I'm in Newton, no watering restrictions, but I'm trying to be really careful, which is why I'm watering with my 5-gal buckets and my rain barrels. I'm afraid I'm losing another branch from my stewartia and maybe my entire cercis. I've lost a couple of azaleas, too -- and a kalmia, which is shocking! And a rhodie that wasn't established, come to think of it. As for perennials, my salvias, echinaceas, rudbeckias, achilleas, and european ginger have been fine with very little supplemental water, as have my daylilies and echinops. They astound me! Drought-stressed perennials that I may lose include heucheras, tiarellas, pulmonaria (!), roxanne geraniums, and, o -- the name escapes me -- a supposedly drought-resistant, native ground cover that is shrivelling up and on the verge of death in many spots around my garden.... No photos because it is too depressing! Off to go give some more buckets to my cercis....

So far I have no casualties but don't expect that to be true this time next year. The most severe damage is to my heuchera/coral bells but not, apparently, due to drought. Something chewed all the leaves back when they first came up. Sorry--no pics since Houzz took over.

No watering restrictions here in north central CT since I have an artesian well. I use terra cotta plant nannies sunk down close to the base of each perennial + recycled 1-liter seltzer bottles to help my perennials survive and so far they've worked, as have recycled gallon milk jugs filled with water, a pinhole an inch from the bottom & the jugs set up against the base of my plants. We don't get a lot of traffic so curb appeal isn't an issue. The plants have been in the ground since 2008 so they have established root systems in healthy soil.

It didn't help that gypsy moths stripped all my trees back in mid-June so my shade beds were abruptly full sun.

Marie - sorry for your losses/distress. If it's any comfort, I lost two of my mother's mature dogwoods in the 2011 Halloween storm along with 2/3 of all my oak tree' branches.

I'm past distress now. It will be back when the water bill comes. Big Bucks.

We have no water restrictions here and Salem, MA but I've been very careful with watering. My dahlias, tomatoes and young trees and shrubs are the only thing I've been liberally watering. Everything else has been either not watered or on a very minimal water schedule. The only things that might not make it are my black cohosh and one monkshood.

Lexington residents just got a "request" from the water department asking us not to do any outside watering activity between 5:30 -8:30 am. There's water but the pressure is so low that some areas can't get water for their morning ablutions during that period. Something to do with the water tower, too. ( I had no idea it even had water in it. How does that work?)

That is very lenient compared to the restrictions so many of you are facing.

I cut way back on watering a few weeks ago. Then I bought a bunch of new perennials, but I water those individually.

I don't understand this, but the Town of Plymouth just sent out a notice lifting the emergency ban, but leaving the usual restrictions in place. The emergency ban prohibited use of sprinklers on anything and prohibited watering lawns. They allowed handheld hoses to water gardens.

I doubt that water from Hermine made a difference. Maybe it has to do with the summer residents leaving after Labor Day (Plymouth has a lot of summer residents who switch to weekend visits when the kids go back to school). If the cottages are unheated the water will be shut off around Columbus Day.

Claire

These photos probably look mild compared to southern New England, but this may be the driest summer in my memory with the possible exception of last year. This bed of mint against a backdrop of asters and a few goldenrods is where our brook would normally be flowing. It is bone dry.

Brown patches are showing up in our thirsty lawns.

Uh-oh, the Town of Plymouth spoke too soon. I just got an email reinstating the full Emergency Ban. Maybe the need for water for the cranberry crops (a big issue around here) wasn't considered. At some point the growers will be flooding the bogs to harvest most of the cranberries (only a limited amount can be dry-picked), and they probably need to irrigate the growing crop.

Claire

Yikes, Sped... that's dry! And your lawn looks like our lawn.

The things we're most worried about are the trees even though we don't have many in our small yard. Most of these trees are plants we really love and would have a hard time replacing.. financially and emotionally. The leaves on our 'Cully' birch are yellowing, but so are the leaves on all the trees across the river. Our neighbor on one side has an 80-foot pine that's not looking very good; the neighbor on the other side has a dead crabapple tree in his backyard.

That is awful about your trees, Molie. I would be devastated if we lost our trees. If I remember correctly, your property is right on the edge of a river or inlet, yes? I'm surprised that with water so near your trees are suffering. I hope they will recover.

All our pines are infested with blister rust, so I have resigned myself to losing them, as our woods also support a wide variety of other tree species, but if our other trees start to go the way of the pines due to drought, I will be distraught.

I'm hoping that the desertification process will be a slow one. It is hard to imagine what will grow here in New England. Given our cold winters, our area wouldn't be hospitable to cacti and other desert foliage.

