I don't think waste water reuse would be forbidden. Double check the rules. You could also siphon out and reuse laundry water.

There's no ban on reusing waste water: that's why I'm doing it. The ban is on watering with regular clean unused water. Saving and reusing laundry water is a good idea I hadn't thought of: thanks. We're out in the country and I doubt anybody is going to be keeping an eagle eye on us.

Melissa, if wishes were raindrops there'd be a deluge in your immediate future. Here's hoping for a beak in the drought and that rain will be coming your way. I hope fall and winter rains come early for you. It sounds like you have some good ideas to help at least some of your plants survive.

I know you are having a REAL drought locally where you are, as opposed to what we had, which was less than 30% of our normal rain locally for years, but enough to keep our local reservoirs full enough to provide some water for gardens, Our major restrictions were:

Only use your irrigation system three times a week (we normally have it set to only twice a week - I did not increase it.), and only at night.

Other watering with hand held hoses OK 100% of the time, as long as the hoses had automatic shut off thingies on them (I had to ask my DH to go out and buy 10! I had not counted the garden hoses before)

No car washing without a shut off valve.

Not really very restricting. The main problem in my garden was that, even though they were getting water, the plants were not getting enough winter rain, and they do know the difference. Five years was too long. We lost one 80 year old 80 ft high Scarlet Oak. It was attacked by a fungus which rotted out its main trunk, but I'll bet that would not have happened if it had been getting normal rain.

Our drought was California wide, with our area right here one of the only ones which was only having a "modest" drought, not a severe one like the rest of the state. So, it became a political issue, and the state govt. made rules for all of the local water districts in the state (I think there are over 100), re using less water than in the most recent prior non drought year. Of course, the non-urban areas suffered the most - farmers, and just the wild forests in the mountains - they say millions of trees died, weakened by drought and then attacked by beetles. You could see on the satellite photos that the entire Calif. Central Valley (which is about 500 miles long and 200 wide) changed from green to brown.

The trees are still dying, as evidently it will take many years of normal rain for the forests to recoup. We even had to spend thousand of dollars to have dead trees taken down on our mountain cabin 3 acre lot in way Northern CA, because of the fire hazard. (plenty of fire wood for the fireplace now!).

Curious - does your area normally get Summer rain?

Wishing for rain for you.

Jackie

I believe most of northern Italy is suffering drought, an area that's home to much of the country's population, agriculture, and industry. My personal estimate is that here we've received about a quarter of our usual rainfall for the period early fall to now, and fall through spring is when we usually get most of our rain. A summer drought is normal, which means my mood at the moment is not cheerful. I have no idea when it will rain. It's not even officially summer yet--and usually June is still mildly springlike--and temperatures are supposed to get up in the nineties in the next week. This is with no air conditioning and no water in the landscape. Fortunately the house is still cool and comfortable, and yesterday I filled the ice cube trays and put them to freeze, as I suspect some internal air conditioning is going to be needed. I really hope we're not going to have three months of this, or more.

It had occurred to me as well that, even once it begins to rain (whenever that is), the moisture in the ground will have to be restored. It's been diminishing for a year; it will take a year to replenish, I suspect. I also see bare fields where farmers plowed and planted, but where the crop didn't sprout for lack of water. If we get a violent rainstorm, I wouldn't be surprised to see some ugly erosion. Or landslides, if a really heavy storm happens along when the soil is still dry. A couple of years ago a place up in the mountains two valleys over got a foot of rain in a few hours. They had a flash flood that carried away part of the town and killed two people (or three).

I did mention that I'm a pessimist.

Is it possible to place some shade cloth for your most precious ones?

Possibly a pessimist, but you sound much more like a realist to me.

It seems tremendously unfair when Seattle's had our wettest fall/winter/spring since 1895. I wish I could send out water your way...

Melissa, I wish I could do more than send sympathy and wish that climate change research would become priority for every country! If you have a bath tub on a second floor, that's a fairly easy siphon set-up. Your outdoor shower idea is brilliant. Please know we're here for shoulders as well as celebrations. Wishing hard for a reasonable break in the weather without accompanying disastrous flooding! Carol

Yes, water from the bathtub/shower is a good idea - many years ago, in a prior drought, my DH (because we have a ground floor basement, and the bathtub/shower was one floor above the basement) was able to make it so that all of that water drained into a tank, from which he could pump it through a hose into the garden.

