Unfortunately I think that this is going to be the norm not a fluke. We were listening to NPR the other day and there was a scientist talking about the heat waves and the weather changes and " global warming ". He was particularly addressing the use of power for cooling that was causing problems in the NE. He stated that he thinks folks will have to get used to the hotter than normal temps as the years go by and that these will be the norm. There won't be any use of a/c to the extent that people will be as comfortable as they would like. The ability to provide enough power for that kind of cooling won't be supplied by anything we currently have available. It was a very grim report.

I am sorry that you weren't able to save more of your food. I am sure you were depending on it. I think that we are all in for a lot of shocking weather related issues in the coming years. c

I agree, and WATER will be the most valuable natural resource. :(

I agree. Water is something we take so for granted, until we don't have it that is.

Annie, so sorry that your crops, both flowers and food stuff, are doing so poorly.
Sending good wishes and rain your way.

Annie what a shocker, I'm so sorry about your situation, after putting in all that time, effort and money, to lose most of you planted is heartbreaking.
I agree WATER is going to be EVERYONES most valuable resource, if you don't have water you can't grow food or live for that matter. Even up here some of the areas around me are short of water, I was reading in the paper today about the putting in of cisterns to collect rain water for potable use, I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime, It's down right scary.

Annette

I haven't given up on my gardens, yet! Just 'splainin' thin's about how this heat and drought has affected life. Imagine how awful it must be for the wildlife and for those animals that people aren't caring for properly.

You know, I could go back to using an outhouse and catching rain water in a cistern (if it rains), & etc. I even have a wood cookstove still hooked up in my kitchen. It'll heat the entire house, cook, bake, and roast the food, and boil the water too. I know how to build an underground root cellar for storing food. I can hunt and I know how to dress out a kill, cure the meat, salt pork, smoke hams and bacon and salt-cure fish. I can probably build a windmill to pump the water out of my well and maybe generate some power. Some of the "Country Folks" will somehow make out okay, but most of the city folks will be hardest hit. But, I know what that will mean for us in the country. The haves and the have-nots. Man never will learn to get along and care for what the good Lord has given them to take care of.

Yep!
No water - no food.
No bees - no food.
No clean water - very bad situation, indeed!
No ocean life - no food - dead seas.
No native grass lands - no wildlife and no food and no trees.

Dust and sand and death. Floods and all manner of diseases.
No ice on the polar caps and mountains - we're screwed!

But, after the world as we've made it ends, the Earth will renew itself - rejuvenate itself just fine without us. I just wonder if ANY of us will survive and if mankind will learn from it. Probably not. It is in our nature to self-destruct.

Of course, an asteroid could take us all out before it gets to that point, or one of those Mega-Volcanoes. or earthquakes. Who knows?

* I'm getting off my soap box now to go put up the chickens, move the water, and start supper.

~Annie

Annie, you are very wise... love you!

Oh,Annie I'm so sorry to hear about your poor baked soil!
I think the weather is getting fiercer, but I also think :
1. Pioneers went through horrific winters, prarie fires, locust invasions, etc. and they could do it. It's bad, but not unbearable.
2. Things like this make me appreciate more the beauty of what is growing and things like rain and shade trees. (I love how in this area the nyc mayor has a "plant a million trees campaign and then they allow overbuilding legislation and clear huge trees to put up 6 apartments - plant baby trees in the area of town where people have grass and take out the only remaining green in the area for people who can't afford yards *eye roll*) One time the parks department didn't cut the grass for weeks and it was so sweet to see all these kids kneeling in shoulder-high grass, picking clover so happily.

Anyway, I'll stop chirping :) Cool temps WILL come again, even if it takes a while.

Maybe it is just today, but is one of the most depressing threads.
I guess I need to stick my head back in the sand.

Annie, it sounds like the weather may have you bent but far from broken. You are a survivor for sure and I admire your spirit and gumption. I think I would be hiding out in the coolest spot I could find all day and sleeping there all night. I sure wish you all could get a break down there.