Desertification process??? It isn't what the experts are saying, and makes little sense.

Yes, Sped, we are on a tidal river.... it starts as a stream about 4 miles away in another town and then flows into the sound. Our end is affected by the tides. Historically, the river has collected a great deal of runoff in our town, but with less and less rain I'm guessing there's less of that. As for our neighbors' tree ... their pine and others started to deteriorate after the last big hurricane. Many white pines along the river never recovered and have been cut down. This could also be due to a blight.

Mad_Gallica, regarding desertification in New England? Not sure about that. But the changing climate has affected growing conditions not only on our properties but also for farmers in this part of the country. The owner at the local farm stand where we always get our corn has said that he doesn't expect the season to continue more than a few more weeks. What will happen if we have another winter without deep snow cover? What will happen if the hot summer seasons begin earlier and continue longer into the fall?

Here's a long shot of our back yard and the river. The eel grass, etc., in the marsh areas are turning much earlier than any year in the 13 we've lived here. And despite the fact that we're on the downhill slope to the river, it's very dry in our yard. My dh seldom turns on the irrigation system he installed years ago but does drip water the 'Cinnamon Bark' maple and other tress. I think in the end that the weeds will win.

I'm glad the photos are coming in. The end of the season is calls for a realistic accounting of our losses - and successes. My poor viburnum plicatum tomentosums. The ones in the sun dropped all their leaves and never got enough moisture for berries. It they don't come back next spring (I don't think one season drought will kill them completely, however) I would not replace them with the same.

How do controversa dogwoods (pagoda) do with less moisture?. They would have the horizontal lines that the viburnum. p.t. have.

My kousas have done surprisingly well. When we had entire week in the high 90s they flagged. I watered them overnight with a soaker hose and they've made it through the last next 5 weeks well.

In my So. Maine town we are just starting to have water restrictions put into place. We have been in the extreme drought stage for quite a while. The Fire Dept. can no longer do training with fire hydrants. The water dept. will not be flushing out town pipes that they do in October of every year. No washing cars. Next week will tell if there will be a outdoor watering ban. The town has also tapped into a special pipeline set up a few years ago for surrounding communities to share when the water table gets low. We have let the grass go. Everyone's yard looks bad so I don't really mind that. We have rain barrel so I water my flower pots with that. The veggie and flower gardens are on timed soaker hoses and sprays. I don't really hold out much hope for the amount of rain we will need to get back to normal stage. Only hope is for a heavy snowfall this Winter to replenish what we need. Even though the Farmer's Almanac says it will be a good heavy snow...they said the same thing the previous year and we had no snow. Time will tell.

After the winter before last, when the snow covered the ground level windows, I thought I'd never wish for snow again. We need deep,deep snow cover. Not only for the moisture but to protect these stressed plants. Whatever's surviving this summer would not benefit from the stress of an open winter and dessicating winds. Wishing for snow feels like a death wish, however.

On the news last night they announced that Vermont's condition has been upgraded from "abnormally dry" to "moderate drought" and they pointed out that much of southern New England is in "severe drought" or "extreme drought." Definitely not good. Like you, Marie, I'm hoping for a lot of snow this winter, even though I dread snow clearing and ice dams and winter driving.

We're absolutely hoping for lots of snow this winter, too. If not, then I predict many of my plants that were stressed this season will be goners the next. As Marie said, it's the wind that really affects unprotected plants, which also may not be entirely dormant in a mild winter. We live along a river. The winter winds are fierce coming upriver and off the water.

Our town just went to full water restrictions for outside watering, last week. Glad it is raining this week. I keep hoping we'll get some rain from a hurricane at some point. We could use a half dozen or so downpours.

Anyone hoping for the upcoming Hurricane only without the wind? I'll take anything at this point..But the luck of that happening is slim to nothing since we seem to be sitting under a high pressure dome anytime there is a chance of heavy rains or storms, and it goes away to be followed by grey skies and days of drizzle that does nothing to ease this drought(

We just planted 5 spruce seedlings in our woods, and are lugging gallon jugs of water up the hill to them everyday. I would love a week or so of drenching rain! I doubt that the pitiful amount of water we are able to carry to them is anywhere close to enough.

The news footage of Haiti is terrible. I only wish some of flood waters that the island does not want could be transported here to the northeast.

Barrett001, we lost our five-year-old Ivory Halo dogwood this summer. Last year we had less rain than usual and many of its leaves turned brown. This year the leaves just shriveled up and died. Although my dh installed a sprinkler system years ago, we haven't used it much due to concerns about watering.