2017 What's the weather like where you are?

[rainbowgardener]

Sigh! Low temps the next 3 nights: 40, 36, 42 !

I have tomatoes and peppers and basil planted all over the yard Until today we've been having highs in the 70's and even 80. This time of year always makes me crazy. I've been out covering things the best I could with straw and leaves, plastic bags, plant pots, buckets. Garden's looking a little odd right now, but hopefully everything will make it.

[sweetiepie]

I am sighing too! We got another 11 inches of snow yesterday morning in just 2 hours. Was not expecting that. It nicely recovered our huge snowbanks that still remain. Low of 27 last night so minimal melting. My son who only lives 3 hours south of me, had to rub it in that they haven't had snow since January and it was a balmy 50 some degrees there with forcasts into the 70's for Saturday. I think I live in a snow globe.

[rainbowgardener]

Wow ten days ago lows were down near freezing. But that was a short term cold snap after lots of warm weather and then it bounced right back. Highs now in the high 70's, low 80's, lows mostly right around 60. But here's what's most important:

US Drought Monitor for 4/11:



Less than one tenth of one percent of the country is still in extreme drought. See that one teeny red dot in No GA? That is pretty much sitting right on top of me. You might not realize it if you weren't paying attention. Everything is looking green. We have had some rains and are predicted for some more next week. But never very much. Never even normal for a month, much less catching up. We have had a string of sunny days around 80 degrees. I was out watering today. This time of year in this area, I should not have to water! But all the stuff I've been planting was wilting...

[applestar]

I guess you might need to put some serious thoughts into automating the irrigation scheme. I need to inspect and inventory my hoses, if they need replacing, I might work in some upgrades. Not having much confidence in my energy levels this season so may need to have the garden take care of itself more with less daily energy investment from me....

.
.
.

It went up to 88 °F today, and tonight's low is only supposed to go down to 60, though it might get a few degrees lower. I was SO tempted to move a bunch of plants and seedlings out altogether. But Tues-Wed low forecast is only 41°F -- potentially could go down as low as 37°F with typical difference in the actual.

[rainbowgardener]

Irrigation scheme? My irrigation scheme is me, a hose, and a bucket!

[applestar]

[digitS']

July, August and September of last year had an "official".64 of an inch of precipitation, where I live. Usually there is more but 1.5 inches is about what can be expected during those 3 months. Often the rainstorms are so minor that little water actually moves into the soil but simply evaporates, instead.

With large gardens on rocky soil, there is absolutely no way that I could grow most any vegetable without irrigation. My plan is to put about 1.5 inches of water on the garden each week. Any rain is mostly just ignored in that calculation since that's 3 month's precipitation in 1 week. It's a lot of water, about 1 gallon of water per square foot.

At one time, the water was not turned on for a lengthy time in one garden. It was my smaller garden but nearly 2,500 square feet. I considered showing up with the pickup bed filled with what water I could carry in 55 gallon barrels. That would be 45 barrels in 1 week at that garden! Move that much water by truck and by hand? It would be a monumental task!

Steve

[imafan26]

Right now it is 68 degees and somewhat overcast but the sun and some blue sky are peeking through. The forecast is for 40% chance of rain. The man with the umbrella is out, and he is never wrong. Its going to rain but it might be like yesterday when it poured and stopped three times.

[gumbo2176]

Our temperatures have been fluctuating between the mid 70's to mid 80's during the day and into the 60's at night. We had some hard rains pass through here today that got me to take a break from painting my house's exterior. No sense seeing $75 a gallon paint running down the driveway. I did get into my shop to repair some screen frames and rescreen them to hang once they are painted with the final coat.

Don't need to water the garden for several days now with all the rain we had. I'm picking bush green beans like crazy and it won't be long before I have more cucumbers than I can possibly eat.

[rainbowgardener]

We got some much needed rain over night!

AND yesterday we turned off the furnace and took all the storm windows down! I love it when we can open up the house again. It feels so fresh and airy. (We have the old fashioned kind of storms that you have to take all the way out and store somewhere and then put back in, in the fall. Bit of a pain, but once installed they actually work quite well. It does mean we can't just open the house up because we get some nice days when it will be getting cold again.)

[gumbo2176]

I too love opening my house to allow fresh air in to freshen things up a bit. My old house has functioning shutters on the windows and all my screens are on the inside of the house and move up and down on the window frames. To open the shutters you have to first raise the screen to the upper level of the window, unlock and open the window, unlock the shutters and open them, then pull the screen back down to the lower half of the double hung wooden windows.

I also have a nice transom window over the back door that opens inward and also one over the front door that also opens inward, along with 2 side windows on the front door assembly. With my 10 1/2 ft. ceilings, plaster walls and house situated where only the front and back get the brunt of the sun, I can use my windows for a few months a year. The only issue I have is the ballpark half a block away that has a dirt infield that the people who keep it up tend to run a grate over it a few times a week to level it off and that kicks up considerable dust when it is dry. If I leave my windows open for a couple days, the entire house needs to be dusted------and that is a PITA sometimes.

[rainbowgardener]

I will see your baseball field and raise you a horse ranch! Right behind our back fence is a riding ring for a horse ranch! Last year when we had so much drought, the horses in the riding ring stirred up clouds of dust!! All our windows have screens, but the dust particles are very fine and come right through and settle on everything.

[gumbo2176]

At least my baseball field doesn't smell of horse manure and urine, just beer and sweat. Wait, I think you have the better deal.

[applestar]

Wah! It started raining buckets!! Left my oldest tomato seedlings outside Lightning struck just around the corner -- 2 blocks away ...don't think I'm going out there....

[imafan26]

Its been raining for the past three days. It is 71 degrees and no wind. The rain is warm and it is muggy without a breeze.

The weeds are coming up all over the place.