Lawsey, lawsey, lawsey! I see a Summer of water rationing ahead! Here I sit in Zone 7b, South-Central OK., with daily over-cast skies and not a drop of rain. Will someone, PLEASE, wash their car?! HA.

I'm in south-central OK too and we tried washing the car. It didn't make it rain.

With the high temps and lack of moisture, it feels like south-central OK is skipping spring this year and going straight from winter to summer.

We have 5 ponds, and only 2 of them have water left in them. Of those 2, one is a manmade lily pond to which we add water. Otherwise, it would be dry too.

With the early onset of heat, I am concerned that some cool-season veggies won't produce well, especially those in the brassica family.

It's looking like it may be a difficult gardening year here in our part of the state. Not only is it not raining, there's not really a good chance of rain (I consider a 50% chance a good chance) for at least the next week at our house.

I don't know how to make it rain, but I do know how to make it hail. All I have to do is transplant tomato plants into the ground, preferably all of them in one day. Then, as soon as I have watered them in well, mulched them, caged them, staked the cages and left the garden, an unforecast severe thunderstorm will pop up out of nowhere and hail will beat them to a pulp. It happened a lot in the first half of this decade, but only once so far in the second half. This year's weather is more like we had in the first half of the decade. My tomato plants are scared.

My garden plan for this year, in light of the current conditions, is that I am going to plant warm-season crops as early as I possibly can within reason, and push them hard with good watering to produce ASAP. Maybe that way I'll get good production before the summer's heat and drought put a halt to the watering and the plants then whither and die. Unless the weather pattern changes, it isn't looking good for us here in southcentral OK in terms of vegetable gardening. However, the flowers, herbs and fruit trees are loving the early arrival of the heat.

I had some friends in OKC who grew the most beautiful "back -yard" tomatos. They actually covered them with sheets to protect them. Never had seen that before.
I don't grow veggies, but my heart goes out to you on your "salad fixins". I agree whole-heartedly! This early heat has me worried, and out here on my hill, the wind is beating me to death! I honestly believe it is probably safe to go ahead and plant seeds and bedding plants. Here in 7b, it's usually safe by first of April, anyway. Good luck on your family brassica plantings. It snowed in March last year, so who knows???!!! Jeanie

Dawn, cannot BELIEVE it is 73 degrees at 10:00 PM in MARCH! We had better include rain in our prayers!

It is crazy. Our official high yesterday was either 85 or 86, but at our house it hit 87. It was hot! I turned on the air conditioner late in the afternoon to cool down the house. I know that a month or two from now, 87 degrees won't feel 'hot', but for mid-March, it does feel hot and seems extreme.

I hope everyone is praying for rain.

The drought doesn't especially surprise me. Our county has had two rainy springs in a row so we're due for a spring drought, but the early arrival of the heat reminds me of 2003, which was hot early and ended up being the driest year we've had since moving here. I made a nearly fatal gardening error that year because I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the rains that never came, and started watering way too late. By then most of the plants were really suffering. Determined not to do that this year, I am already watering the flower and shrub beds, the fruit trees, the veggie garden and even the yard (although the yard only gets watered on high fire danger days).

I'm even watering the clay soil around the house's foundation so it won't crack and shift, which normally is a task for the hot, dry summer months. We have permanent soaker hoses around the foundation that we never remove, so watering it is easy since all we have to do is remember to turn the water on and off.

Yesterday I even watered my compost pile since it undoubtedly is too dry for decomposition to be occurring.

The perennial and reseeding annual flowers that have emerged seem fine, but I have been watering them. Out in the pastures where only rainfall, and scant rainfall at that, has fallen, the wildflowers are remaining very small and low to the ground. If rain doesn't fall, they won't put on a big wildflower show this spring. I am seeing small cracks in the ground that are about 1/4 to 1/2" wide. They aren't very big now, but if the current conditions continue, by summer they will be quite large.

After two pleasantly wet springs in 2009 and 2010, I am dreading a spring drought. On the other hand, early heat pushes some veggie crops along. The potatoes are already up and I'll be hilling up the soil around them much earlier than usual.

It looks to me like our nighttime lows here are staying warmer than our typical March high temps. Our high temps are well above average---at least 15 degrees above average and much more than that yesterday and probably today. This is strange weather, but I understand it because we had similar weather in some of the drought years early in the 2000s. I'm afraid the signs point to another drought year. ugh!

I'd like to have another year like 2002, which I remember as nicely rainy and with pretty pleasant temperatures even in the summertime. I don't think 2011 will be a rerun of 2002 though.

Between the wind and the heat, my ground looks like a rolled out clay pot. I've spread out soaker hoses, also, and have been watering some. May have to pick up the pace, if this continues!