Re floods and landslides - yes, California has thousands of miles of well maintained state highways, many of which go through mountainous areas. This past winter we got historic amount of rain, after years of drought. In way No. Calif. several state highways were closed for weeks or months because landslides either fell on them. or they fell down the hill. Several are still closed. Here is a pic of a recent slide on Hwy 1, which runs down the coast of CA all the way from Oregon to Mexico. Hard to see the scale - that little bitty road is actually the large state hwy. The slide went all the way into the Pacific Ocean.

Jackie

Mellisa, that's so sad and frustrating! Something we cannot control, the weather. I hope that you are very pleasantly surprised by something..... rain or survivors or better yet, both! I will say that I have gone away during our hottest months,(all of August and September). My boys were younger, and more irresponsible then. (There are days when I think I should say EVEN more irresponsible then:) Just kidding, a little. Apparently each thought the other was watering. I honestly about threw them out when I arrived home. Everything looked terrible and dead. But low and behold, the only one I actually lost had been sprayed with roundup by the nearby park maintenance crew.(I didn't realize it at the time, and blamed the boys). So just maybe you will be surprised at what survives. I know you're a pessimist, so if you count on losing most things, you will surely have at least a FEW surprise survivors. I hope this isn't irritating to hear, but it could happen. I really thought all was lost, but those with deep enough roots held on. I sure learned not to rip anything out that I "thought" was dead. I did lose small things, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I do feel your pain. We live under constant water restrictions, threat of drought, and unbelievably high water rates. Last year everyone cut back on water use SO much, that the water company was losing money. Our rates went up substantially as a result. We had record rainfall this past spring and the drought was officially declared over for now. The new high water rates remain in effect and will not be going down, ever. So I really emphasize with you, Melissa. Right now we have a small reprieve, but it won't be long before people like Ingrid and myself will be posting the same sort of thing. Hang in there, girl! Lisa

Yeah,knowing the "new" Italian weather as I do, I'd be inclined to agree with Ann,that you're just being a realist. Any more it never seems to really rain here in summer (I did SO love that fluke summer a couple years ago when July was so nice and cool and rainy...) and it's only too likely that we will have to endure three months of drought and awful heat with the merciless, cruel sun.When I first moved to Italy, back in the 1980s,June did tend to be a pretty pleasant month,and typically only really July and early August were completely hot and dry. That's all changed now; this year it was hot even in April,and here in Tuscany at least this hasn't yet qualified as being a truly bad year. Hopefully our "pessimistic realism" will be spited thoroughly ,but sad to say, that's kind of just dreaming. On the brighter side ,back in the wretched year of 2003,things were much worse, and I seem to remember that most of my roses did survive (I 'm talking about established plants, however). Hoping for the best, fearing the worst...what can I say but second Lisa? Hang in there!

The cistern is dry!!!! I don't know what happened. It only went dry in August last year.... Oh my goodness..... I wonder what my neighbours would think if we installed an outdoor shower....scandalous!! We've been lucky so far this year but I'm already starting to get a teeny tiny bit worried. And I'm an optimist....

I am sending rainy thoughts your way, Melissa, bart and Anna-Lyssa. Do you think shade cloth will be of any use for plants that can't be watered?

Virginia

ETA: I see that Nancy Lee asked about shade cloth also...

Actually, our situation is closer to yours than to Jackie's -- even though we are both in CA. The saving grace for us -- for agriculture -- is that we are going to steal water from Northern California, and hopefully re-charge our acquifers.

Watering limitations have been lifted here, and I am so upset when I see people running water down the gutters. We continue to supplement our roses et al with graywater -- though we have not yet tapped into laundry/shower water. (Our plumbing system is arcane and old.)

In fact, some of my roses are getting more water because I'm hand-carrying graywater, and are doing better than they ever have. But like you, I am a pessimist. We did have more rain this past winter -- though nowhere near the drought-buster Jackie got. But I look to our hills, with nothing much up there other than dry grass, and I worry.

I think more dry winters may well be in our immediate future. I believe that in large part because it's been predicted for several years.

