Sigh. It all started out so promising. Here's hoping for some rain.~r

Joan, indeed. We've been getting some showers but not enough. Just enough to increase the humidity level.

That is so sad. Are you on water rationing?

Janice, no. Just taking classes, doing homework, chores, seeing friends. I'm a lazy gardener and prefer my plants to maintain themselves, too. And, I don't want to double my water bill like my neighbors are.

I would Tink Pick this but WHERE ARE THE COWS, STANDING ON THE CRACKED EARTH, WISHING FOR RAIN THAT WILL NEVER COME, THE GREAT DUST BOWL RAINING DOWN INSTEAD?

God people, do it right!! :D

Rated! There's some nasty storms above me right now, hail and high winds. NOT what we need!!

Would water my yard, but hell, the Water Company are starting to fine people for that!!!

Aw, Tink, not you too? Do I really have to go out and find a cow in Indiana?

Phyllis:

This year's seeds is next year's garden. Might want to keep a jug in your kitchen when you are rinsing things (fruit, veg) anything not using soap, and pour that wash water into the jug instead of down the drain.

Well, you could do what I do, call them cows Indiana horses!! Or prom dates!! I'm close enough to Kentucky that works too!! :D

Mulch? It makes a huge difference. I know people who use their grass clippings - I do sometimes but for some reason love straw for the tomatoes. Compost (homemade -yeah, I grow my own dirt) then newspaper then straw or grass. Takes much longer for the ground to dry out.

I have a friend who carries buckets of water to individual plants and she had a good sized garden, too. It was a community garden and the church kicked them out this year to make a parking lot.

Lettuce is always bitter and gone by now, even here in the far north. Then replant when the nights start cooling down. If you get rain. I suppose it's cheaper to buy veges than pay for watering them, especially if you have a good farmers' market. You could still plant beets again if you get some rain. I think they're one of the veges that benefit from cold. The best brussels sprouts I've ever had I tromped through the snow to pick the day before Thanksgiving.

oh, p.s. My mother always used to plant chard instead of spinach because it stood up to the heat better.

Too bad, Phyllis!!

I'm watering the raised bed, so the tomatoes, herbs, etc. are still hanging in.

I'm also watering the fruit trees - but not in time for the peaches. I went out one morning to see about half the leaves had turned yellow. A day or 2 later all the remaining peaches dropped. At least I froze a few pints.

Looks like you may get rain in a day or two.

How about a drip system next year. I took an old hose and poked holes in it and it waters well with no work and no waste. Also mulch mulch mulch . Fight fight do not go gentle into that good night.

Kate, that is an excellent idea! It's bugged me to see all that water just flush out.

Tink, hasn't anyone warned you about them young heifers? PM me. We'll talk.

nerd, all excellent ideas that my neighbor who waters every night does religiously. But we have had no rain and the yards are dead. Trees are dying, too. It's bad. This post, http://open.salon.com/blog/procopius/2012/07/15/drought_in_the_corn_belt, lays it all out very well.

Mark, that is too bad about the peach trees. I'm still watering, too. Tomatoes, green beans, eggplant. I should water tonight, in fact. Think I'll go do that.

zanelle, I'm planning a system for next year. Step 1: fix the faucets so they don't leak at the handle. I get 1/2 a bucket in 20 minutes.

Make that 3/4 of a 12 qt. bucket. Serious leak there.

So sorry for your garden..Summer, what can one say...

Sorry for your losses, I was so happy to join you in spirit. We had a dry year last summer and winter, and the citrus was small, hard, bitter and much less fruit. The blossoms smelled like heaven, but didn't seem to last as long, maybe a shorter blooming season. I know nature can adapt, some things will die, and some will burst back. So, a few years ago, there were uncharacteristic rains in Death Valley. Following these rains bloomed a carpet of previously unseen wildflowers. It was spectacular (I only got to see pictures) and wonderful. And seen so rarely that many had never seen this before. I like that, remembering that underneath that cracking soil, nature is conserving and storing seed, adapting and surviving.

