No Rain This Summer....

**many houseapes** · 07-31-2009, 11:47 AM

at least not in my part of town. This summer has been a horribly hot one & while some parts of town may have had a few sprinkles...when the clouds get to my house they scream & run away! We haven't had a drop of rain all summer & now I have lost 2 of the 9 blackberry vines that I planted in March. They were doing beautifully & I have been babying them, but now the 2 are officially burned up. The rest are holding up, but I'm afraid that if we don't get rain soon,we won't be having any blackberries at all

**Bournecrazy** · 07-31-2009, 12:13 PM

i have plenty of rain you can have. It rained for nearly 90% of july It was nice and hot he first couple of days i think then its has rained, stormed and rained more since.

have it. take it. i dont want it any more.

**AmyBoz** · 07-31-2009, 12:21 PM

I'm really sorry to hear that. Sometimes people forget that, aside from being uncomfortable, heat and no rain can make for some unfortunately consequences to our lives in other ways!

Here's hoping for a big shower for you!

**guest002** · 07-31-2009, 12:48 PM

We've had no rain...none. This isn't an understatement. We had maybe 5 days of rain this year and that was in the "rainy" season of winter.
They say El Niño is supposed to be coming soon and we're due to have a much wetter winter but we'll see. But with that comes landslides...
I've never lived anywhere where they've had built in irrigation systems. Here in the central coastal California region they do. We recently moved to this house and I have a lot of herbs and fruit bearing trees and I don't want them to die off and it's part of my lease that I have to keep the grass green, etc. Well, I'm having to water right now daily (grass) and every other day in the flower beds (where the fruit trees are, etc.). Thankfully it's all on a programmable timer and not much water is wasted, but still. I could use some help from a few rain showers...

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories...09_elnino.html

**craftypam** · 07-31-2009, 01:26 PM

We are getting it all. Rained almost everyday in July. Temperatures very cool all summer. I don't even think its hit 90; 85 a couple of days. I want summer; winter will be here before we know it. Sorry about your blackberry bushes; hope you get some rain soon. Why is it that you can't just water them?

**Bournecrazy** · 07-31-2009, 01:32 PM

Pam where do you live? you in the UK?

**craftypam** · 07-31-2009, 01:35 PM

I live in Michigan

**Bournecrazy** · 07-31-2009, 01:39 PM

oh ok your having a summer like me then, rain all day everyday. I wouldnt mind a few warm days or even a week before winter comes.

I noticed today that the conkers are really big and ready to drop - 2 months early!

Hope the weather holds out as i want to harvest - more like ravage - my parents plum and pear trees, there are so many plums in some places they look like bunches of huge grapes there is that many in a small area.

**ml2620** · 07-31-2009, 03:24 PM

I'm in New England and we are getting dumped on, we are having a problem with potato and tomato blight (partly as a result of the rain). The weeds in my garden are out of control, but I am not complaining (at least not too much!)

**frugalfranny** · 07-31-2009, 03:42 PM

[QUOTE=Bournecrazy;1212277]
I noticed today that the conkers are really big and ready to drop - 2 months early!
QUOTE]

Hey BC......What are conkers?

Super hot and dry here........we are just TINDERBOX dry. Hope we don't have another fire like last year.......scary. I watched the flames out my patio door. (though the fire was a couple miles away)

**Bournecrazy** · 07-31-2009, 04:07 PM

lol i thought that question was coming. conkers are chestnuts

conkers is the name of the game you play with them, The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string: they take turns to strike each other's conker until one breaks.

but everyone calls them conkers, the fun is trying to break them open and the joy of getting more than 1 in a shell

they are never called chestnuts until your are eating them. thats how its always been for me

**KeithBC** · 07-31-2009, 04:09 PM

I can so relate to this! We have had only a tiny bit of rain all summer.

With climate change, we are thinking that this is the way it is likely to be from now on. We store rainwater from the winter for summer garden irrigation. We have just added another 2000 gallons of storage for 4500 gallons total. The 2500 gallons of water that we had stored after the last rain, nearly a month ago, will last us until Sept 15th. After that, if we don't get more, the garden is toast. That's cutting it a bit too close for comfort (and we want to expand the garden in future years), hence the need for more storage. Our well only just barely provides enough water for household use in the summer. Collecting rain is the way to go.

It is so dry now that the Fire Chief has prohibited outdoor smoking. The Fire Department has already had to put out one fire started by a cigarette butt.

**frugalwarrior** · 07-31-2009, 04:19 PM

Frugalfannie I googled it=Horse chestnuts.

**rosey7415** · 07-31-2009, 04:36 PM

i am also in new england........you can have all of our rain!!! it has been so wet, damp and humid..... i have mushrooms growing all over my front lawn!! we are going to go from spring to fall and no real summer this year!!