Bittersweet rain
I turned my face to the rain yesterday morning like a turtle in an old, dried-up mudhole. After fearing that rain would never fall again in parched central Texas, we awoke early Monday morning to the plink, plink of raindrops on the patio. The sound confused my husband, who joked later that he’d forgotten what rain sounded like and worried that a pipe had somehow sprung a leak.
Since we moved into our new house a little over 4 months ago, it’s really rained maybe two days. I mean something more than a light drizzle. Actually, I’m not even sure about those two days. Maybe it’s only one. Yesterday the rain lasted just a few hours, and it was pretty light all that time. I ended up with eight-tenths of an inch, for which I’m grateful. But it wasn’t enough to dent our terrible drought, which now stretches into its 17th month, as both MSS and Libby have recently reminded us. Last year central Austin received only 16.07 inches of rain, less than half what we normally expect.
So while yesterday’s rain brought a smile to my face, its duration left me and my garden thirsty for more. True, weather is never perfect for gardeners, and it’s common practice to howl for more rain (or less). But I worry that this drought is one sign of a general drying up of Austin. If you really want something to fret about, read this 2007 article from the Dallas Morning News predicting Dust Bowl-like conditions for central Texas in the next 15—whoops, 13—years.
It’s enough to make this turtle want to hide in its shell.
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
What a wonderful post, and such incredible pictures of turtles (I happen to love turtles). You know, we grumble and complain about your gardening conditions wherever we are, and I write admiringly about your gardens and warm weather, but I’d be very unhappy if I had to live in real dry conditions. I need the rain. Just not QUITE so much of it and fog and snow etc as we get. I hope the dust-bowl predictions aren’t true.
You are in quite a situation, my gardening heart goes out to you. Our drought has been declared officially over. We have been having good rains since fall and the local reservoirs are full. However, I am not celebrating yet, I have heard we are in a new long term weather pattern with consequences yet to be determined.
Oh Pam, I am so sorry to hear it is continuing…I looked at the US Drought map and Texas is all most all oranges and reds…which indicate serious drought. It’s good you are a xeriscape gardener. Just this morning I commented to a friend that we need rain, but not like you need it! Btw, wonderful turtle photos. gail
The turtle pictures are wonderful! The one good thing about having twice as much snow as normal is that most of it will replenish groundwater reserves as it melts in spring, going down through the garden as it does it — twice blessed. Your conditions sound quite grim and make me less jealous of you gardening in “winter.”
It is a scary time in TX. I do hope the drought breaks for you. I love the turtle pictures too. They are so cute.
Pam — I’m so sorry to hear of your prolonged drought. We had a tough time in 2007, but 2008 was rainy. My friend in Berkeley has been saying that their drought is really bad, too. Hope you get a lot of spring rain. Austin is such a pretty place.
Cameron
It was a nice rain here, too. We got about 3/4 of an inch. Filled my thirsty rain barrels…
This makes me appreciate our over-saturated land right now. We have melting snow and it rained last night. I wish we could share our excess with you.
When we had our drought like conditions a few summers ago, it made me more aware than ever about how precious our water supply is. Drought is scary. I hope that this light rain is a sign of good things to come for central Texas.
I do hope those dire predictions don’t come true. Love the turtle shots. I do hope you get your much-needed rain!
I hope your drought situation resolves itself this season Pam. No amount of handwatering or irrigation gets the same results as nature does in the garden.
Blessed rain! Too bad the city is fixing the sewer line on our street and had piled up a ton of gravel. Rainwater runoff sluiced down the street, hit the gravel piled up at the curb and proceeded to wash away a foot along the whole front edge of the new landscape/garden, carrying off plants and exposing irrigation pipe. Hope the guys out front don’t step on the pipe!
I’m about ready to give up on property ownership, move into a motel and be content with cut flowers for the duration — shades of Eloise.
J
Oh no! There’s always something, right? Don’t give up. 🙂 Those new plants will have nice, soil-knitting roots soon. —Pam
It really is concerning. And so strange after all the rain you all had in the summer of 2007. Thankfully many people in Austin are pretty smart about planting the right things for water conservation. If not, they’ll have no choice soon! Ugh. I hope the rains continue for you (and I hope we get some of that too; so far only about a 1/4 of an inch).
Pam, I’m happy and sad at the same time for you Austinites: happy because you got at least a little rain and sad that it wasn’t more. We got even less here on my corner of Katy and it’s looking grim. I think I could spend 2-3 days doing nothing but watering. I hope things change for all of us soon!
I love the turtle pictures. They are beautiful.
We were in a drought a year and a half ago, but we still got much more rain than your area has.
I hate to hear that. I’m so hoping that we won’t have another year like 2008. We got a lot of rain in December but it has been a little scarce this month.
My goodness! We are about 7 inches below for this year already in Florida. Nothing compared to your situation though.