I was going to do a post like this, but we got a reprieve - couple of downpours today. Enough to keep things (not trees, perhaps) okay for another few days, esp. since temps are going down. But the long-range forecast is hot and dry... My garden was so wonderful this spring, too!

Olga, exactly. It is what it is.

Oryoki, I saw the pictures of the desert in bloom, too. So pretty. Maybe next time we'll have the technology to record the scent, too.

Myriad, we had a shower Saturday & Sunday afternoon but not enough to write home about. Do you have plans to irrigate next year?

This drought has been awful. Even if we got rain now, it wouldn't matter. I'm sorry about your garden. I was exciting watching you put it in, even if it did make me feel like slacker girl. :)

oh phyllis. very sad. all that work. i hope your tomatoes are bountiful. couple years ago, we had the opposite problem here, and so much rain made all the tomatoes crack and rot, cause they were overfull of juice.

OMg I feel for you..
.........(¯`v´¯) (¯`v´¯)
☼•*¨`*•.¸.(ˆ◡ˆ).¸.•*
............... *•.¸.•* ♥⋆★•❥ Peace and ♥ L☼√Ξ ☼ ♥
⋆───★•❥Have a Rainy Day ☼ .¸¸.•*`*•.♥ (ツ)

Gardens break your heart sometimes, but it's all a learning.
Great ideas here, and still plenty of green in your patch. It was a great series to follow, Phyllis. I wish you just the right amount of rain.
And potatoes.

This is so sad after all your hard work. So much land so dry and it will affect food prices and then we will all be paying higher prices. It will be a terrible winter.

Ahhhh, phyllis, I'm so sorry. Nature is a fickle mistress. Especially if you don't treat her right.

I'm sorry to see this, I know how hard you worked. I'm glad you're not beating yourself up, and keeping it in perspective as far as having other things to do this year. Water is costly, you keep the trees alive and let the annuals go. Still, I'm sorry to see this happened, sorry for so many.

MM, it was fun putting it in. I actually love that hard physical work, so don't feel like a slacker. It's just me. ;0)

daisy, the tomatoes are rallying, so when I buy my bagged salad I will have luscious tomatoes to put on top.

Algis, thanks. It looks like Thursday. We're kind of doing the tropical thing right now- hot muggy days with scattered showers in the afternoon.

Kim, thanks. It may be the potatoes keeping me alive this winter if food gets too expensive.

Sheila, and Congress is trying to cut subsistence measures for the poor. I may end up sharing my potatoes.

Stim, thanks but I'm not devastated. This will save me my annual rant about never gardening again, only to be out plowing in the spring.

Bleue, it is perspective. That's why I cut way back on planting this year, so I wouldn't feel trapped by the need to weed. Well, lack of rain took care of that. I just wonder if we're going to have an early fall.

Sad. I am starting to wonder if we will have a corn crop this year in NJ.
Tomatoes are showing up in the stands but crazy prices. I bought some peaches, a few cherries and a tomato and it was ten bucks. A summer without corn and tomatoes is no summer at all in NJ. R

Very interesting seeing the difference in approach to gardening in another part of the country. Here in Tejas, we wouldn't even consider starting a garden if we didn't also plan to irrigate. It would fail quicker and more spectacularly than yours - every time!

At least you are going to get some tomatoes, and this is great, inside this sadness, I can understand you have. I just love gardens, I think that are a home, next to the home, and such an economy measure in our times. All the best to you, and your still beautiful garden.

Phyllis, what a shame. :(

I've had rain this afternoon, Phyllis!

