Well, I am obviously the only one in the entire mid-Atlantic annoyed by this. :) That's okay, I will just chronicle here and wait for response.

I have not been watering my grass and there is now just swaths of dust interspersed with wilting wild violet leaves. That's right, the things that won't die (wild violets) are showing quite the stress. I watered my flower garden twice this weekend after not watering all week long and just today lugged the super long hose out to water the fence garden. Each plant got watered 3x as it had been a while. Everything is still hanging in there although the Shasta daisies were starting to look a bit thin in the leaves but not yet wilted.

The forecast has rain all week. I'm hoping that is true. In fact, I watered in the hopes the the rain, such as it might be, could be absorbed by already damp soil. Now that I think of it, maybe I should have pulled out the sprinkler for the lawn. But, last time it was supposed to rain all week, it rained one day and it was a gentle shower. See my rant above for my take on that. Fingers crossed as I am worried about the trees.

I'm sure you're not the only one, perhaps we all just don't know what to add. I, too, believe in tough love for the garden, reserving any watering for the veggie garden and perhaps a select few (very few) plants with special meaning to me.

I work in a public garden only about 10 miles north of my home ... today it POURED rain at the garden, but, looking around at home, it looks as though we got nary a drop here.

Perhaps this nor'easter they've predicted for this weekend, with or without tropical storm/hurricane Joaquim, will bring relief. I do hope our plants can go into winter well hydrated.

Your comment was the good luck we needed! A nice proper soak last night and I believe my trees sighed with relief.

I have had the same experience - we kept getting the edges of storms. A deluge would go through downtown DC, but my area in the suburbs would be barely damp. In fact, I went for a few walks this summer with ominous storm clouds on three horizons and, yep, somehow we barely caught a drizzle.

I looked at the forecast and there is 100% chance of rain on Friday. My, certain of themselves aren't they? I don't enjoy being rained on but I love my plants in the rain and we do need it. I am debating whether to run out and reseed my tan lawn and have mother nature water it in.

I expect you're getting some decent rainfall now, as we are here in NJ. Fall is the perfect time for reseeding a lawn, as the soil is still warm to encourage germination, but you'll want to avoid having that seed washed ... or blown (depending on how Joaquin tracks) away!

Yeah, you are right. A gentle rain fall will be better for seeding the lawn, but it is getting late to reseed. I am hearing some things about this Joaquin. Hopefully, we get the gentle version.