Cute turtles. It’s either too much rain or not enough like you said.
Thanks for the link to the DMN article on projected drought for Texas, Pam. Good to know, and scary. Here’s hoping for more rain soon.
Thanks for the shout out.
I’m wondering why we aren’t under more serious mandatory water rationing, yet. The lake levels drop daily. Is Austin going to wait until we face catastrophic consequences as Atlanta did last year? We got more than half an inch yesterday…but when you dig down a spade depth, you can see it soaked in only 2 or 3 inches and underneath it’s as dry as dust.
Thanks for the sympathy, everyone. I’m hoping for more rain tonight.
Oh, I’m sorry for the drought you’re experiencing, Pam! Remember that parts of California had a terrible drought a while back, then things changed and many places have had more moisture – even flooding – in recent years. Let’s hope the dust-bowl predictions won’t come true for you. Have you been reading Catmint’s posts about the horrible drought in Victoria, Australia? And to hear about the wildfires there recently. The weather is certainly something to talk about lately. – VW
Hi Pam. I have been lurking in the dark corners of the www and reading your blog for the last few months. Very enjoyable. You and your fellow bloggers even inspired me to try my hand at blogging. I am generally a man of few words, so my blog is more of a photo journal.
Our impending water shortage has been a concern of mine for years. I grew up in Texas and remember water rationing in the small community where I grew up in the 70s. With our exponential population growth, it only makes sense that more people means we will have less water to go around, not to mention the impact of climate changes.
Unfortunately, not enough people in the Dallas area recognize that water is a limited resource. Local municipalities do not promote water conservation as much as they could, especially when water sales bring in needed revenue. The people of the weird city of Austin are far more water-conscious than we are in the Dallas area. One day, we will catch up with you. We have to.
I hear thunder out to the west. Hope we all get a good soaking tonight.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Bluestem. I’m glad you’ve de-lurked, and I just popped over to your blog and really enjoyed the transformation pictures of your front and back lawns to native landscaping. Your anecdote about your garden blooming through drought and water rationing while your neighbors complained about their lawns drying up makes a compelling argument for xeriscaping. —Pam
Pam, that article was depressing. I can’t imagine the hill country without so much greenery. Maybe they will finally start removing those nasty juniper (aka cedar) trees that suck so much water from everything else. Right now, the rain is starting from this storm they are predicting tonight with high winds. Like you, I’m grateful for every .10″ we get.
Pam, the supposed storm they’ve been talking about all evening didn’t appear at my house, how about yours? They predicted heavy winds and hail, and I got a brief 2 minute rain, no wind or anything else. Did you get anything up north?
We got wind and pea-sized hail for about five minutes, the temperature plummeted, and it rained hard for about five minutes. But now I just hear sprinkling. I hope that’s not all it’ll amount to. —Pam
They say northern California will be a desert like southern California in another couple decades. I like how they frame it in decades–noone will remember in 20 years who said what if they turn out to be wrong.
Unless it’s written by a garden blogger, there isn’t anything out there to read, or listen to, anymore that isn’t totally depressing. I’m sick and tired of it, frankly.
Beautiful turtles, btw.
I can only hope you get rain. I’ll do my best to send some your way but I am a terrible dancer. Hopefully normal rainfall will return to your area.
I’m commented for nearly a decade how the winters here have turned mild. We’ve seen our zone 3 turn to a zone 5 but this year we’re back to our normal sub-zero temps. I’m going to see a lot of winter kill this spring since people ‘expanded’ their choices of planting.
Have fun at spring fling. I’ll miss it again since it’s held right when I’m overwhelmed with work.
The prospect of a prolonged drought is terrible. I’ve been watching programs on the 1930s Dustbowl on the Weather Channel and the History Channel. I hope it never gets that bad anywhere ever again. Hopefully, this is just a blip in the overall scheme of things.
You know, I don’t think I’ve even glimpsed a turtle in years. What a beauty he is with his coloring!
Brenda
These red-eared sliders were basking in a pond at the Wildflower Center last weekend. —Pam
That drought forecast is terrifying!
Pam, I read this and thought of all the dire predictions Oklahoma received during its high temp, drought years of recent memory. Then, came the cold rainy summers. I know everyone worries about global warming or climate change as everyone is calling it now, but I’ve decided to let it go. If the meteorologists can’t predict even a week ahead, I don’t think they know what will happen. Our weather is strange too, but I’m just trying not to worry. I hope this helps and doesn’t just irritate you.~~Dee
Hi, Pam, I was just writing about how grateful I am for the long hard rain last night and the expected rain over the next few days. As you are aware N.CA is behind. I think we are at 42% of normal. For sure we will put a dent in that this next week, thank goodness. Yes, sad. Pray for rain. Visualize it. Pull it in. Every whispered prayer counts. Kathryn xoxo