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Parched

May 28th, 2009

It’s been a dry May here in Ohio. Usually we have a fairly wet spring and we only get dry spells in late July & August. I emptied my rain barrels last week sometime and have been hoping for rain. I guess I should install a few more rain barrels.
two-red-watering-cans
I’ve been keeping track of how much water I’m able to save with my rain barrels. So far this spring I’ve been able to harvest and use 690 gallons of water from my rain barrels.
rain-barrels-tracking1
I finally had to resort to using the hose to water my raised beds, I really didn’t want my strawberry crop to suffer. So out came the hose and I spent hours watering everything thoroughly.
hose-guide
I love these little hose guides, I got them a long time ago to keep the hose from trampling my plants. I need to get a few more though, I suppose a big rock would do, but how cute is this little frog looking up from the garden.
rain-on-the-porch1
We got a small shower yesterday, but it amounted to less than an 8th of an inch of rain. It was only enough to get everything wet and droopy and make the day humid.
wet-peonies
Even with that small amount of rain, I captured 21 gallons of water, that will be enough to water all of my potted plants.
rain-on-the-deck
We do have a 60% chance of thunderstorms today, hopefully we’ll get some rain, at least enough to fill up my rain barrels. I’m not holding my breath though, everyone around us got tons of rain yesterday and we got nothing.

Anyone else’s garden parched or are you having the opposite problem?

13 Comments to “Parched”
  1. Mangochild on May 28, 2009 at 5:12 am

    I’d be happy to send you some of our rain from CT! It seems like it has been raining at least a few days a week here. How much water do strawberries need?

    Mangochild’s last blog post.. Tuesdays Independence Days Week 2

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    • Susy on May 28, 2009 at 8:47 am

      They need a good amount of water when they’re producing fruit. We’ve only had about a half inch of rain in May so far, that’s way too low. And since they’re in a raised bed here, they dry out quicker.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  2. Silke on May 28, 2009 at 7:09 am

    We have the opposite problem here – too much rain in the last two weeks (although good for Georgia to get us out of drought conditions). It’s good that we have very sandy soil, so the plants aren’t suffering. It’s just been hard to get anything done in the yard. I love those hose guides – might have to get some… Hope you get more rain today! :) Silke

    Silke’s last blog post.. Grand Oaks and Flowers…

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  3. Daphne on May 28, 2009 at 8:39 am

    In my suburb of Boston we have been having cloudy weather a lot, but really not much appreciable rain. Some places in the area got some rain, but not at my house. I really hope it pours today. I’m guessing I’ve only had about 1 1/2″ of rain so far in April. That is about 1/3 of what we normally get. I’ve been watering, but rain always make the plants grow better.

    Daphne’s last blog post.. Potato Growth

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  4. Chicago Mike on May 28, 2009 at 9:20 am

    Our issue is the inconsistency. No rain, no rain, no rain, 20 inches in 3 hours.

    This is also my first year with raised beds so I am extra focused on moisture. Waiting for some sprouts to come up to mulch the beds with grass and oak leaves (stashed from last year).

    How much rainwater capacity do you have?

    Chicago Mike’s last blog post.. A Few Updates

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    • Susy on May 28, 2009 at 9:51 am

      I have 7 – 55 gallon barrels linked together for my rain barrel system, so I get a total of 385 gallons (probably a few more if you include what’s in all the pipes). So far this spring I’ve been able to harvest and use 690 gallons of water from my rain barrels.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  5. warren on May 28, 2009 at 10:04 am

    We’ve got the opposite problem! We’ve had many inches of rain this month and everything is soaked through badly!

    warren’s last blog post.. Brace Face

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  6. Andee on May 28, 2009 at 10:09 am

    Since we live about 30 miles North of Susy, we are waiting to see rain as well. But, we have a large natural Spring on the property so we are incredibly blessed with water. Regardless, this is a deadly time to transplant perennials. And, given the recent review I saw in my gardening magazine, those water absorbing crystals do not actually buy you any extra time between waterings so I’m glad I never got around to that experiment in my own pots and beds.

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  7. ChristyACB on May 28, 2009 at 12:14 pm

    We had a really wet spring but this is starting to taper off at just the right time for the summer growth spurt. It has, (and I’m so knocking on wood here), been the perfect year for gardening so far. My garden is huge, to the point of weirdness huge, and producing like mad. I actually have 30 tomatoes on one plant! And cauliflower more than 3.5 feet tall! Yes, freakishly good. The heavy rains of spring were a pain to me, but the raised beds loved the dowsing each week like clockwork.

    ChristyACB’s last blog post.. 100th Post and One Year of Progress

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  8. Allie on May 28, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    We had downpours today. I’m nervous to see the results tomorrow. It was way too much rain and it totally flooded parts of my garden. Yikes!

    Before that though, it was very dry!

    Allie’s last blog post.. Plant Trees with Odwalla

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  9. KitsapFG on May 28, 2009 at 11:23 pm

    We have had a run of dry and warmer weather for the past several weeks – so I have been working my way through the garden beds doing some watering. I have two 55 gallon water barrels and I use them for all the container plantings including the greenhouse. I would like to add some more to the series but probably will make that a 2010 project. Typically we have a dry season of July/August only with the remainder of the year providing a reasonable amount of natural rainfall to water the gardens. However, we periodically get stretches like this past few weeks where it is unusually nice and things dry out without some watering.

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  10. pam on May 29, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    Here in TN we are getting lots of rain, but after the previous drought, I am not complaining!

    pam’s last blog post.. Mystery Salad

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  11. Sherri on May 31, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Wow! 385 gallons! That’s impressive! We just put in our first rain barrel last week. I’ll have to do a post on my blog about it!

    Reply to Sherri's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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