Droughts and floods
WoodsTea 6a MO
8 years ago
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TxMarti
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoUser
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
OT- weather again. Drought to flooding
Comments (1)I'm wondering about our SE friends too. It's nuts here, but not as severe as GA etc. Things are just now back to normal. My garden is a mess....See MoreHow do you attract people to the garden?
Comments (8)Susan, are you certain there aren't any other sites which have access to water? Have you tried to meet with the town officials or the Public Works Dept. They may be able to give you some inside info others are not privy to with respect to parcels of land which are town owned. In the past, I served as Volunteer Manager to a community gdn. There were 45 plots, 10'x10' divided by paths. Compost and mulch was provided by the township. The participants grew vegetables, flowers and pumpkins, watermelons, etc. In Sept. a harvest festival was held at the library with entries of vegs, etc. The Master Gardeners selected the winners and desserts and beverages were served. Desserts baked by gardeners. Prizes for best entries of a class were given. At any given time, we did not have more than 40 people attend. But an important topic was also discussed e.g. lyme disease, container gardening, etc. by a MG. Also, they have a speakers bureau with an endless list of topics of interest to your group. Booklets were printed with the rules and printed flyers were distributed throughout town on poles, library, shopping malls and stores to advertise a week in advance. I would also check with the Master Gardeners Association to see if they have any knowledge of sites for a Community Gdn. Ours was situated at the rear of the First Aid Squad Bldg. which was formerly a holding area for the township's trees. Your activities are wonderful. Are children involved in your gardening activities? Hope my ideas were helpful but not exactly what you were looking for in the way of activities. Good luck. Vicki...See MoreWednesday's Rainfall
Comments (22)Carol, I hope the sweet potatoes don't crack and split...or get tough and stringy. Time will tell. It just figures we'd have massive rainfall in a September when I have 60 beautiful, gorgeous sweet potato plants growing like mad. We've never had a massive rainfall (we ended up with 9.3" when you added the light rain that fell early this morning) in September....that's usually an April sort of thing. I bet your peppers will make fruit like mad now that rain has fallen and temps have cooled a little. I always have a great fall pepper crop, even in years when they've produced so well all summer that I think they ought to be tired and worn out like I am. Keith, I was hoping y'all would get a good rainfall like I did. On the other hand, you didn't have to spend an hour cowering in your tornado cellar while funnel clouds danced in the skies over your neighborhood. This was the closest the funnels have come to us in years, but the ones that touched down only touched down for seconds and they touched down in open countryside. Oh, Carol, if you see this....Lone Grove apparently had a small tornado touch down...I think it was on Prairieview Dri. or something similar. I saw footage on the news tonight and it tore up at least one house quite a bit, but was nothing like the Feb. tornado a couple of years ago. Paula, Well, whether you got 2 3/4" or 4", at least you received a good rainfall. I received your e-mail and sent you one in return. And, in case y'all are wondering: Did 9.3" fill up the ponds and close up the cracks in the land? Yes, yes, yes. Every pond we have is as full as it can be....even the 'overflow' pond that catches the overflow from the big pond. The 'overflow' pond is so full that it rose high enough to run through its own overflow valve which channels water into what is normally a dry creek bed about 90% of the time. That mostly dry creekbed carries the water to our big creek. Our big creek is high and running fast. The cracks in the ground are almost completely closed up. Even our swamp is swampy again! Yesterday after we had received the first 5" or so, I checked the cracks and they were still there, but were full of standing water so I figured once that standing water was absorbed into the nearby soil, the cracks would close. Then the tornadic cell arrived and dumped over 2" per hour and the cracks closed right up. We have ponds and puddles where none existed, but even they have mostly drained into the soil today. I was worried they'd sit there a few days like they do in the spring, but I guess the dry ground slurped up that moisture hungrily. I betcha we have fire ants and snakes all over the place and mosquitoes too by about Sunday or Monday. That's alright, though, because we finally have good soil moisture. In a couple of days, after the soil moisture maps have updated from this week's rain, I'll post them and we can gaze at them in awe. I think for most people, at least at the 2" and 10" level, they'll look great for this time of year. Already, the KBDI maps reflect a huge change and next week the U. S. Drought Monitor map will too. I am glad I hadn't planted grass seed or anything because with all the rain we received, that would have been a waste. Also based on past experience, the wildflowers that went dormant this summer will revive quickly and start blooming like mad. That's great for the wild things. Maybe another tropical system will send us (well, lol, y'all, but not me!) more rain in a couple of weeks. I know that 'Igor' is out there in the northern Atlantic although he's still miles and miles from anywhere. Invest 92L is also trying to develop into a tropical depression and it might come our way. You never know....this seems to be a year for tropical storms to hit the Mexico/Texas coast and send plumes of moisture up through Texas and Oklahoma. Often, a pattern like that repeats itself several times even when the storms don't strengthen enough to become named Tropical Depressions, Tropical Storms or Hurricanes. I always watch the tropical weather closely in late summer and early fall because that's often where our drought-busting rains come from. To me, 'Igor' sounds like he could be an evil storm system, based on name alone! (With apologies to any nice guys named Igor who are reading this.) One of the funny things about a big rain event is that it distorts reality....anyone looking at my year-to-date rainfall would get the idea that we breezed through the summer with a lot of rain. We didn't though. The 5" we received over several rainy days in July and the 12.3" we received in Sept. over a one week period are nice, but it isn't the same thing as getting an inch or two every week. And, sad to say, but this kind of rain often makes the eventual winter wildfire season worse and not better. Why? A huge burst of late summer or early autumn rain causes any native plants still alive to grow like crazy. Then, a frost hits, they winter-kill, and we have tons of dead foliage just waiting to burn. That's exactly what happened in 2005. For those of us in areas that are very heavy on prairie grassland, it really is better if the heavy rains don't fall until Nov. or Dec. when everything is already dormant. Dawn...See MoreAcer Eczema, anyone?
Comments (2)Acers do have a reputation for causing contact dermatitis to those who may be sensitive. In fact, acer samaras are a common ingredient in joke shop "itching powders". So far I have been fortunate in not being very sensitive to any common reaction producing plant material. I DO feel nettles when I encounter them and now and again have developed a temporary juniper rash but other commonly reactive plants have to date produced no reaction. I do wear protective gear or otherwise am very cautious when dealing with euphorbias or giant hogweed....just in case :-)...See Morewisconsitom
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8 years agoWoodsTea 6a MO
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