Drought Ended

Our drought this summer was a very local one.  The rain in July and August came in showers, so that other towns had flooding, while we were barely wet.  Nevertheless, it was a real drought, with only a few rainfalls since mid-August, and none of these left more than a quarter inch.

Week after week I would glare at anyone who commented on the "nice weather," and I worried especially about our white ash, which began dropping green leaves even as others in he crown turned brown and die.  Several times I poured some seventy gallons of water over the rooting zone, but I couldn't see if it helped.

 Asters (above) and gray dogwood in my little woods out back a few weeks ago.

In our sixteen years in this house, I'd never seen these dogwoods wilt.

 

 Our majestic seventy-foot ash began losing leaves--many green and healthy-looking--

 over a month ago.  I feared this signaled the arrival of the approaching Emerald Ash Borer,

but when I noticed other ashes in the neighborhood the same way, decided it was drought.

Finally, the last two days we had over an inch of rain.  This fell at a modest rate so it had time to soak in, rather than run off and flood.  I don't want to seem ungrateful, but there's so little growing season left.  I wish it had come earlier in the season to help plants that were still actively growing.  I am feeling better about our ash, though.