A couple of very noisy storms came through after 4:00, but they really didn't do much for the dry soil - 1/2" if I'm lucky. Looks like another may come through if it doesn't rain itself out.

ah, u say:"So, that is the end of my garden for this year. Maybe next year will be better."
The garden of your mighty mind needs tending and watering too.
No matter the physical conditions,
the fate of the vegetation,

the water of life
metaphorically
is a never ending fountain,
and u musnt be discouraged when nature is recalcitrant.

ay so sorry about garden

Gerald, those are some crazy prices. I found some corn at Wal-Mart but I had to really look to find the ears that I liked. It's going to be an interesting winter.

d_r, my sister in Azle has a garden but she doesn't discuss water woes. She gets a good crop, though.

Stathi, thanks. Not really sad, though, just disappointed. I wanted more beets.

Mark, I hope you're getting more rain. We've been having afternoon showers all week so I'm going to have to mow this weekend.

James, yeah, working on the mind now. A lot going on in there.

I'm sorry for your loss...gardens are such beautiful giving things and when they fail or are destroyed it's so...sad to be around. This year is disastrous for us here in CT: our trees, plants and shrubby things have been beseiged by unseasonable all kinds of weather "events".

My advice: Fix what you can and what you can't have a professional do. Join Angies list or keep tabs on it, anyway....they have these deals where contractors offer half price coupons during their off season, so you can have all your faucets and plumbing tightened up. Leaks cost you big.

Grow what's expensive - like okra or those beets (and beet greens). I don't know if I'd dabble in melons because they are mostly water and require a lot of it to keep them happy and sweet. I realize you must like potatoes to grow them, but the cost in real estate and water isn't worth it if you can grow something that's worth the cost of the extra water and care, like herbs you can freeze or dry and use year round.

Rain barrels are fantastic. Grab that rain when you get it by setting up a few huge whiskey barrels using your roof gutters and some extensions. You just need to keep the filters clean and you'll end up with barrels of water you can use throughout the summer.

Consider a drip system or subsurface soaker hose you use during droughts. Don't wait for your garden to suffer. Your produce will taste like it suffered. Supplement the rain when it starts getting dry. (I find early mornings are best for that...maximizes the plant usage and doesn't encourage molds and fungus).

You've probably read all this elsewhere and I know I don't know much but I thought I'd share what little I know ...chalk this up to experience.

*sigh* but how is the celery top you planted in the pot?

Monkey, all wonderful suggestions for next year. I had a young man at Lowe's tell me what I need to do for the faucets, it's just coordinating my effort.

lorianne, it's still alive! I'm working on how to keep it vibrant, but it's still hanging in. And still tasty. Just not growing very fast.

I always thought this should be an EP for the drought open call!

zanelle, thanks. I did get an EP for the tree post but it didn't go on the cover and no one noticed but Joan H, who didn't comment here, and Midwest Muse.

Oh Phyllis -- bummer!
Foolish Monkey has great ideas as far as space goes -- but somehow home grown potatoes, like tomatoes, are so delicious.
Better luck next year.
I, so far, am experimenting with pumpkins this year, talk about taking up space, food and water! Ai yi yi. I have a vision of lots of free pumpkins sitting out front come October for the little kids in the neighborhood -- it might work, it might not...
We whole country needs to learn the Rain Dance and to practice it faithfully!

" I could have been out every night like my neighbors, watering away."

Ha!
That helps...expensive though. We bought our fixer house mostly for the luck of the irrigation water that maybe 2% of our town's homes have tapped into their backyards. The last house though, the water bill was through the roof! I didn't get it -- I'd let the boys play in sprinklers all month...erk.

"We whole country" ...?
*The* whole country...

JT, hi! I'm not devastated about this. It is what it is, and I am getting enough fresh veggies to keep me going. How many pumpkins do you have going? I only ever got one per vine.

Gardening is a metaphor for life, and it's uphill and downhill. You have my sympathy. The lettuce flowers do have a wildflower beauty. Better luck next year. In NJ most of my garden is doing well, though the extreme heat has taken its toll on the butterfly plant, and my cucumbers are yellow and won't turn green. Your lettuce may revive in September if cooler air comes in.

