This has been extremely tough. Six weeks ago I was convinced that this year's garden was the best ever in my lifetime,... at least in terms of intense space efficiency.
Not so much anymore. In the last 4-5 weeks, we've gotten less than 10% of our normal rainfall. I haven't had to mow the lawn since May 9, but I devoutly carry 5-10 gallons of water per day to my remote 100 sq ft raised beds. That got me to wondering, so I did some calculations.
A gallon of water equates to roughly one-half inch of rainfall on four square feet of ground,.. to achieve normal rainfall results, I'd have to lug 50 gallons per week, so I guess I've been roughly on target.
Mulching is a necessity in weather like this. And for some plants, shade, as well. I'll still get lots of tomatoes and peppers and squash, etc, albeit somewhat smaller. Really scary seeing what this is meaning to the corn belt farmers,.... prices for a lot of stuff will be going up. $50 billion is the estimated cost of the drought thus far.
Not so much anymore. In the last 4-5 weeks, we've gotten less than 10% of our normal rainfall. I haven't had to mow the lawn since May 9, but I devoutly carry 5-10 gallons of water per day to my remote 100 sq ft raised beds. That got me to wondering, so I did some calculations.
A gallon of water equates to roughly one-half inch of rainfall on four square feet of ground,.. to achieve normal rainfall results, I'd have to lug 50 gallons per week, so I guess I've been roughly on target.
Mulching is a necessity in weather like this. And for some plants, shade, as well. I'll still get lots of tomatoes and peppers and squash, etc, albeit somewhat smaller. Really scary seeing what this is meaning to the corn belt farmers,.... prices for a lot of stuff will be going up. $50 billion is the estimated cost of the drought thus far.
