What Are You Doing to Manage During the Drought?

[Bicoastal]

With the exception of two weeks of hurricane rain two months ago, the Mid-Atlantic had a drought Fall, drought Summer, and now appears to be in another drought Fall. My neighbor’s well ran dry over a wet winter because the water table was still so low from the fall.

For other reasons, I did not plant a veg garden and I’m grateful after the summer we had. I reduced my planters to three, all heat-loving, dry-tolerant annuals. I watered my newish drought tolerant/water wise/prairie/native/whatever jargon, garden bed once a week at dusk and replaced the soaker hose with drip irrigation for more efficient water use.

I rotate pastures once a week and my grass looks great. I am not feeding hay and won’t need to any time soon.

[Red_Dust]

doing a raindance at midnight, omitting the bonfire.
So far no luck, maybe I should keep my clothes on?

all kidding aside, I am reducing water usage as much as possible. No garden, grass has gone crispy. I have a few plants I water in semi regular intervals to keep them up, hoping for rain. In the long run I might have to consider switching my diet to Opuntia cactus, figs and olives. Those seem to be the most logical solution for the future.

[cutter99]

@Red_Dust

doing a raindance at midnight, omitting the bonfire.
So far no luck, maybe I should keep my clothes on?

all kidding aside, I am reducing water usage as much as possible. No garden, grass has gone crispy. I have a few plants I water in semi regular intervals to keep them up, hoping for rain. In the long run I might have to consider switching my diet to Opuntia cactus, figs and olives. Those seem to be the most logical solution for the future.

@Red_Dust, I call my neighbor and tell her to get naked and get out there and take one for the team! I don’t want to scare people myself!

[Red_Dust]

seems to have worked. I hope you are buying her a cuppa!
For now it is raining. Hardly drought breaking, but I take it.

[SusanO]

I finally got some rain last night. First rain since July. We still need more but I am so happy to see this. My two small pastures are all dried up but they would probably be dead from frost if we had normal temperatures. My big pasture is green. I don’t know how, as dry as it has been. It got mowed in July and then we got a little rain and I did not even try to mow again. That grass is unkilleable, partly because only one horse is out on those 15 acres and I left the grass taller and didn’t mow in the drought.

I am losing trees though. Two of my Japanese maples do not look so good. Another Forest Pansy redbud has bit the dust. I can’t water all the big stuff. The other smaller plants are getting watered almost every day. In fact a large part of my day is watering plants. This rain will really help.

Hay prices will be through the roof around here, especially since the warm season grasses were hit hard and most people feed bermuda and bahia hay here. I may have enough of the beautiful OG/ timothy I bought this summer. If not, I can get northern hay from several suppliers. It will be expensive but I may not need much. This year farmers were cutting OG hay and baling the end of April and I expect weather next year may be the same or close to it. I have a trailer and can pick up farther north. If you have been sitting on your backside and did not look out the window to see the weather - I think you are going to be surprised (and not in a good way) when you check out the feed store in January.

[sherian]

my province went thru a few dry years followed by a year of drought that resulted in a huge hay shortage one winter. My saving grace was I live in the red river flood zone so ground water was deep and my pasture has a lot of native grasses that while less nutritious (and less tasty) than domestic species they are tough as nails. I ended up refencing my pasture into two to stockpile one for the winter and went to all meal feeding. Horses got a little hay for breakfast then had to go out to the pasture to paw for lunch. Wasn’t a lot of calories out there but it kept them busy and fibre in their guts. Fed hay again at night in the barn. I did feed alfalfa cubes (far easier to ship cubes than bales) and beet pulp as well. Prolly made it thru on a good 40% less hay.

[clanter]

for those that feed pellets Standlee pellets will be on sale at select Standlee retailer locations November 16 - November 30, 2024.

[SharonA1]

I will go out and dance naked if it will help. I fear that the sight of my parts flopping around in the moonlight in the altogether might be as lethal as the drought. But I would do it if someone can prove cause and effect.

[PaddockWood]

I left my turnouts and all grass elsewhere longer this year to develop a stronger root system. Bought more hay than usual.

[Bicoastal]

I want to add I have a 55 gallon rain barrel. My county has a cost share program for the 250 gallon reservoirs. I’d love to do that next year off the barn roof.

I mostly watered my planters from recycled water, and that greatly reduced my guilt. When I had to use well water, I felt… vain? Just not so great about diverting water to annual planters.

Recycled water meaning the rain barrel, dehumidifier, dog bowls, water troughs when cleaning (major PITA, extra buckets put outside on the rare occasion it did rain. I tried a bucket in the shower to save the cold water before it reached temperature, but my partner hated the hassle.

I turn off the shower while soaping up, turn on the drip irrigation at dusk, like @PaddockWood I set my mowing height higher than ever before, and generally try to act like I live in the desert . Is all that effort worth it? Does it help the national or global situation? Probably not. But I want to do the best I can.

[Pico_Banana]

And we finally have rain!

[cutter99]

We got some rain starting Thursday afternoon, which turned into snow overnight. We only got about an 1-2”, but we will take any form of water at this point!