went down underground through a sinkhole. We've gotten a few light misting rains, just enough to keep the grass alive, but nothing to fill up the reservoirs and lakes. Most of my flowers haven't done too badly (I didn't plant annuals this year), but the vegetable garden is looking pretty sad. A hurricane that stalled off of the coast for a week would be nice.

Nancy, I know it is depressing to have such severe drought, but hang in there, it won't last forever. We are just getting some relief from our drought situation, although it is too late for the farmers around here this year. You must be talking about eastern or southeastern Ohio with all the rain because we went two months without rain after already being behind in rainfall from 2001. Our yards were all brown and crunchy--we're just starting to green up in the past few days and may even need to mow next week. We have not used mower since first week of June so we'll see if it still works!
I pray that you will soon see relief from the drought also!

Oh NO Sarah,

Hurricanes are not nice. Don't wish for one even if you
are not in the area where it would hit directly. I hope
you and everyone else gets the much needed rain. To give
you some hope I can tell you that we had 3 years of drought
and now for over 50 days we have had rain, flooding type
rain.........thank God it was not like Europe or China.

The rain quit for 2 days now and it is better, but the forecast for us is heavy rain mid week.

I guess we all need patience. You for the drought and me
for the flooding rain. Good Luck to all of us.

Chin up everyone. It's bound to get better. All of it is part of nature so, conserve and keep smiling. This too will pass and we'll enjoy the plants again.

I feel for you people in the east. Out here in the west we are starting our fifth year of drier than normal conditions. Luckily we have reservoirs in the mountains that hold the water that is created from the winter snowpack. So I have been able to water my lawn and garden. But the winter snows have been quite a bit less than normal causing our lakes to be lower. If we don't get good snow in the mountains this winter we will really be in trouble. I hope for us all to get rain soon.

Yep, got to keep the chin up. LOL maybe I'll see the rain. We did get about 2 tenths yesterday and a rainbow to boot. It sure is easy to get carried away feeling sorry for oneself and forget their are others worse off.
Thanks all,
Nancy/VA

A few years ago when I had to carry water to the garden, I started planting in trenches. I'd dig a trench about 6 or more inches deep, and plant the seeds in the bottom of the trench. I carried water up to the garden and only put it in the trenches. The paths would get hard, and any rain we did get would run off the path down into the trench. Even the dew would drip off the plants leaves and trickle down into the trench where the roots could use it.

I plant in raised beds now, and I dig holes in my beds and plant my veggies in the holes. I dig a trench for my carrots, beets etc (The veggies that are planted in rows). The few times I've used the garden hose, I just fill the holes with water. An added bonus to this way of gardening, is that there are hardly any weeds!

The weed seeds sprout in the spring when the ground is damp, but I pull them when I weed the garden. The spaces between the plants don't get any water, and no further weed seeds germinate.

I hope this suggestion helps for next year.

MrsBeasley

i'm coping by giving up, it sounds like i'm not alone! i had given up earlier in the summer but finally in july i gave up on everything and it looks now like it was a great decision. we still haven't had rain, i would be crazy by now if i had tried to save everything. now that most of my more expensive/favorite plants are dead i don't seem to care as much. this spring i spent tons of money (as usual) planting all kinds of things and they all got fried, i could never get them established. i had to let them all die and become crispy. the last thing i tried to do was to go out and get a lettuce patch growing for autumn but by watering the lettuce to get it to grow i attracted deer to the yard and they have eaten it all, the deer will come right up to houses in a suburban neighborhood and eat when the drought is this bad. now my only projects that require water are a small 4x4 bed of evergreen bunching onion seeds that i have been watering, they don't seem to want to germinate though, and also a small patch also about 4x4 foot of corn that i am watering as an experiment to see how late in the year i could grow corn to maturity. oh and i planted a bed of kale as well, it too hasn't yet germinated but i expect it to. one of my few successes is a single rose that i grew from cutting this year, it was the only rose to live out of about 15 cuttings. this one rose i keep watering out in the vegetable garden and it is happy as a clam lol. my one bright spot! people not in the drought i know they must think right you people just should not give up like that all you have to do is go out and water everything, they just don't understand that you can't keep tender plants alive when the drought is killing TREES. this place is like a desert that doesn't know it is a desert yet, we just haven't had any rain.

i never buy expensive plants; this year i put in 2 roses and a peony; i think i'm going to lose the peony, and the roses look a little stunted, but well that's life. if they die they die. on a happier note, the butterfly bush is almost up to the deck.

maybe i should try cactus.......

Coping not very well. It costs me a fortune to have water delivered. $200. amonth for 4,000 gallons and I still have to use the laundromat in town once a week. I have a washer but it uses too much water, so I only use it for full loads of things that i wouldn't bring to the laundry, like underwear. Socks get lost easy at a laundromat. We don't drink the water that's hauled in so I have to buy bottled water too. Yes, I'm feeling sorry for myself but I feel a little better when I look out of the front window and see my little garden. It sure costs alot to keep it alive and growing. We are going to dig a new well next month and I pray It won't be a dry hole. several of my neighbors' wells have gone dry too! It's really spotty here for wells. Has anyone had any experiences with water witches?

I feel really bad for all you folks out east. I thought we had it bad. We didn't get the normal snowfall last winter nor the spring rains. This summer has been very dry with a few downpours here and there. I did mulch the veggie garden heavily with straw and that has helped tremendously. I haven't watered all and the yields are quite good.
I hope you get some rain soon.

Those of us in the Salt Lake City area seem to have things very easy compared to many of you whose posts I have read. We don't really have any "official" restrictions that I am aware of. We have been "asked" to conserve, but in this part of the state, at least, we don't have water police, and time-of-day-to-water "guidelines" are just that...strictly voluntary. I feel so sorry for states like Colorado and North Carolina, where they are faced with possibly not being able to do ANY outside watering next season! I couldn't bear to watch my garden die!

NC checking in here. Rain all this week! Yippee! No it won't end the drought, but it is a stop gap. East of the Raleigh area, they were getting flooded. Talk about from one extreme to the other. We can only hope for a very wet fall, winter and spring. If not, a cistern is going in.