IronTy

Out in the back woods, feels like the dog days of summer with how dry it is. All that's missing is katydids and cicadas.

True, but if you look back you notice that we never even had any sort of coastal event that originated in the SE, rain or snow. Been that way for several years. I assume it has something to do with the lack of southern stream moisture. But I'm just an amateur and by no means an expert. We need a pattern like 2018, whatever that was.

That's what I thought I was doing but I guess I underestimated how dry and windy it was outside at the time. Lesson learned. By the time my new seedlings are large enough luckily it'll be warmer and more humid outside. Hopefully.

I screwed up and set my tomato and pepper seedlings outside I nthe shade for 2hrs one day last week and I guess it was too dry and windy, they shriveled up and died. So now I have to start over. Argh.

It's sort of like looking for the epic February snow pattern. Whatever pattern persistence we're stuck in is definitely not a big snow or rain storm pattern. Might as well adjust your expectations on rainfall just like we had to do for snowfall. Base case is drought until there's a big atmospheric shakeup at some point.

What's the effective radius for it? I'd just do it in the winter because deer generally only eat the mountain laurel as a last resort if they're starving which isn't an issue during the growing season.

Just got back to Calvert from the city. Pollen is on blast, especially my Loblolly pines. I'm thankful that it doesn't cause me any allergy issues but it sure makes a mess. 74F.

The honeysuckle is relatively easy to control since it's evergreen and I can spray it in late fall or early spring but the bittersweet is relentless and it seems like new seedlings pop up every day. And then there's the stupid Japanese stiltgrass. I agree, it's all just a thankless battle that never ends. And then there are the deer. They decimated my mountain laurel this winter which means they must've been really desperate. We need a few more severe winters to thin the herd.

The growing season isn't over yet. I hear English ivy is a good ground cover...

One of them lives on a hill like me and said he was worrying about erosion during rain and that he feels better now that the leaves are gone. SMH, that's not how it works.

You joke, but two of my neighbors did this and now the forest floor is just bare earth that's bone dry and invasive honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet are springing up all over by the hundreds. Idiots.

Wind was cool until I got a home in the woods with 100ft tulip trees all around it. Severe storms were cool until the 2012 Derecho and I changed my mind (see above). Hail was cool until it destroyed my roof and ruined my car's sheet metal a couple years ago. Tornadoes were never cool. Snowstorms are still cool and probably always will be. For our DC row home none those things concern me except maybe hail destroying all the solar panels, idk.

JB is so smug about his stupid stratwarm. I hate that thing, the one time one of them actually delivered on cold unsettled weather is this April. Nice.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time....

This spring gives me the feeling we are going to amble along in this cooler windy annoying pattern until all of a sudden it flips and we're baking til October. We have solar panels on the city house and im sort of wishing we have a wind turbine instead this year.