Dry all last year and the beginning of this year (except for a 2ft snowstorm in Feb) until the last week of May when we got a month's worth of rain in 1 week. Alternating cold(30's) then hot (90) then cold (40's) temps in May and June, finally got tomatoes out the beginning of June and MORE rain! Poured for about 20 minutes at dinner last night, weather.com is showing 0 inches but I'm guessing 1/4". More gentle rain overnight, clear this morning and then this afternoon another T-storm. So I'm saying 7.5 -8" this month plus the 3.5" last week of May. Tomatoes are looking sad - I started replacing some yesterday and also planted 6 I'd been holding back. Haven't checked today to see how they've held up in the driving rain (had a couple broken last week). Peppers are still in 6-packs, I guess I can say they're hardened off though they may sunburn when I can get them out, 1 is blooming. Squash looks like it's loving this weather, cukes OK (seeded before squash and they're smaller), spinach is bolting and the kale and Asian greens are just OK. I guess I'll try to harvest mustard greens, tatsoi and bok choy for stirfry mix rather than salad greens since lettuce is so far behind. Carrots are disappearing, lettuce is barely coming in after seeding twice (every time I seed we have a downpour) but the arugula in the mix is getting tall (not bolting yet). Radish bulbs are finally starting to show above the ground 3 weeks after seeding and I don't know what's happened to my chard and beets that I've seeded twice. Beans are doing OK, but I lost 2/3 of my edamame. The only thing I'm harvesting right now that is doing really well is strawberries and they're coming to an end just as market season is beginning. Blueberries and brambles are coming along though.

I just read an article about Californians shaming their neighbors into killing their lawns. I am reminded of the Communist Chinese Red Guard of youths who turned in their parents for anti Mao thoughts. I hope we are not doomed to repeat an episode of turning in our neighbors for wanting to stretch the life of their investments in landscaping. Maybe this year of El Nino the Sierras will hold some snow pack. I have been waiting for months for this question to arise. If you have St Augustine, then the answer is a resounding YES to the question of letting it grow longer. Please tolerate anyone with St Aug letting their grass go unmowed. The drought will end and they might be the only ones left with lawns. I have a house in George West, TX at the edge of the Texas desert. Temps this week are in the low 100s. Here is a picture of a part of my yard which has not been watered since I moved in in Oct 2011. Obviously it has not been mowed, either. My dog is a chow mix but only half-chow size. That grass is 32 inches long if you stretch it out. It sits in the shade of an oak tree on the east side of the house. It never gets direct sun, ever. 2012 and 2013 were drought years, but that grass remained green and alive. I can't say it did not look wilty at times, but once it did rain, it bounced right back. My grass in full sun has needed water, but not nearly as often as my neighbors water. I can go about a month before it really looks like the next step is dead. During the drought of the past few years, and with this scarce watering plan, I have watched the St Augustine expand out into an area which has never had grass before. I now have about 3,000 square feet more grass than I had before I started this. This has been a wet (normal) year for us so it is expanding more and more. I have also been approached by the city to abate the nuisance which is my yard. They used to have a nuisance ordinance stating all weeds and grass had to be kept down to 18 inches. I complied with that using a string trimmer. This year they changed it to 12 inches but they only seem to be enforcing that on my yard and about 2 other seriously nuisance yards (100% weeds). So now I keep it down to 12 inches - or the flopped over appearance of 12 inches. When it's 100 feet away from the road, it looks "manicured." I'm sure they are equally unhappy with 12 inches as they were with 18 inches, but they wrote the ordinance. What I find hilarious is the city council members claim that they don't water either and their mowed yards look great. Uh, no. Their yards look like weeds mowed down to 2 inches. Mine is a monoculture of real turf grass with no weeds. I undertook this project knowing what the outcome would be. I have seen unmowed St Aug survive very serious drought over a 30 year period. What I wanted to do was document it somewhat and track where the grass seemed to excel. This project is coming to a close as I am selling the house and moving to a new job next week. I hope to repeat the tall grass project at another location with worse drought issues. This time I want to get the city water board in on the project from the beginning.

Good news for you Brenda! So glad to hear you did get some rain. At this point, we will take anything we can get. We went to our 5 year old grand-daughter's softball game (those little girls are so much fun to watch) and wouldn't you know it, we got rainned out! There were actually two lines of storms that went through the area today and we got some rain from both of them. I'm pleased and so grateful. I'm also looking forward to a few days of cooler weather too. My plants are looking better already. Not only from the rain, but also because the relentless sun was in the clouds quite a bit of the day. stevation, we are also sad to read and hear on the news about your dry, hot weather and the fires you are having to endure. Hopefully, rain will soon come your way and things will improve. Linda

I don't know enought about forsythia to point the finger at disease or insect problems. However, I did have a transplanted pine tree that "self-pruned" once. The tree was given to me root-bound in a pot. After being planted in the yard, it didn't get the (daily) attention and watering it was accustomed to in its previous life. The top and several major limbs died back until the remaining limbs could be supported by the existing root structure. The tree went on and lived after that episode. Maybe your forsythia is just self-pruning itself? I don't know. Good luck.