Melissa I love your idea of an outdoor shower and using that for your plants. There is a wonderful campground up near a place called Sea Ranch in Northern California where I had the most amazing outdoor shower in the sunshine. It was wonderful. I can't believe I didn't think of that when I did our yard remodel. It sounds like you're doing everything you can to get through it without too many casualties.

I wrote my original post seeking sympathy and strategy, and got both. Thanks, folks.

I have good news. Our farmer neighbors have a large, springfed pond that they use to irrigate. I thought that they might be able to spare some water since, if the pond is low, it might be too little to be useful to them, but enough to be quite useful to us with our much more moderate needs, so I asked. Rather to my surprise, they said we can draw water from their pond, and--this surprised me--they won't charge us for it! They're don't have any crops now that require irrigation, and what we can draw with a single hose a couple of hours at a time won't make a significant difference--to them. To us it makes a big difference. Thank you, neighbors!!! Last night DH and DD got the tour of the pond, and this morning DH went and bought a lot of hose and the necessary attachments, so, when he has it all set up, we should be able to water. The pond sits higher than most of the big garden where the bulk of plants needing water are located, so a simple gravity feed will work.

This still leaves the plants in pots and those in the propagating beds, the young plants in the shade garden, and some established but suffering individuals, including my oldest, superb Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata'. I have several plants of this around and keep an eye on them in conditions like this. They can handle a normal summer drought without watering, but the weather this year risks being too much for them. We're still planning on capturing as much of our gray water as we absolutely can, and are seriously looking into shade cloth for one of the propagating beds that gets too much sun (the other one is nicely shaded in summer and the plants there look a lot happier): we're inventorying supports and considering using the ragged cloths, old sheets and whatnot, that we use to protect the pots in winter when freezes threaten. Nancy Lee and Virginia, thanks for that suggestion, which pushed me into thinking more seriously about it. The outdoor shower is a simple spray head on a stand that hooks up to a garden hose. It's hard to step under, but invigorating once you've gotten over the shock. It can be moved around, which is an advantage, but on the other hand it's right out in the open, and so I have to shower in my bathing suit. (Two years ago, when it was very hot but not so dry as now, I showered under the balcony, shielded on three sides by building and plants, and on the fourth side by a curtain we rigged up. There I could shower naked.) We're looking into a large flat basin we can stand in to capture more water and direct it where it's most needed. However you do it, even with as primitive a setup as ours, there is a lot of romance in an outdoor shower. Cori Ann, it could be retrofitted, you know!

I had another idea, too. I want to check with the Comune tomorrow and make sure that the watering ban has no exemptions, for pots for example (there's going be revolution here if people can't keep their geraniums), and if in fact we can't water potted plants, we're thinking of moving the entire pot ghetto down into the big garden, where they can be watered along with the baby plants down there. If we can't get the water to the plants, take the plants to the water. We could tuck them under the mature roses in the double line we planted back in 2012, in the middle of the grass and alfalfa and chicory. They'd have some protection from sun and wind, and would be close to last winter's planting that needs watering now, so within convenient reach of the hose. This would take care of a lot plants that otherwise we'd have to find used but fairly clean water for.

Bart and Anna-Lyssa, thanks for the illuminating comments! Bart, you in particular have my sympathies. I think we'll all be wise to take seriously the possibility of regular periods of drought. Bart, you describe an Italy that was already gone, here at least, by the time I arrived in 2000. August has always been an oppressive month in my experience, and I take hot dry summers for granted.

When I arrived in Italy I already had the idea of growing plants in such a way that they could live without irrigation, fruit of my experiences in the rainy Pacific Northwest. Summer is dry there, and water gets in short supply and expensive. I found out in Olympia, one of my neophyte gardener discoveries, that plants could go weeks without watering, and that roses in particular were stars of drought tolerance. When we got the farm I knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a garden whose plants wouldn't need to be watered after the first year, and that has always been my goal, so far met. I didn't quite expect anything like this year, but everyone who gardens for long enough knows that disasters will come along sooner or later. I don't know if this year will be a disaster or not. I've always assumed that my established plants will most of them survive this drought, and worried mainly about the babies. I could be wrong. I don't know how long this drought will last. The military weather site, supposed to be one of the more reliable, forecasts hot dry weather here for the next month, which is as far ahead as it looks. So there's no comfort there. And I've never seen a year like this.

