Rain, how I have missed you!!

[curly_kate]

We are FINALLY getting some rain here! It's been dry since Aug 7, when we got a little bit in a downpour (I know, I should be thankful for that, compared to where some people are with drought). The timing could be a little better because there's a big party in Cincinnati with a huge fireworks show tonight, but I'm definitely not complaining! It's been in 98-100* the past few days, but on the other side of this is highs in the 70s, which makes me thing fall is HERE!

Anyone else excited for the fall? What do you have planned in the garden? I bought winter wheat and peas to plant in the coming week for cover. I'm also going to replant the lettuce & spinach that got BAKED last week. And I need to move some of the runners in the strawberry beds to new beds. They all need some more leg room over there.

 

[digitS']

We have things a little in reverse here, Kate. It was very cool early on - records. Then the weather warmed up in August. I think folks were a little scared to say anything about it, afraid that we'd go back to the record coolness.

Something many of us probably missed was that there wasn't a 1/10th of an inch of rain here between July 13th and the last day of August. Now that we've had our 1/4 inch - it is back to HOT! We might have our hottest day of the year this week.

I talked to a gardener who lives about 25 miles from my home about how things have been at his place since the rainstorm. He has had frost twice :/!

When I saw that "outlying areas" had a prediction of frost, I looked at the prediction for the temperature on the highest nearby mountain. At over 5,800 feet, it was supposed to be warmer. After our conversation, I checked a Snotel site at 6,100 feet and temperature there were yet to drop out of the 40's! That is a place that had a measurable snow depth up until July 30th!

I guess it doesn't pay to live a little bit up in a fairly flat area where everywhere else is a little bit down. Even mountain slopes would have protected him from frost apparently. He took it rather well saying that, "Oh well, last year it was a herd of deer that came thru."

Steve

 

[Southern Gardener]

You bet I'm excited about fall!!! We finally got a little rain yesterday thanks to the system in the gulf. We have a 50% chance today. Our daytime temps dropped considerably and we are where we're supposed to be this time of year. Its a beautiful overcast morning at 75 degrees!!!

Right now I'm working on my herb garden - it was just not big enough! Going to plant carrots, turnips and a few more things this week.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I'd love some rain, but it never rains here in the summer or fall. We begin our rainy season in November or December.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I'm not too far from you curly-kate and the rain has been wonderful. We had several light showers during the night last night and several good showere today. This is great and I'll take all I can get, but I wish we would have had some rain in July and August. My apple orchard is showing some stress signals and many of my veggies have burned up and they are gone.

 

[hoodat]

I'd love some rain, but it never rains here in the summer or fall. We begin our rainy season in November or December.

We had a nice surprise here in San Diego. It has been raining lightly of and on all day yesterday and all night. Not all that much total but enough to pep up the garden. As you said rain here at this time of year is rare. At least we don't have to worry about brush fires for a few days.

 

[Dave2000]

I'm just a little east of you, I too welcome the rain and cooler weather as I had some potted peppers that would look almost dead if they weren't watered at least twice a day. One of these days I'll get ambitious and build a proper drip irrigation system.

Not so excited about fall though, I want some 80F summer days to enjoy before the leaves need raked and the nights get cool enough for a long sleeve shirt. At least with the dip in temperatures my cilantro might grow longer than a couple weeks outside before it bolts.