ThinMan

I'm working on preparing myself for the inevitable. My DH has turned the air conditioner lower. The idea of sweating unless at the gym is so beyond him: working in an office and wearing a suit here in Atlanta where everything is often still so old school.
I understand your soil issues Annie. We have them here with the red clay. THis spring the soil was glorious, but every year this time it dries to a crisp. I'm just waiting for someone new today to come and speak to me about alternative water useage in the landscape. I think he's "The Man" on this here...The most difficult thing about water here (and it is now happening up north my Mom said) is that it is all or nothing. 3-4" in an hour (which all just scours and runs off of the surface and doesn't sink in even though it is PELTING down hard) or dry as a bone and hotter 'n hades. Plantmaven it is depressing. We did it to ourselves. I think about this all the time, constantly.

Annie- We've been so lucky this summer, we've had cooler than normal temperatures and we had lots of rain this spring. That being said, we're on the other side of the coin...tons of snow, longer winters, rainy/cooler springs and almost frost in June and July. No global warming here, but definitely a change in the normal weather.

One thing is for sure, I think we're all going to have to figure out how to be more self sufficient in our particular climate. We've been talking about this on the Smaller Homes forum...and many people have said that homes need to be built for their region, again. In hot climates, we need to take advantage of fans, cross breezes, high ceilings and raised foundations. In cold climates, lower homes, out of the wind, fireplaces/wood stoves, smaller windows or at least heavy drapes and vestibules...to keep the cold air out.

As for gardening, I'm finding that there are many things I just can't grow, between the cold, the deer and the cool summer nights and short growing season. This doesn't mean there aren't plenty of things that do great...but without a greenhouse...peppers, eggplants, most tomatoes, okra, most melons, many pumpkins, just won't ripen in time or set fruit.

I guess our biggest challenge is to figure out what we can't rely on any more...and find a way to replace it or live without it. My guess is that water cisterns are going to make a huge comeback in much of the country and many of us are going to grow less variety and specialize more in what does well in our area.

Sorry if this thread sounds depressing, but I think it's empowering to face a challenge and do all you can to prepare and meet it head on. It may take some time and money to fully adapt to these new weather conditions, but we will adapt...and possibly be the better for it :)

Lavender Lass, well said.

Annette

It is bad news, isn't it? Weather extremes everywhere. It was still 99 degrees at 7:30 pm tonight, but I had to water the garden...and, I started feeling guilty about watering FLOWERS! Although my flower garden has brought great pleasure to me, it is for the pollinators and birds now that I make efforts to keep it alive. I'm even feeling sorry for the deer and rabbits.

We've had our a/c on 77 inside and sitting under a ceiling fan and it isn't that bad when you walk in from 102 outside (heat index 110). It may hit 105 here tomorrow.

Now... this is surprising to me.... bear with me.... long story.

Back in the spring, we converted several garden beds that had been mulched with compost and hardwood into one continuous gravel garden with our guest parking (story link below).

Anyway --- we've had a summer of 90+ 100+ temps, very little rain for weeks at a time, then nothing that soaks in.

In the gravel garden, there are buddleia, rosemary, hollies (2 kinds), crepe myrtles, Japanese iris, bee balm, yucca, osmanthus goshiki and chamaecyparis. This entire summer -- I HAVE NEVER WATERED ANYTHING IN THE GRAVEL GARDEN!

Out of curiosity, I pushed some gravel aside and the soil was moist and I dug down probably 10 inches. Those plants that are mulched with gravel area doing better than anything else growing here. It is a southwest exposure, but the sun doesn't really hit it hard until 11:00 am.

What surprised me most was the bee balm and Japanese irises. The foliage looks better on those than comparable plants other parts of my garden. I really thought those plants would die from the reflective sun, but I didn't want to move them when we put down the gravel. Now, I'm glad that I left them alone.

The moisture isn't evaporating from the soil beneath the gravel. Now, that makes me wonder what will happen in the winter when we should get a lot of rain. The soil drains well under there (in the past), so I hope all will be okay next spring.

I'm moving cautiously about changing other areas, but I have plants that I think can take it.

I used to think that gravel was just for agave, yucca and such. I never had thought about using it for other plants. I grow agastache, salvia, russian sage, coreopsis and other drought-tolerant plants that just might be better off mulched with gravel.

Unlike hardwood mulch, gravel is a pretty serious move... not easily undone! We're going to experiment a bit more with this technique to see the results.

