Bananas.org - View Single Post

pmurphy · 07-09-2015, 05:25 PM

I've been reading some of the posts about "how well things are growing" and "how much rain has been falling" elsewhere and it makes me feel both sad and jealous at the same time. Since the beginning of May we've had only 17mm of rain - that's less than 3/4's of an inch. Normally May is a wet month and although we may grumble about it, it allows our gardens to flourish. Over the last 2 months we've had nothing but hot dry temperatures in the high 20's (mid 80F) and us West Coasters - or "Wet Coasters" - are just not used to these conditions; remember, Vancouver is located in a temperate rainforest (cool and wet).
Vancouver in currently in "stage 2" for water restrictions; meaning grass may only be watered once a week at certain times, so if you see any green grass here they've been watering then they're not supposed to......
These restrictions do not currently affect gardens as they can be watered by hand with a hose but I understand that parts of Vancouver Island went to stage 4 today - meaning very strict watering regulations such as no fountains, waterparks (even some car washes have voluntarily closed), no non-drip irrigation watering, no washing of cars; no commercial irrigation; essentially all forms of watering using treated drinking water are prohibited

Over the last 5 days (we haven't seen the sun since last Saturday) our skies have been brown from all the forest fires. And BC is burning; within the province there are currently 73 fires "of note active and/or larger than 10 hectares" in size. Total area burning for just these fires is over 238,350 hectares (almost 589,000 acres)

During all this I've been trying to keep my gardens going, and I must admit that some of my plants are loving this weather but a lot are starting to show stress - not many plants like 12 hours of constant sun - we haven't even had clouds to provide shade......
And even though I water every 2-3 days - and it takes me about 2.5 hours to water all my gardens - some of the big plants are starting to droop from the heat and dry conditions (pots have to be watered at least once a day)

And I have to ask, where is our rain??

07-09-2015, 05:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
pmurphy always pushing the limits Location: Vancouver, BC Canada Find me on the map! Zone: 8B Name: Pam Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 344 BananaBucks : 55,776 Feedback: 1 / 100% Said "Thanks" 168 Times Was Thanked 512 Times in 214 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 1,312 Times	wishing for the rains..... I've been reading some of the posts about "how well things are growing" and "how much rain has been falling" elsewhere and it makes me feel both sad and jealous at the same time. Since the beginning of May we've had only 17mm of rain - that's less than 3/4's of an inch. Normally May is a wet month and although we may grumble about it, it allows our gardens to flourish. Over the last 2 months we've had nothing but hot dry temperatures in the high 20's (mid 80F) and us West Coasters - or "Wet Coasters" - are just not used to these conditions; remember, Vancouver is located in a temperate rainforest (cool and wet). Vancouver in currently in "stage 2" for water restrictions; meaning grass may only be watered once a week at certain times, so if you see any green grass here they've been watering then they're not supposed to...... These restrictions do not currently affect gardens as they can be watered by hand with a hose but I understand that parts of Vancouver Island went to stage 4 today - meaning very strict watering regulations such as no fountains, waterparks (even some car washes have voluntarily closed), no non-drip irrigation watering, no washing of cars; no commercial irrigation; essentially all forms of watering using treated drinking water are prohibited Over the last 5 days (we haven't seen the sun since last Saturday) our skies have been brown from all the forest fires. And BC is burning; within the province there are currently 73 fires "of note active and/or larger than 10 hectares" in size. Total area burning for just these fires is over 238,350 hectares (almost 589,000 acres) During all this I've been trying to keep my gardens going, and I must admit that some of my plants are loving this weather but a lot are starting to show stress - not many plants like 12 hours of constant sun - we haven't even had clouds to provide shade...... And even though I water every 2-3 days - and it takes me about 2.5 hours to water all my gardens - some of the big plants are starting to droop from the heat and dry conditions (pots have to be watered at least once a day) And I have to ask, where is our rain??