photo courtesy of kennymatic, vancouver
***UPDATE 10/5/09: Who knew that a post about the lack of rain would, in fact, be a rainmaker?? Last week we were in trouble; this afternoon, we are awaiting the latest bout of rain coming over from the Dakotas. Checking the Drought Index (see link below), you can see that we are beginning to get back to normal, but do keep an eye on recently planted trees and shrubs. And we’re going to leave this post up for a while yet!***
“Can you believe who won Best Drama Series on the Emmy Awards last night?”
“Can you believe the Packers lost and the Vikings won yesterday?”
All normal workplace water cooler talk.
But if you want to know what the buzz is around our water cooler, the topic is RAIN. Or rather, the lack thereof. It’s getting serious too… looking at the Palmer Drought Index map, you can see that our corner of Minnesota is in a moderate drought (http://drought.unl.edu/DM/DM_midwest.htm), which simply means we’re down on precipitation. We will need many, many nice soakers in order to catch up, and this isn’t the first time in recent memory we’ve gone through extended dry periods. Soooo, where does our conversation lead us?
- It leads us to think even harder about installing more native-type and xeriscape plants, plants that can get their own moisture through extensive and long root systems and through natural drought-tolerance.
- It makes us even more excited about the latest water conservation advancements in sprinkler system heads and controllers.
- It motivates us to get out the word that trees, shrubs, and perennials need to go into the winter with adequate moisture. Even trees that have been in the ground for a while would benefit from a weekly deep watering until rain starts falling again (“deep watering” consists of letting the hose trickle gently at the base for 15-20 minutes).
More horticulture than pop culture, but still buzzworthy we’d like to think!
