It's not "so hot!" It's wonderfully warm. :-)

Dawn,

The last week I've been getting up at 4:00am to start working outside to get a few things done before the sun comes up. Even though it's just wonderfully warm, too much of good thing can be bad for even me. :-)

randy

Randy,

Today, I was up and out at 4:30 a.m. and it felt heavenly--about 75 or maybe 77 degrees I think!

I had to get a few things done outside...and bake muffins for breakfast, and then we were at a friend's home by 7 a.m. to help them put a new roof on their house. When we were forced to stop because of the heat, it was 99 degrees, eventually reaching 101 degrees with a heat index of 109! Too hot for me but we're going back at 7 p.m., and I expect it still will be about 96 or 97 at that point, or maybe 95 degrees if we're lucky.

On Sat., I visited a neighbor and his garden was burnt up and crispy, and I thought to myself "Hey, mine doesn't look so bad after all!" Today, I noticed mine was starting to look like his.

I like heat (like it more than cold) but we're at the point here that the drought is self-perpetuating...not enough moisture in the air to help make anything happen.

I wish hurricane-to-be-Dolly would send us some rain after she hits the Texas coast, but it is not likely.

I think 109 might be the highest heat index of the year, although we had one day close to that in May.

I need a giant shade cloth (80' x 80') over my entire veggie garden!

Dawn

I just knew there HAD to be a reason for this abominable heat! Thanks Dawn that explains a lot. I suppose we are just blessed to have anything green at all since we are on the parallel with so many deserts!

I am about ready to give up! I just can't seem to keep anything watered enough. From the gardens to my many container plants.

Any one got ideas of how to keep container plants moist? Besides ordering those glass bulb looking things they sell on TV that is?

I am worn out just watering containers! Every time I go look I see they are wilting again....and they have a lot of shade too.

I like it warm but this is way too much even for me. I think it is time to go visit the grandkids in Michigan. Hope DH says we can go pretty soon.

Roofing in this heat? Oh my! Be sure to keep a silica gel cooler on your neck in this heat. Or just wet yourself down with the water hose!
Lord help you....I would hate to think of roofing in this!

Ya'll stay cool....yeah sure....haha.

G.M.

G.M.,

I did like that article....it helped me understand why we have this beastly heat!

After hearing the forecast for the rest of this week, if I were you I'd start packing for that trip to Michigan and leave pronto! LOL

You can buy a drip irrigation system somewhere like Lowe's or Home Depot, or online from someone like Dripworks, and they work fine on containers. You run the line from container to container, put the emitters only where needed so they emit water into the container. Best of all, you can turn them on manually once or twice a day and let them run for however long it takes for the containers to get good and wet OR put them on a timer and take yourself out of the process altogether. I even use a drip irrigation system for hanging baskets on my porch.

Looking at my lawn, garden, shrub beds, pastures and even some trees this afternoon, I just cannot believe how badly they have deteriorated since the last rain we received, which was only a week ago, I think. They look so pathetic and so sad.

I did tease our friends about their "choice" to put a new roof on the house in JULY of all times. Why not December? The heat was horrific today. This evening, when we went back at 7 p.m., it was 99 degrees with a heat index of 105 still. We had a total of about 12 people from our "firefighting family" there, and got a lot done really fast. We plant to be back out there at 6 a.m. tomorrow, so I need to go to bed!

Stay Cool!

Dawn

Dawn, yeah, you could have moved further east and north, but then you have to deal with the harsher WINTER weather! LOL!

If it wasn't for the population issue, I'd move to California. This is why a lot of people on the East Coast spend summer in Boston/New York, and winter in Florida!

Susan

It's not so hot here?

This is the 21st century. We are climatically challenged!!

Anyroad, after weeks and weeks of me complaining about all the rain, winds, floods etc that we've had in the NE area of Oklahoma I have to admit that this year I've had my best ever crops from the garden.

Funny innit?

Mick.

Mick,

I didn't say how FAR north and east I'd have to go to find cooler weather!

Here's our official high temps here the last three days: Sun--100 degrees, Mon.--101, Tues.--102. (I see a disturbing trend, but am not expecting 103 tomorrow!) Our highest heat index was 109, I think.

We are worse than climatically challenged.....but I don't know what to call it.

