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According to the drought maps of Arkansa ( Little Rock Democrat Gazette ) NW Arkansas counties are not classified with as severe a drought as we are in Sharp County and as severe as many other counties in Arkansas.
oh you are right, but it is still aweful: remember, the interesting things about the weather charts: they only tell part of the story: for instance, the maps you are looking at, NWA conditions are measured in FAyetteville. Last weekend they got 2 inches of rain, we did not get any measurable rain. Yesterday the central part of AR, thankfully for them, got rain and Fayetteville got some, we got thunder, but thunder does not water the yard. We did get a wonderful cooling down trend for a few hours. Later this week we might get rain even though the highs are expected to top out close to 100 again, and we could get the 2 inches of rain that Fayetteville got last weekend, who knows. There are many times when the east side of hwy gets snow and rain, us 9 miles to the west get none or visa versa. Charts do not tell the story. And yes, all of AR is suffering, not just us, that is for certain.
I'm sorry you had such a bad year.
We deal with drought here every summer, and always have water restrictions. What my BF did for his really huge veggie garden, is put a canopy over it. He got some of those metal spikes at lowe's, hammered them into the ground, ran some cable between them, and sewed some basic green landscaping fabric as you would a curtain, to go through the cables so it can be pulled back once the sun isn't blazing them down anymore, but can stay covered during the hottest part of the day, which allows only filtered light to go through. All his plants were looking like they were on their way out, until he did this...now they are all growing like crazy. There's only one spot in my garden where I can even grow veggies, unless I do something similar, because it only gets direct sun from about 8am to 4pm...everything else has sun ALL day long, so you can imagine, it took some time to even figure out what kinds of ornamental plants would survive here, let alone thrive.
Hang in there...!
I know you have had drought conditions for quite a few years and you are not exactly in a green belt to start with. When we lived in NM we had an auto sprinkler systerm that went on every ohter mornng from spring to fall. Our front yard was rock and desert landscaping and most of our back yard, except for my garden was the same. I loved it. I have read the Hatch chilis are not doing well this year. I guess we can be thankful though we don't live in say, Japan right now. They are having the opposite problems..
We didn't get any of the thunder storms yesterday or last night that were predicted. It started to rain early this morning while I was out watering my garden. Great, I thought, a reprieve from dragging the hose and lugging watering cans. It rained for a whole three minutes. I might just as well have spit on the garden.
We didn't get any of the thunder storms yesterday or last night that were predicted. It started to rain early this morning while I was out watering my garden. Great, I thought, a reprieve from dragging the hose and lugging watering cans. It rained for a whole three minutes. I might just as well have spit on the garden.
the little we have gooten, once last weekend and this past Friday evening, the same: about 3 or 5 minutes...Nothing. Even last year we got a little more, we would get it every 2 or 3 weeks for maybe 20 minutes. Not really momsoons because they were not that strong, but they did last a few minutes. Today it is a little cloudy with a 20% chance, I certainly am not holding my breath. We did water the tomatoes a bit, so they are wet and so is the mystery cukes. BTW, someone mentioned our mystery cukes are probably lemon cucumbers, I am sure that is what they are. They are realy crisp and fun but it is just strange to have something you planted 3 years ago that did nothing suddenly pop up: talk about volunteer plants, they waited a long time to volunteer...
I called a friend yesterday to see if she had any blackberries for sale - she and her husband usually have 100's of bucket every year - they sell at local farmer's markets - fresh blackberries and their homemade blackberry preserves - their prices are always very fair and their products so delicious.....well my friend said that they pulled the last of their gardens out this week and they had about 1 cup of blackberries that they pulled from the vines...the farmer's store that I go to had no blackberries either.
I noticed in the local paper this morning that corn was up 7.8% from last year (and will continue to spike because of the drought)....next year anything with corn in it will be more expensive....including beef because most cattle farmer's feed their cattle beef.
Horrible hot, dry weather that goes on for weeks (without sufficient rain) affects all of us in one way or another.
I called a friend yesterday to see if she had any blackberries for sale - she and her husband usually have 100's of bucket every year - they sell at local farmer's markets - fresh blackberries and their homemade blackberry preserves - their prices are always very fair and their products so delicious.....well my friend said that they pulled the last of their gardens out this week and they had about 1 cup of blackberries that they pulled from the vines...the farmer's store that I go to had no blackberries either.
I noticed in the local paper this morning that corn was up 7.8% from last year (and will continue to spike because of the drought)....next year anything with corn in it will be more expensive....including beef because most cattle farmer's feed their cattle beef.
Horrible hot, dry weather that goes on for weeks (without sufficient rain) affects all of us in one way or another.
You do have your beautiful garden though. I love to see your pictures....As for corn, we got it for 4/1.00 the other day but that is by far the cheapest it has been this year. I don't know where it is from or how good it will be. We are having it tonight. Not only corn products will be higher this winter, I have a gut feeling so will apples, all canned fruits (which we don't eat) and probably a lot of the fall veggies, as they should be going in now, but with no rain the plants are not going to do much. At least most of our herbs did fairly well, but not all. Again, I put some in the shade and they are the ones that just keep growing.
We didn't get any of the thunder storms yesterday or last night that were predicted. It started to rain early this morning while I was out watering my garden. Great, I thought, a reprieve from dragging the hose and lugging watering cans. It rained for a whole three minutes. I might just as well have spit on the garden.
This has me laughing so hard...we get the same thing here all the time, we get SO excited for rain, and then it just spits down a few measley drops...just enough to make our vehicles look dirty, we always say, LOL !
I know you have had drought conditions for quite a few years and you are not exactly in a green belt to start with. When we lived in NM we had an auto sprinkler systerm that went on every ohter mornng from spring to fall. Our front yard was rock and desert landscaping and most of our back yard, except for my garden was the same. I loved it. I have read the Hatch chilis are not doing well this year. I guess we can be thankful though we don't live in say, Japan right now. They are having the opposite problems..
I heard about the chiles too...what a bummer . And of course, I didn't grow any chiles this year...so murphy's law is alive and well!
The only thing that looks happy in my vegi garden are the jalepeno pepper plants. I'm going to be giving those away! I have some broccolli that just looks...weird. My tomato is OK but not producing much.
This year has been tough for many, considering that many places have had drought and near drought conditions and others more than normal rainfall to the point of flooding. Locally the unrelenting heat of the past few months has been interrupted with rain every day as well as heat- every day for the last week to the point where I know I will be battling mildew and fungal diseases next on plants already weakened by the earlier 100+ temps and dryness. I really feel for the farmers all over the nation as they watch early crops dry up and fall crops delayed. Food prices in all sorts of categories will be impacted.
nmnita I'm sorry you've had to throw in the towel and hope next year will be a better one.
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. And of course, I didn't grow any chiles this year...so murphy's law is alive and well!