I took a quick look around the house, where most of the roses are doing well. Some plants--privet, acanthus, forsythia, many shrubs and trees with thin leaves--are drooping somewhat, but the roses are fine. R. moschata is in bloom; 'Cl. Papa Gontier', 'Crepuscule', 'Jaune Desprez' all have a scattering of repeat flower; 'Louise Odier' down in the shade garden has been in bloom for months; the once-blooming roses look perfectly happy and some of the repeat bloomers are putting on new growth. None of these has gotten a drop of water. The lilacs are fine. Oaks and maples, with their leathery leaves, are fine. Storm clouds may be looming on the horizon (unfortunately, in a metaphorical sense only) but for now, the garden is for the most part okay.

P.S. Jeri, heavens, yes, I hate to see water wasted!

Melissa what wonderful neighbors you have! That is fantastic!

I am definitely going to look into an outdoor shower with the drain hooked up to irrigate somehow. It's a great future project. What a wonderful idea. I only wish I would have had access to your brain sooner. :-)

In our area it used to be possible to drill for wells... not sure if that's still legal here without several hoops to jump through. It used to even be possible to do it manually if you knew young strong men who wanted a summer job, had an auger and weren't afraid of working hard.

I need to look into that for my yard. I wonder if that is an option at your place?

I'm so sorry for your situation, and with as many plants as you have it is worrying. I have a very large plastic bowl living in one side of my double kitchen sink. Water from washing hands, rinsing dishes, washing vegetable and fruits, it all goes in there along with the peelings from the veggies etc. I empty it out several times a day over plants that will benefit the most at any particular time. Coffee grounds also end up there. Using a bucket in the shower and catching the cold water before it heats up also helps. It's a stressful situation, but being able to use your nice neighbor's pond water is a wonderful bonus.

One thing I have learned is that a garden can come back from a sorry state although it takes some time and patience. The sorry truth is that it will get hotter and drier in the future, and this may be a time to re-evaluate your plantings. I've cut back to about half of the roses I had, and left or orderered the ones that were both beautiful and tough enough to withstand the increased radiation and less water. In my case it means having no more than 50 roses ever again. For you it will be something entirely different, but to have the mindset that less is better is a very realistic and worthwhile goal. We have to adapt to the new reality over which we have no control, except to put human ingenuity to work and make the most of what you have. I have the feeling that you'll be quite good at that.

I am one with Ingrid . . .

My sink-side bucket is smaller than hers (so easy to carry) which makes more trips outdoors, but I count every one of those trips as a little "cheat" that lets me stand in the garden for a few moments, just looking around. The shower buckets have been in use for several years now, collecting warm-up water. If things get worse, we can leave a bucket in place for the whole shower.

We once had upwards of 400 roses. Now, I'm sure we're under 50 ... but many of them are now very large. In-between are salvias and succulents and the like, so we have color with less demand for water, and that's just the way it's going to have to be.

It's sort of fun, learning about these "other" plants that I never thought to dabble in. I can get pretty excited about a new, small, hybrid Agave . . .

I am glad to hear about your nice neighbors. At least that will help some what. See, there is already a pleasant surprise. I wish you many more pleasant surprises in this situation. You may have already said, but is everything mulched to retain as much of the water as possible that the plants do receive? I need to get on the mulching myself. Lisa

Melissa, I am celebrating your wonderful neighbors and your access to their pond! Everyone's creativity and initiative in water recycling is impressive and inspiring. Carol

Thanks for all the friendly comments. Water is life: we have to preserve it. I'm hoping that my current plantings will be adapted to this warmer, drier Italy, which after all is the one I know, but who can say? Meanwhile, pace to our president, the whole world needs to be thinking about solar and other non-polluting power, and reforestation.

I'm not one of our neighbors' biggest fans, but they certainly sprouted angel wings this time. They did. They did. We set up the hose last night, which was a wet business for a change, but something didn't work: a crook in the hose under water or some such thing. So more fooling around with hoses underwater is in our future. The pond, which I saw from just above surface level yesterday evening, was in fact beautiful. The evening was beautiful, very clear, very limpid. I was surprised. Apparently yesterday was the first day of the front that's bringing all the heat we're dreading, but yesterday evening there was still a touch of freshness in the air.