I'm glad you're having a great garden year. I am too, surprisingly. Not the best year ever--certainly close, though. This is the latest in the summer I've ever had the majority of my tomato plants still looking really, really good--usually foliar diseases have really hurt them by this point in the summer. This year, low moisture=low incidence of disease.

It isn't just the heat....but the effect it has on us. Today, we had two grassfires--one in a hayfield that was being cut and the other in a pasture and dangerously close to a house. It is so dry here that fires are starting very easily, and that is very bad. Also, snakes are up and moving around, trying to find a way to stay cool. One friend killed 2 copperheads in his garage last week.....and had kids running in and out from the house and garage to the swimming pool. I think one of the kids first saw the snakes. Another friend lost a beloved dog, Blackie, about 20 hours after a huge rattlesnake bit it. In the "battle" the dog did kill the rattlesnake but, sadly, died later himself.

The folks who are managing to cut their crunchy, crispy pastures are only getting about 1/3 as much hay as they do in a "good year", at least in our part of the county.

And, all of us have noticed that people in general are definitely "grumpier" in this hot weather. Everyone is also getting a little nervous and "edgy". A neighbor of ours (perhaps not coincidentally, he is the founder of our volunteer fire dept. and was its' first chief) told me tonight that they're going to cut his hay pasture tomorrow, and he wants us to watch the sky and be "ready to roll" if we see a plume of smoke in the area of his place. He was kinda, sorta joking.....but not really. I'd say everyone is nervous, and expecting a rapid deterioration here as we go from very dry to dangerously dry. Whatever was still green is now rapidly browning or yellowing and it is becoming quite a concern......too many of us live in the midst of huge grasslands, and fire danger is high here. Being a gardener, I am more worried about the garden burning than the house......LOL. [Well, the house is insured AND it has fire-resistant siding. The garden, though, has a lot of wood in the edgings of the raised beds and a lot of dry mulch. I'd HATE to lose all that and have my soil lose its' organic material to a fire.....the garden is not (obviously) insured!]

Dawn

Dawn,

Sounds like it's really bad there. Bummer.

The grass here on the higher elevations of the yard is now dormant / crunchy. I'm only watering grass close to the house and the shade grass I planted under the oaks last fall. And also some shade grass I planted under the Bradford Crap Pears where there is no shade anymore. :-)

Will be passing through your country this weekend. Amber has a gymnastics camp in Denton.

randy

Don't get me started on the heat! Just yesterday, I asked my Hubby if we could move "North" when he retires. Naturally his answer was NO.

I'm about ready to give up. I can't keep up with watering the large veg garden and the dozens of flowers, shrubs, fruit trees, berry bushes, and the list goes on. I honestly think I could water 24 hours a day and still couldn't keep up. Can you tell I'm frustrated? I guess global warming has come to Oklahoma.

Randy,

If anything, Denton is even worse off than we are. This week both Denton County and Collin County (McKinney, Texas area) implemented burn bans "until the drought situation eases". I wish we had a burn ban here.

We solved our neighbor's haycutting problem by stationing a fire truck at his house shortly after noon. (He's on our fire board and he can drive the truck to another fire himself if we need it.) I need to mow but am afraid I'll catch the place on fire. Last year, I did. The mower hit a rock on the edge of the driveway and ignited dried grass. I stomped it out in 2 seconds, but I was lucky that I was able to do that....if it had been windier that day, it probably would have turned into a grassfire.

I looked at the veggie garden today and the pumpkins and squash and okra are so wilted that I don't know if they will come back.....they may have passed the dreaded wilt point beyond which recovery is not possible.

Have fun with your family and Amber and the gang in Denton! It used to be a pretty dull place, but all the new development on 288 across the highway from Wal-Mart (3 or so miles north of the Golden Triangle Mall) has at least given it a lot more retail than it used to have.

The entire D-FW metroplex is dangerously dry....D-FW Airport has had two very large, very major grassfires this week.

Dawn

OkieDawn

We need to plant more shade trees to combat our location!

So what are the best shade trees we can plant?

Dawn- tell us novices.

Oklaherb,

Trees help of course, but we have plenty of trees (about 10 of our 14.5 acres are very heavily wooded) and still get plenty hot here too. : )

During the last severe drought/wildfire period, many of us here in Oklahoma learned which trees TRULY are drought-tolerant, and which are not.

My favorite landscaping is a blend of native trees and those that are very well-adapted to our soil and our climate.