Has anyone else done this? I've seen so many European gardens done this way, but their latitudes are much cooler than here. I've seen southwest gardens done this way for Mediterranean plants. I've seen scree gardens here, but I've never seen what we've done used around North Carolina.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: from driveway to gravel garden.

Cameron, I have a lot of plants mulched with gravel and our weather is opposite to yours. I have cyclamen, columbine, welsh poppies, ladies mantle, several types of grasses, euphorbia, grape hyacinth all mulched with gravel in fact they are planted right in the edges of a gravel path.
Down in my little courtyard which used to be the top end of our gravel driveway (shady most of the day) there's epimediums, foxgloves, ferns, brunnera, rhododendrons, pulmonaria, hostas, solomon's seal, daylilies, columbines, wire vine, baby tears, and others that aren't coming to mind at the moment. We had a very wet, snowy, cold winter and everything came through just fine so maybe there's something to this mulching with gravel.

Annette

Cameron,
that is just beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
I also like that garden look - the graveled paths with evergreens and short hedges. Tres Monet!

The gravel holding moisture makes very good sense. I am sure that is one reason why the gardeners of old used gravel in their gardens.

Many of the woody-type Herbs, like sage, lavender, rosemary, and etc., love pea gravel as mulch. They like moisture, but good drainage.

Growing up in Southern California, gravel and accent rocks were used a lot in the family gardens. Besides the woody herbs, Aloes, Agave and Succulents of all types grew splendidly in it. It is very dry there in the summer. After May, it seldom rains until late August. The native soil there has a lot of volcanic ash and pulverized granite in it, so it dries to a powder in the hot summer months. I remember watching it 'poof" up as I walked barefooted in it. My little feet would be covered in a grayish or yellowish dust all summer. (LOL)

I graveled the spaces between my pavers by the patio and everything grows best in that gravel. All the flowers drop their seeds and they grow readily and best in the gravel paths. I have to dig them up and move them off into the flowerbeds. It does seem to hold the moisture really well.

I bought some of that cloth to lay down in my path from the patio up to the arch by the greenhouse. I thought I would set the pavers on top of that and then fill in between with chipped wood mulch for now. I eventually plan to cover that with pea gravel. I like the way it looks. It prevents erosion too. I am setting bricks along either side of the path. It looks so good already. Can't wait to get it all finished.

The bricks are from the property of an old house that we are in the process of tearing down. (awful work in this heat). There are literally tons of bricks set in paths on the property, so I am digging them up and hauling them here to use for paving and edging my flowerbeds.

I want to eventually gravel all the paths between paver-stepping stones. I am slowly adding boxwood and other evergreen edging plants. I like the neat and tidy look and it's so nice to look out and see green in the winter.

One new plant I bought last year that I really like is the Bluebeard, Blue Mist Spirea (Caryopteris × clandonensis (Blue beard, Blue-spirea, Blue-mist shrub) . It freezes to the ground in winter (here) but comes back up in spring and grows really well and fast. The plant has silvery foliage and I just adore the beautiful fluffy blue flowers it produces in late summer. Looks more like an herbaceous flower rather than a shrub. It reseeds itself, and that is good as it needs to be replaced about three to five years. That is a real plus for me. It gives me more plants! They are easy to pull if you don't want them. So far, I haven't gotten to the point. ;)

Bluebeard is a VERY drought tolerant plant. They are deer-proof and the flowers attract bees and butterflies. Me like!

Cameron, I LOVE your seat and container plants on the side there. That is so charming! Are those small trees Crepe Myrtles?

I have one Blue Spire Juniper and it has done really well in our drought. Of course I do water it, but only once a week. It has grown a good 2 ft since planting last September. I planted some Native Carolina Sedge grass by it and it is doing really well too. They mutually benefit one another. The chickens don't eat the Sedge grass and the voles seem to leave it alone too. (fingers & toes crossed so far)

I am going to transplant some of the native Prairie grasses growing up in our meadow, down into my garden. Their roots grow way down and can take any kind of weather Oklahoma gets plagued with. The Little Blue Stem and Love Grass in particular are on my list of favorite grasses, but there are others too. They will go out in the North Garden where I am planting junipers and other drought tolerant evergreens that don't require much if any watering. I planted a silvery blue juniper (forget the name just now) that is a bit shorter and has a more slender spire than the Blue Spire, but has the same columnar growth. The Loblolly and Virginia pines are both doing well, and the newly planted Taylor Juniper. Gravel and pavers out there would be awesome! It's a matter of cost for me. I can only do a little at a time.