Jeanie

Last evening, while browsing my FaceBook page, I noticed one of our local meteorologist posting about the impending drought. He asked that those who would rather have the drought and the absence of tornadoes to hit the "like" button. If you would prefer to have the possibility of severe weather with rain, he asked you to comment. As of 10 PM, last nite - 64 commented they wanted rain and only 29 hit the "like" button and would rather have the drought. ha! Majority Rules!

So Dawn...maybe you could just sacrifice a few of those tomatoes? Make it one's that I've started too so I can replace them for you! LOL!

Paula

I took a look at that map and thought "hurricane". Well actually I thought, we need a hurricane, but then I hastily revised that....we need the rain that a hurricane would provide, but the coastal areas would surely not appreciate me hoping for a hurricane since they bear the brunt of the effects.

Lisa

Jeanie, I know the red clay pot look well (unfortunately).

Our little weekly newspaper arrived and here's what they are showing for rainfall from our local co-op weather observer:

Precip Total For March So Far: 0.26"
Ave. Precip for March: 3.31"

Precip Total for 2011 So Far: 2.25"
Ave. Rainfall Thru End of March: 6.91"

As y'all can see, we have a little bit of a rain deficit occurring.

Paula, I'm not surprised at the survey results. I feel the same way. It is sort of playing the odds. Even if we have hail or tornadoes, what are the odds they'll hit any given person's property? Fairly small. If we have widespread drought, it hits everyone. If we have wind-driven, uncontrolled wildfires, they too hit everyone in their pathway. Why not take a chance on rain/hail/tornadoes instead, knowing the odds might be more in your favor when it comes to avoiding "trouble".

Poor western OK where the drought is already "Extreme". Their wheat crop isn't going to produce (I'm not even sure if it sprouted) and what in the world will they feed the livestock? The agricultural producers in SW OK are being slammed by Extreme Drought in spring which, if they're like SC OK, is usually their best season for good rainfall.

I am trying to decide what to put in the ground, what to put in containers, and what to give up on before I even start. It is hard to decide. I know from previous experience that there is no way I can water enough to keep the whole garden in production in a droughty summer, especially if the drought begins in spring and we're already very dry before the traditional summer dry season starts.

I think it likely I'm going to push pretty hard to have most all of the garden planted by the end of March, unless I see something in the forecast that stops me. That will give my garden April and May to produce and possibly all of June if water rationing doesn't kick in or something. By July, I doubt I could keep watering enough to make a difference and watering at that point just doesn't seem to do enough good.

I am formulating my drought strategy now, and will post a thread about it sometime this weekend, but know for sure it will involve planting peppers in containers with water-retaining granules because I gotta have my peppers! Tomatoes probably will get closer than usual spacing because with limited moisture, they won't get as big as usual. I know how to adapt for drought, but just need to think about the steps I'll take and in what order I'll do them.

I probably would have started fewer tomatoes or maybe not even have started the second round if I'd realized earlier that drought looms large on the horizon. Paula, I may have more to give away instead of less because I may put fewer in the ground. : ) If I plant in the ground too early and all mine freeze, on the other hand, I might have to use my back-ups for myself and wouldn't have as many to bring to the fling. Life is so complicated when the weather doesn't cooperate.

Lisa, I am not ashamed to say that last summer I openly wished for a "strong tropical storm" or a "weak hurricane" to hit the Texas coast and send a big plume of moisture towards OK. I couldn't help myself. We were so hot and dry, and the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas already had flooded repeatedly....so I wasn't really wishing it on them, but figured they were already getting hit anyway. Sure enough, in early September we had residual moisture reach us from the Texas Gulf Coast/Mexican border area and we had 9" of rain that month, so it worked for us!

At least maybe this year your peonies won't get slammed by rain and hail. We can always find something about a drought to appreciate (no mud!) but I'd still rather not have drought.

As irritating as drought is to all of us gardeners, think about what it does to the farmers, ranchers and orchardists. It can deeply affect their livelihood.
It is incredible the way our weather swings back and forth like a pendulum from drought to flood and back to drought again. That's one of the worst things to think about---how drought usually ends with flooding. The old saying "It takes a flood to end a drought" has proven true in our years here in Oklahoma.

Dawn

I grew up in Louisiana, I assure you once August hits with afternoon clouds forming and not a drop of rain everyone there starts praying for a weak hurricane too.

That's too funny. I would have thought folks in Louisiana would be the last ones to wish for a hurricane. I noticed on the U. S. Drought Monitor Map for the USA that Lousiana (and Texas and Florida and other places too) are in as much or more drought trouble as we are right now.

I've linked the map for the whole USA below. I usually only link Oklahoma, or sometimes Kansas for Jay. (Jay, if you see this, it looks like your county has moved up a category.)

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Drought Monior Map for Entire USA