On our property, in soil that ranges from heavy red clay to sandy-clay and even one band of very sandy soil, we have the following trees that grow like mad and can handle drought once they are well-established. (In general, I consider a tree well-adapted enough to live with NO irrigation once it has been in the ground for three full calendar years.) Not all of these are the best, highest quality trees, but they all have survived drought here:

GREAT SHADE TREES:

Shumard Red Oak (Quercus shumardii)

Post Oak (Quercus stellata)

Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa)

Pecan (Carya illinoisensis)

Chinquapin Oak (Quercus muhlenbergii)

GOOD ONES:

Blackjack Oak (Quercus marilandica)(shorter lived than most other oaks that are native here)

Hackberry (Celtis laevigata)--I don't especially like these, but they are tough, drought-tolerant trees and are popuar with wildlife. Relatively short-lived--look good for about 30 years but after that, they often succumb to borers, fungal infections and severe mistletoe infestations.

Western Soapberry (Sapindus drunnomdii) Has terrific yellow fall color. Sometimes prune to suckering, but if you prune off the suckers on young trees consistently, they eventually stop trying to sucker and form colonies.

American Elm (Ulmus americana) Some of the largest trees in our creek bottomland area are American elms. Pretty fast-growing, and a lower-quality tree than most oaks.

Cedar Elm (ulmus crassifolia): VERY drought-tolerant. Golden-yellow fall color. Tiny leaves. Reseeds prolifically, but I just mow down the seedlings.

GOOD TO GREAT ONES I DON'T HAVE HERE:

Caddo Maple (a southern sugar maple native to Oklahoma that does NOT have surface root problems)

White Oak (Quercus alba)--a great one for moist forested areas like northeastern OK. Tolerates seasonal poor drainage.

Escarpment Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis) A truly magnificent shade tree. Native to the Quartz Mountains here.

Swamp Chestnut Oak (Quercus michauxii) Tolerates VERY poor drainage, so great for rainier counties in eastern Oklahoma. Also has lovely fall color.

Ashe Juniper (Juniperus ashei) Won't get terribly tall--might eventually get 15 to 20 feet tall, but is forfeous and very, very tough. Can grow on very, very rocky and dry soil.

One-Seed Juniper (Juniperus monosperma) A good mid-sized evergreen that is pretty rapid growing and very drought-tolerant and I am told it is a good tree for NW Oklahoma.

DESPERATION TREES: OK, this is a touchy category. In general, I only grow and recommend slow-growing, high-quality trees that are very resistant to insects and disease. Sometimes, though, you find yourself in a situation where you really, truly desperately need shade and need it now! I understand that, and if faced with that situation, what can you plant?

IF you plant it far enough away from the house that it can't run surface roots up under any structure, pool or sidewalk and cause cracking, you could plant a Cottonwood. They grow incredibly fast, and will give you pretty good shade in only 3 to 5 years, but they are weak-wooded, water guzzling "trash trees" that only work in very limited situation. If I were in western or southwestern Oklahoma and needed shade in the worst possible way, I'd probably plant a couple of these if I could locate them far enough away from anything that they might fall on or anything their roots could damage. This is NOT a tree you plant 3' from your house or sidewalk. We bought a house in Fort Worth with a 60' tall cottonwood about 8" from the house and the first thing we did was take out that tree because in that situation it was a danger to our home and to us. I also wouldn't plant one of these on any city lot with other homes nearby because I wouldn't want to be legally responsible for a cottonwood falling on someone else's property. And, if you are in an icestorm-prone area, I wouldn't plant one either. And, if you plant one, expect to spend the rest of your life mowing down or pulling up seedlings.

TREES WE LOVE TO HATE:

Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) If it wasn't for the fact that this tree is HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY invasive, I'd probably love it. One of the most lovely evergreens and incredibly drought tolearant. Reseeds prolifically. Important food and shelter source for wildlife. It IS prone to bagworms, spider mites, juniper rust AND is a carrier of cedar-apple rust, so don't plant it if you grow apples or roses. For us, in addition to its' invasiveness, it is very dangerous in fires....it burns like mad and can send burning sap long distances through the air, so we consider it a fire hazard and have removed it from the 3 acres closest to our house. It DOES make a great windbreak. It also guzzles water like crazy. I love the way they look, and one or two of them is OK--the problem is that one or two can turn into one-hundred or two-hundred. VERY drought tolerant. This is similar to cannas in that "it won't die, and you can't kill it". Actually, in our dry climate, if you cut it off at the ground with a chainsaw, that is usually the end of it.