Phyllis -- The heat here didn't start until almost mid-July this year, so everything is quite late. I've never tried pumpkins before, but this year I planted three different kinds that are swarming across the yard, pissing off the dog, and boys, as they're encroaching on her ball-throwing area. I've only seen one baby so far...you seriously only had one pumpkin per vine!?!? Is that normal? I have no idea as this warm weather crop stuff is all new to me, I've formerly grown only cold weather crops as my other gardens all happened when we lived on the coast years ago.
All the heat you guys had so early on, pulled the coastal fog so far inland here that we literally were cold all June! It snowed Memorial Day weekend! I know it's the mountains, but geez. For a Georgia-raised girl, the freezing Springs here took some getting used to --
Now the weather's more normal. Oh goody. No humidity, fire danger zooming right for us, and 102 degrees today. Thank goodness we sprung for the better a/c unit this year...at least half the house is cool now : )
I'll keep you posted on the garden harvest -- the last carrot-growing I tried, the harvest was three small carrots that fit in an envelope that I sent to my sister in Boston to "share." : )
I do have carrots, two kinds of green beans, the pumpkins, tomatoes and three kinds of peppers in pots, plus black and red berry vines, 3 different-colored morning glory vines and one moonflower vine (not produce but I've planted these in every house we've lived in each year I love them so much), the new almond tree with two! almonds, an old apple tree, another new plum tree I thought the deer had killed off last year but it's alive! Too young for plums...plus the cherry tree and one apricot tree that was almost dead when we moved in three years ago -- just this year I was ready to give up on it and cut it down when suddenly there were 9 little apricots! It heard me getting the saw sharpened! The tree is officially saved. : )
(The vines and trees, except the new ones, were all here when we bought -- a criteria I had: fruit trees!)
I seem to be writing a post with this comment : )
Why I'm not writing posts, I'm not sure...

Pam, hello! My lettuce had the sad fate of going to seed so I pulled it all up. It was just something sucking up water at that point, anyway. My pepper plants, though, are finally producing peppers. Their fate has hung in the balance a few times but they are pulling through.

JT, feel free to post. I've missed talking to you. About pumpkins, I don't know if that's normal but that's all I've ever gotten and I've planted them 2-3 times. Good thing I'm not a pumpkin addict. Your yard sounds yummy, btw. I love fruit trees and fresh picked fruit. My little tree had three blossoms and one of the sand cherries bloomed but they got frosted. :( Re the carrots- do you hoe around the row? They need looser dirt to reach their full growth potential. I had fun one year- I planted them too close and they looked like the carrots from that episode of Gilligan's Island when the radioactive seeds washed up on the island. My friends and Lance (my dog) enjoyed them. I personally don't like carrots.

Well, I've learned much about pumpkin growing today --

http://www.informeddemocracy.com/pumpkin/growing.html

Hand-fertilizing the male flower pollen to the female flowers, of which the vines grow both, with a paintbrush!!
That helps more babies grow, I've read...I have been out checking pumpkin flowers for their sexual ID : )

Re: the carrots:
Rows?
Hoe?
I see where I had my trouble last garden : )
They're in rows this time and I grew them for Youngest, so he isn't subsisting on sugar entirely -- geez, that kid loves sugar like no one I've ever met. Fortunately, he loves carrots too -- and peas on the vine....where shall I dig now for the Fall planting??
Fun to chat with you today : )

JT, you peek under pumpkin petals! You're a Pumpkin Petal Peeper! I didn't know the flowers were sexed, so I learned something. :) I wonder if I can have a winter garden here?

You might be in a good spot for it -- I was told at the farmer's market last week that our area is great for Fall gardens. Plant now and harvest before frost, I guess...
I'm going to try it -- what could go wrong? : )

Petal peeping is about as exciting as it's been, lately...