water
All the rain the first half of the summer lulled me into forgetting to water the garden. Now with a forecast of 105 today and nary a cloud in sight, I am dragging the hoses out of the shed again. Also got to finally get out the solvent and spare PVC parts and fix the pipes on the north side of the house that froze last winter. Being naturally lazy and there being no need for irrigation I’ve just had that entire section of the system switched off.
A neighbor came back from vacation last week and found one of his old oaks completely dead. We had a number die last summer and there are several more that have just been hanging in. They revived with the spring rains but I don’t think they will survive another period of stress. I’m thinking of putting out soaker hoses.
August 13th, 2007 @ 11:08 am
Good luck with keeping your trees alive, Bill. I’m kind of worried about mine, too. The superabundance of moisture here has resulted in a huge leaf canopy and enormously long growth on the new twigs and branches… no way the roots can support it all now that we’re back to 100º and sunny.
Annie
August 13th, 2007 @ 9:37 pm
Our brief rain spell didn’t last, but it sure grew a lot of grass… we had to hunt for the hose! Getting pretty tired of 100+ days.
August 14th, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
Water would be a good thing for those poor old oak trees!
August 14th, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
Wow… I hope they all come through it okay one way or another, Bill. Watering mature oaks sounds like quite a task, to the point of being downright daunting. How long would you have to water each one with soaker hoses to have any effect?
August 15th, 2007 @ 9:23 am
Good question Kim.
The way I usually do it is like this. I stretch the soaker hose out more or less in a straight line under the trees and turn it on for 24 hours. Then the next morning I move it. I keep doing this until I have covered the whole area.
I use well water so it does not impact my wallet much.
August 15th, 2007 @ 3:05 pm
I just dragged out the hose for the first time this week, too. The rainbarrels are now empty again. All of a sudden it looks like summer in Texas. Rats! I was hoping we’d get to skip it this year.