II. UNDERSTORY TREES: These generally need at least partial shade in order to survive, so you may not be able to plant them until you have some larger trees to shade them.

Redbud (Cercis canandensis)--Lovely when in bloom, but only so-so the rest of the year, and prone to foliar diseases. We have these scattered in our woodlands, and a couple are fairly close to the house. I love how they look when blooming, but not so much the rest of the time. They need lots of shade or they scorch. Lots of people love them though, and they have survived some pretty rough droughts here.

ROUGH-LEAVED DOGWOOD (Cornus drummondii)--Do not confuse this with the regular dogwood, which is disease-prone and struggles in our heat. This is a small tree, usually from 3' to 15' tall, although most of ours stay in the 8'-10' range. Small white flowers followed by white fruit. VERY drought tolerant and blooms when not much else is in bloom.

DESERT WILLOW (Chilopsis Linearis)--To make it clear, this tree is NOT a willow nor is it a desert plant! It is actually a relative of the trumpet creeper vine and American crossvine. It gets 15-25' tall and blooms on and off all summer. Must have well-drained soil. Has small leaves. You can grow the native one, or one of the newer hybrids. All are lovely. Is winter hardy all the way to Amarillo, Texas, so I think it'd do well in all of Oklahoma.

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) Usually smaller, about 10-15', but we have a very mature one on the edge of our woods that is about 40' tall. Lovely scent when in bloom and great fall color (orangeish-yellow). Fruit are astringent and taste best after they've frozen. VERY drought tolerant....may drop leaves if not irrigated in long periods of drought, but usually recovers just fine once rain falls.

Possomhaw Holly (Ilex decidua) A deciduous holly that you can leave shrubby or prune up tree form. We have a lot of these and they are gorgeous. If it gets at least 6 hours of sunlight, it will have gorgeous berries if it is a female tree. Berries stay on all winter until the cedar waxwings and other birds strip them from the plants in spring. VERY drought tolerant.

Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) Usually 12-15' but very mature ones can reach 20-25'. Very similar to Possomhaw but is evergreen.

Mexican Plum (Prunus mexicana) Under taller trees, may only get 12-15' tall, but I've seen some very mature ones up to 25 to 35' tall. Gorgeous flowers in early spring and the small fruit make great jelly. Very drought tolerant. NOT a thicket-forming plum like some of the smaller, native plums here.

Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum rufidulum) About 12-15' tall, up to 30' tall when very mature. Beautiful flowers and foliage that turns reddish-mauveish-orangeish-yellowish in the fall. Slower growing but are beautiful and a favorite of the birds.

UNDERSTORY OR STAND-ALONE:

Chaste Tree (Vitex Agnus-Castus): Beautiful shrubby tree that can be left in its natural shrubby form or pruned-up tree-form. Most commonly has blue flowers sporadically in summer, but some pink-flowered ones are available. One of my favorite small trees.

Chitalpa: This a a hybrid of a catalpa and chilopsis (Desert willow) and is a narrow-leaved deciduous tree that gets roughly 20-30' talll. Has large, pink, trumped-shaped flowers in early summer. Grows well in full sun but may need irrigation in the hottest part of the summer. Sometimes defoliated by catalpa worms (esp. if you have lots of catalpas around) but rebounds quickly. Flowers best in full sun.

SHRUBS THAT ARE "ALMOST" TREES: There are some shrubs that get so large and broad that they are very similar to trees, and most of them can be pruned up tree-form. These include Burford Holly and Dwarf Burford Holly (which, despite its' name gets 15-20' tall), Southern Wax Myrtle (not the Dwarf Southern Wax Myrtle), Possomhaw and Yaupon Hollies, Crape Myrtles, and some of the larger yuccas.

BEST-PERFORMING DROUGHT-TOLERANT TREE I NEVER HEARD OF UNTIL I MOVED TO OKLAHOMA: Kentucky Coffee Tree. Very, very, very drought tolerant.

Well, that's my contribution, and I know I left out a lot, but it is a good starter list.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Trees for Oklahoma

Out working in the garden at 4:30 a.m. How do you see? I would love to be outside at that time.

