A month ago I was convinced that it might never rain again. The lawn was getting so brown and crunchy that we were afraid to light the barbecue grill for fear of starting a grass fire. My astilbes and other shade plants turned brown and shriveled up even though I watered them regularly. All my tomatoes developed blossom end rot, and I had impatiens that were “melting” off their stems.
My how things have changed. Since July 25th we’ve received just under 4 inches of rain. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map (released yesterday) still has us in the “serious drought” category, but the rain came just in time to hopefully save many trees, shrubs and perennials. And thankfully the rain came in small batches every few days rather than in one downpour which would have just ended up as run-off.
It was probably too late for much of the corn crop. When you drive around this area you see many fields with brown, stunted corn. The soybean plants, however, appear to have made a miraculous recovery.
My lawn is no longer brown and crunchy. I thought much of it was dead rather than dormant, but the fact that we’ve had to mow 4 times in a little over 2 weeks (more than we mowed ALL SUMMER long) proves me wrong.
And it appears the Japanese beetle population may finally be waning for the season. When I went out to check the rain gauge yesterday morning, I discovered a rose with petals still intact. I haven’t seen one of those since May!