Drilling a well is apparently not an option: the geology of our land means no water for too far down. It was a comfort to see the well filled pond: there's still some water around. And there's still water in the Arda, too, the stream that feeds our reservoir. So we haven't dried up completely.

Jeri and Ingrid, you two are dealing with a harsher (so far) situation than mine, one that calls, not necessarily for more action, since you're both being proactive about water, but for more philosophy. You are both expressions of my belief that gardeners will always garden, even if it's just a pot of flowers on a windowsill. We'll all grow what we can, as much and for as long as we can.

I believe in the ground being covered, whether with mulch, with living plants, with the stubble of plants that have matured and died. We've cut much of the grass in the garden, but I left uncut (I wouldn't dream of pulling it) the grass and little plants in the beds, on purpose to shield the roses and other shrubs somewhat from the sun, keep the ground covered, and catch rain, when the day comes that it rains again. No bare ground! is my motto. The ground alongside the bed of roses we planted in 2012, originally poor dense soil, had quite a good grass crop when we mowed it this spring, fed with pulled weeds from the beds and with hay. So that area's improving.

I just checked the forecast for the coming week. Pure, blazing heat. Sigh.

Just curious:how often do you water your plants, Melissa?

Well, the established plants with few exceptions haven't been watered yet at all. I've been dumping water on my oldest Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' just because I love it so much, while the also well-loved yellow-variegated privet which is likewise suffering is just going to have to take its chances, along with a number of other stressed-looking plants, many of them natives. Plants in the sunny propagation beds I try to get to every couple of days, along with the plants in pots, while the plants in the shaded propagation beds get watered when I have water and feel like they need it, which so far has been at infrequent intervals: perhaps every couple of weeks or so. Waterings may become more frequent, though, if this weather continues. I have to water this often because I don't have much water to spare at a time--this is mostly rinse water and suchlike--and because the soil is so dry. I can't afford the water to soak the plants deeply, so have to resort to these frequent small waterings as an emergency measure.

2003 was an awful year, I well remember, but we had just moved to the farm the year before and so had very little in the ground, and that young. I remember how quite miserable looking plants bounced back once it finally started raining again in September: that was a lesson I took note of. But this year is possibly worse, up here at least. How is the weather in your area? How are water supplies?

Light shade cloth and carefully placed umbrellas or fabric stretched on sticks will help fight drought. I rinse clothes in a big tub and pour the water out on plants. Putting potted plants at the base of one that can use the extra water helps. Mulch like crazy and wash off outdoors with water warmed up by the sun. Reducing the amount of sun to just what a plant needs to get by made so much difference here. I also sacrificed many thirsty choices and divided my water among the remaining plants.

Sharing the water from the pond was very kind. You are fortunate to have a neighbor like that. Drought is hard on gardeners and farmers.

The weather here is awful,too: hot and dry with no relief in sight . I hate summer.

Calif. (which is always at one extreme or the other - wild fires, droughts, floods, earthquakes, landslides, etc. - missing so far: hordes of locusts) is in our "now we have too much water, and too much snow" phase, after it broke all records for rain last winter. They are now worried that the snow melt runoff will cause floods. The paper this morning said that several people have drowned in parks (like Yosemite) with large rivers, as they fell into the madly rushing and high rivers, or tried to rescue someone else who fell in, or very stupidly went in on purpose.

Never a dull moment around here, but I will take "too much water" anyday!

Jackie

Update: DH got the hose working! He is now very happily watering down in the big garden. He has heroically managed to keep a good portion of the young plants down there alive so far this year, so perhaps he can keep it up. Our helper is digging up invading elm roots. He started work at 5:30 a.m. and will keep going until 9:30, by which time it will be too hot to continue. The area where he's busy is shaded to the east, so will remain comfortable longer than if it were in full sun.

My task is to load up our pots and take them down to the big garden where they can be watered, nestling them under the roses for shade. I don't know if this is a good idea, but believe we should try. Also I need to start setting up shade cloth (willpower! willpower!).

Yesterday there was a forecast of possible thunderstorms tonight; this morning when I checked the weather site that possibility was gone. Any suggested chance of precipitation disappears as you approach it like a mirage. Current forecast is another full week of blazing sun and heat. I went to Piacenza city yesterday. The beds of the streams/rivers Chiavenna, Riglio, and Nure were all bone dry. Rivers do regularly go dry in the summer, but usually there's at least a trickle of water and some puddles, and it happens later. It's not even officially summer yet.