Anyway, love what you have done, as I love all your beautiful garden areas and home. Thanks for all the suggestions. I have most of those same plants...hmmmm. It has caused me to rethink on it. Noted!

~Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Mist Spirea

I am sold. You can send me seeds of the blue mist spirea. ;)

K

Annie, after hearing your struggle I will stop complaining. Here in WNY we rarely have a true drought or go above 98 degrees. We had record rainfall In May and then none to speak of for 7 weeks. Not normal. Living in Niagara Falls there is water water everywhere. I can walk to the Niagara Rivers edge from my house. Lake Erie to my West and Lake Ontario to my east. But, if it doesn't rain the watering is up to me. The Great lakes are down from the normal so much so that ships have to carry light cargo loads not to sink too low in the water and hit rock or be impassable in harbors. It has been this way for at least 5+ years. They say we would have to have record breaking snow in winter and rain in summer for 3+ years in a row to bring the water level back to a healthy level. It terrifies me when I here of some communities along the lakes thinking if selling the lakes water to dryer areas of the country. The greatest source of fresh water and some would decimate it for money. I think of the Lakes when I water the garden and am very grateful. I never water the lawn and do my best to garden with water retention in mind. Got a rain barrel ( not that it has been filled much this season). Even those of us that have such resources must not take them for granted, or think of them as infinite.

Kathy - will do!

wren-garden - your comments just breaks my heart. The water theft is going on all over the country and it needs to be stopped! One of the BIGGEST wastes of good water is all the fountains and private pools that have been built and are still being built. Huge fountains in front of hotels and at casinos are a big waste of fresh water. Homes with swimming pools that no one uses. Lots of recreational theme parks and water parks waste millions of gallons of good water every day. Even the watering of lawns with sprinkler systems - seeing wasted water run across sidewalks and down into the streets and manholes is one of my pet peeves! Car washes use much more water than washing your car at home with a trigger-sprayer. Another stupid law that was passed is not allowing the use of "gray water" for irrigation purposes.

Dumping chemicals, raw sewage, garbage and pollutants into streams, rivers and the oceans. I have actually followed oilfield and refinery trucks and witnessed them dumping toxic chemicals and waste along back roads where no one would see. Found nuclear waste burial sites that were only laid in shallow trenches and were exposed. A Geiger counter on loan from an undisclosed source revealed the high levels of radiation within a (-) mile radius of the site. One creek near a town actually glowed in the dark at night from petroleum released phosphates. The creek ironically is called Skull Creek. We also had one city's water tested by an independent source which revealed that the city water source was not fit for bathing, let alone for drinking. (can't say any more about these things).

But, yes, the greed and irresponsible nature of mankind is to blame for so much, and it appears it isn't going to stop, even to the death and extinction of life as we know it on this little blue and green orb we call Earth.

And it's not enough to rape and plunder our own planet - greedy men want to go to other planets and the moon and rape them for whatever they can get. That is the actual reason for the privatization of the space program that is replacing the scientific NASA program. This is a fact. That is the reason NASA fought it for so long (since the 60s!) If private companies will clutter our atmosphere with more space junk and debris. Mining and pollution on the moon or possibly even blasting could do harm to its orbit, harm that would literally mess up everything on the earth, including how our bodies work. And what unknown form of life might an indifferent, non-scientific group exploring space, asteroids and other planets bring back to the earth that could destroy us?

We are the ONLY species on this planet that tries to annihilate itself and all other forms of life for selfish and greedy purposes.
Ohhhhhh....I could go on and on...and on!

Wonderful, thanks!

Yes, those are crape myrtles and they are just finished blooming here.

Interesting to hear about other plants in gravel and what's going on with weather, water, drought or not.

I'll come back tomorrow and read everyone's posts carefully. I've got a serious headache and eyes just can't focus.

Later...

Cameron