Lights! You can put up a large security light to light up the garden, or you can use solar lights--the kind meant as pathway or accent lighting OR you can use work lights (you'll need a long OUTDOOR extension cord) on stands. (They are sort of a pricey investment, but you can use them for years and years and they save you from having to do everything out in the heat.) This week, we used portable worklights so we could keep working on the neighbor's new roof after sunset. The guys who built our garage/shed used several portable work lights in July 2004 so they could do much of the work at night when it was cooler.

You also can wear a portable light on a hat to give you good lighting around your hands as you are harvesting or pulling weeds or whatever. You can get little lights that clip onto a hat at Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section. (All our firefighters have those or something similar on their helmets to give them extra lighting for dark situations.)

The only thing about working in the dark is that you have to watch for snakes. We have a lot of poisonous snakes on our property but we are in a very, very rural area very close to the Red River. A lot of people don't have the snake problem we have here. And, if you have a light on your hat, you'll usually see the snakes eyes in the dark and that can make them "easier" to see in the dark than in the light, sometimes!

I'd rather be outside very early or very late when it is in the 70s, 80s or very low 90s than to be outside between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Some Examples of Portable Work Lights

my husband has a good work light. that is a good idea. Snakes? Yipes! while we have copperheads here I have yet to see one and hope i never do, don't want to see a water moccasin either. I was at least able to get out at 5:30 this a.m. and see enough to plant my daffodil bulbs.

Good! Glad you got the daffodil bulbs planted. Remember that they like it pretty dry in the summer, so don't overwater them!

We have snakes galore. I see copperheads most often, but we also have timber rattlers (wickedly bad venom), western diamondback rattlers, pygmy rattlers, and water moccasins....and those are just the venomous ones. Lots and lots of chicken snakes and rat snakes and racers and garter snakes, and the occasional pale green snakes they love to hang out in trees. One of the green ones lives in my veggie garden, and I don't mind it too much--it is not venomous and is very pretty and inquisitive. She (or he?) likes to sit on the fence and watch me weed-eat around the garden (smart way to stay out of the way). Then "it" coils itself up on top of a wreath attached to the fence and watches me work. It is the only snake I "like". The others get chased off, if non-venomous, or killed if venomous OR if in the chicken coop trying to eat eggs or chicks or keats.

I LOVE getting out early in the morning. It is the only way I can get stuff done. Sometimes I go out in the heat later in the day, but I start saying "What were you thinking?" and get back inside pretty quickly.

My garden is crispy enough already and now SOWC (our water) put a restriction on outside watering. I am going to follow it and probably just barely water tonight but my neighbors have their sprinklers going all afternoon!

Semi,

You know, I thought of you yesterday when I heard SOWC had implemented an outdoor watering ban. I was hoping that maybe y'all had a well or a different water source, but was afraid you probably had SOWC water.

I think in the 10 years we've lived here, SOWC has had to implement an outdoor watering ban at least 5 or 6 of those 10 years. We've very fortunate since we're south of Marietta, because that means we have Thackerville Water. As far as I can remember, we've NEVER had general watering restrictions in the summer, except when a well pump broke down, and the restrictions only lasted for a couple of days until the pump was fixed. Many of the folks who are in the rural area around Marietta, though, have SOWC and they get very frustrated with the summer watering restrictions. Someone told me the other day that when the Fox Hollow and Fossil Creek subdivisions went in south of Marietta several years ago, they were "supposed to" have SOWC but they fought (successfully) to get Thackerville Water instead.

I think, if it were me, I'd STILL make watering my foundation a top priority if I had the kind of soil that cracks and shifts when dry. I can't remember if your soil has a lot of clay in it or not, although I seem to have the thought in my head that you have better soil than I do. If you need to keep the foundation watered, use a soaker hose laid a foot or so out from the foundation and run it at night.

Also, there are some creative ways to use a little of the household water to water plants.....like by putting a dishpan in the sink and catching every bit of water from the kitchen sink to dump on a plant or two. You also can keep an empty milk jug or pitcher by the sink and catch the "cold" water that runs while you're waiting for the hot water to heat up. Save water in which you've boiled veggies or boiled eggs or whatever and pour it on a plant after it has cooled down. You can even set a mop pail or 5 gallon bucket in the shower and let it catch the extra shower water.

Maybe we need a thread on surviving watering restrictions?
If you've never visited Gardenweb's Drought Forum, there's continual discussions there on handling water restrictions, among other things!

Hang in there.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb's Drought Forum