Jackie, hear, hear! You and those other Californians for whom the drought has broken have my best wishes.

Some surprising stars of the drought are the Hybrid Perpetuals. I bought these experimentally five years ago, might I say without high expectations. Well, they're in bloom now, not the finest flowers, but it's an accomplishment all the same. 'Sidonie', 'Reine des Violettes', a mislabelled one that I think may be 'Arillaga', and a couple of others. Their stock is rising with me. Also some of the Teas are reblooming. It's been over five hot weeks since the last rain, and none of these has gotten any extra water.

kittymoonbeam, you're correct across the board; we risk losing elements of our garden, some money and work, but for our neighbors it's their livelihood. They have two hundred cows to feed and water. I wonder, if the weather continues to get hotter and drier, whether a dairy operation in the hills will continue to be feasible.

Isn't it infuriating,lol? Every time they predict rain,they are wrong, but whenever they predict an endless heat wave, they are right!

I agree. My impression of Italian weather is that any kind of it seems to go on longer than what you want. However, the forecast of a chance of thunderstorms (and hail, but the cherry harvest is done) is back. You sound like you're having a tough summer.

Melissa I think putting the pots to be watered under the roses is a great idea. Any water that drains from the pots will also go to the roses... and the pots will shade the soil over the rose roots as well as the roses shading the plants in the pots. Good thinking!

You really are doing everything you possibly can and I admire the hard work you are putting into maintaining your garden, as well as the ingenious ideas you have. Outstanding. Well done.

Good news, bad news. The good news is that it rained last night!! Our 10%-20% chance of rain turned into a two hour thunderstorm of near tropical intensity: curtains of rain, wind, continuous lightning flickering and thunder muttering. It was evident that the weather was much more than local; in fact, much of the province was affected by it. We got about 3 centimeters, enough to freshen up the earth and lift everyone's mood. Today feels like a holiday.

It was clear that a lot of energy was being released during the storm. During the middle of it, when the rain lightened, I watched the clouds moving rapidly in all directions and wondered if I weren't seeing the formation of a tornado, but it didn't happen. Fiorenzuola to the north of us did experience a tornado, downed trees, and localized flooding. The other big water-related news in the paper today is that most of the province has declared water rationing through September, with no water allowed for plants at all, and our reservoir has closed its gates and will be releasing no more water for farm irrigation. Very bad news for the farmers. By the way, in seventeen years in Italy I've never seen this done. My impression is that most people here can't even conceive of running out of water--I can--but I think the idea is starting to insinuate itself into people's minds.

That actually isn't the bad news. That is that I took a look down in the upper part of the big garden yesterday, an area of particularly poor soil, and was rather shocked at how bad many plants looked. The olives are dry. The phlomis looks ready to turn up its heels. I thought nothing could do in phlomis, but it was wretched. An established lilac was wilting, and another, younger one, though in place for a couple of years, was half dead. The soil here is particularly bad, but I also put much of the blame on the lack of shade. It's a matter of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps: small plants need the protection of trees, but trees themselves need established shrubs to grow. I need to look into garrigue plants, for the day when it starts to rain (consistently) again. The forecast, after this happy interval, is for hot and dry to resume.

I'm glad you got rain! How I wish we'd get some, too.

Goodness Melissa you are going through such though times, I'm glad you got some rain, but I hope you get more soon. Best wishes and thoughts for you and everyone else affected by this :(

What an experience! Severe ongoing drought, tornadoes, water not just rationed but terminated,.... I wish I could do something more than read your updates and commiserate. The Oregon coast was hit by a tornado last year. First time in history? Texas has been having crazy outbreaks even for the lower end of Tornado Alley. Seven in one area this spring! Carol

It was so good to read that your neighbors are helping you through this drought and almost as good to read of your rain.

Our cherry picking and pitting season is almost over. I now know where the term "the pits" comes from, yet there is such a feeling of satisfaction and bounty when these little treats are set aside for celebrations in the coming year. Then all the unreasonable time and effort spent seem to be a wise bargain.

Cath