For many Lummi Island residents and visitors, summer is the season to live the good life: lots and lots of sun, long warmish days, endless blue skies, no rain, no clouds, no mist, no fog. It’s good for tourism, too, which many islanders depend on for income. And good for Lummi Island real estate sales, too, as visitors say, hey, this is great: NO RAIN! LET’S BUY!
While the weather is pleasant enough, uninterrupted dryness and sun make me increasingly uneasy. I find myself twitching with concern as I watch leaves lose their green freshness and shrivel around their edges. Desiccating winds under flat blue skies soaked in sunshine suck up life-giving moisture from the soil on open sites like ours.
Eventually (usually mid-July) I find myself hiding inside from the sun during much of the day. I don’t want to even look at the garden, stressed and increasingly sere as it is. Weeding is horrible, kicking up fine silty dust that coats ripening berries and vegies, the cats, my hair, my skin, my lungs, even inside the house. Digging is impossible, as the silt-clay-gravel soil transmutes into something resembling concrete.
This year, I began staying indoors in June, chased by the dry spell we’ve been having since May (Cliff Mass’s weather blog has stats on this; the last similar spell was in the 1930s).
Some folks water a lot to keep things green. But watering, unless done to such an excess that threatens wells (at least mine, especially in moderately low-rain years like this one) can’t offer the benefits of good soaking rains.
I pretty much follow Steve Solomon’s suggestions for no-irrigation growing in Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, though I use mulch and, timed rather frugally, a soaker hose when needed. Only those trees that were planted this year or last year get watered, and then no more than 5 gal./tree per week (about 1 minute of letting the hose run into a 5-gal bucket). This requires hand-watering, not just letting the hose run onto the ground.
Many other islanders have no or few qualms about watering more, and more often, even using sprinklers that evaporate of much precious water into the air. Their trees and plants grow far more lushly than mine, of course, which I envy even as I shudder at the draw-down on the aquifer.
I’ve been urging myself to enjoy the ‘pleasant’ weather more this year, reminding myself that worrying about drought is futile. Sometimes I succeed in this cognitive therapy and head outside with a smile. Other times I harrumph, thinking that this approach is rather like the nasty advice to “just relax and enjoy it.”
Long term predictions from climate change research suggests that the Pacific Northwest will have longer, drier, hotter summers in the future. I wonder if that future isn’t pretty close, perhaps early this afternoon, or even last month.
Filed under: Growing, The Downsides, water | Tagged: downsides, drought, gardening, island living, lummi island weather, summer
Hi Whidbeywoman! Thanks for saying visiting. I enjoyed finding your blog, Wild about Whidbey . I need to add a category of “other island links” so I can include yours. So far this summer, I’ve been doing more work outside than writing. Maybe with the coming heat this week, I’ll spend enough time hiding inside so that I’ll finally do another post, or add the new link category.
We saw lightening flashes & heard thunder up here on Lummi Island yesterday evening, but (as usual) the bulk of activity was to the east (over the mainland & mountains) and south, probably right on top of Whidbey Island.
Lummi Island got some rain, too. Sat out on the deck and listened to the delicious music of rain on the skylight, drinking wine and relief at the brief if tiny respite from dryness – especially welcome given the heat wave to come this week.
The thunderstorm last night was nice. Quite the lightining show! It rained here on Whidbey. Nothing smells better than a summer rain! Hopefully it didn’t start too many forest fires.
My first summer in the Puget Sound region was 1955.
There was low overcast and mist all summer. No sun.
The weather here has definitely changed. Bring on the rain.
Most of what I grow is in containers. My tomatoes and peppers are looking great so far. Next year I will grow in raised beds as well as containers. I think I can make do with a lot less water in containers and raised beds than in the ground. .