This Drought Is No Joke! Photos of My Scorched Yard


If you aren't living in the drought affected areas of the country, you may have seen footage on the news. I tell you, it's awful! Here in Middle Tennessee, we've experienced the dryest - and probably hottest - August ever.Well established trees now have withered up brown leaves and look dead (though I hope they aren't!) The grass crunches under your feet and there are literally patches of scorched grass all over the lawns. I can't remember the last time we've had to mow the entire yard. Except for the little area in front of the lanscaping beds where I water, it's been weeks since the grass has grown. I wanted to share with you a few comparison photos of our backyard -the first one was taken from June or July of last year and the others I took yesterday. Usually in August, the grass does start to lose it's green - but not like this! We live on an acre so keeping the grass watered isn't an option- plus we're in a drought, so that wouldn't be wise anyway.



All those brown spots are the scorched patches of grass...









Of course, this was the year that I decided to finally plant flowers in our front landscaping beds. I have a brown thumb of death when it comes to plants, but I really wanted to try hard this year to keep a few plants alive. And somehow, even with the lack of rain and blazing hot temperatures, I've managed to keep most of them alive! They don't look fabulous, but they are alive, and that was my goal for my first year of "gardening". There were a lot more blooms several weeks ago , but many of the plants stopped blooming, so I took a couple of shots of some that are still in bloom...AGain, not gorgeous but alive. I've learned that lavender, lantana, verbena, and rosemary do very well in dry conditions. I didn't realize that lantana (the plant with the yellow blooms) gets very big very quickly and so I will probably have to move that plant next year. The red verbena is great and I have it bordering my entire landscaping bed...it grows quickly, too.





I want to thank Primrozie over at Prim's Place in the Spring for nominating me for the Nice Matters Award! What an honor and that was so sweet of you, Primrozie! I'm going to nominated some, too, though all my cottage neighbors are nice! Thank you so much!




12 comments:

Jessica said...

Hey Kim ~ I remember our yard looking like that in Louisiana when we were experiencing a severe drought a few years back.
Here in KY we are experiencing the same drought you guys are having. The Buckeye trees were first hit with the late freeze that hurt all the things in bloom and now they are dried up and look just awful. A lot of our trees here have withered too. Over here we couldn't use excess water b/c we are under water restrictions.
One funny thing is we were driving into town awhile back and this persons lawn was very brown, except a vibrant green patch about a foot or so wide that flowed to the back of their yard....so if nothing else you can find the field lines lol!
At any rate...hope the drought can break soon. A few years ago in LA one of the major swamps dried up to the point of grass covering the land. But after Katrina, its back to being a swamp. So there is light after the drought.
OH and I want to plant some lavender myself. I actually read an article about Lavender in the Home & Garden's magazine. I'll have to post some pointers from it!
If you managed the keep the lil plants alive during the drought then thats something to talk about ;)
TTFN ~ Jessica

August 28, 2007 at 9:48 AM
Sugar Bear said...

Oh my! I'd say you definitely are in a drought. This has happened to our grass in the past as well and I'm always amazed at how it bounces back. Here's hoping for some rain!
Karla

August 28, 2007 at 9:56 AM
It's a Mom Thing said...

This summer has been a killer. My folks live in Nashville and I couldn't believe it when my mom said they were having half-days of school last week. Craziness! Hopefully God will poor down the rain this fall.

August 28, 2007 at 12:44 PM
violetlady said...

My daughter returned recently from visiting in Knoxville and she said the weather there was scorching hot. Our grass here in Delaware scrunched under our feet it was so dry. We have had a little rain so it is slightly better now.

August 28, 2007 at 1:52 PM
Penny said...

Just two weeks ago we were in a mild drought here. Then the rains came and many areas around me are flooded. Wish we could find that happy medium.

August 28, 2007 at 2:51 PM
Rosemary said...

Poor grass!!
We have had no rain in Southern California, since I can't remember.
Glad to see your flowers are alive.
Hope you get some rain soon.
Rosemary

August 28, 2007 at 3:11 PM
Chris@Cats On My Quilts said...

I've been hearing about your heat wave down there. We've been blessed with nice temperatures up here in NH thank goodness. Your garden looks fabulous! You don't have a brown thumb.

August 28, 2007 at 6:24 PM
Mary said...

Hi Kim - like you, we in NC are experiencing the driest, hottest August ever. Only one day in Aug. was below 90 (89 I think!)and many, many have been in the triple digits, itting a record 105 last week! We haven't mowed our grass in a month now, it hasn't grown an inch and it's browning out badly. Everything's struggling in the heat - including me!
Hang in there - cool, damp Fall can't be too far off.

August 28, 2007 at 8:36 PM
jewlover2 said...

Yeah, I'm really glad I didnt start my landscaping yet because with the watering restrictions, everything wouldve died anyway.

I got really ticked monday when I was driving to Lebanon because I noticed a few guys on their lawn tractors, MOWING for some strange reason, and the cloud of dust around them made them almost invisible, not to mention the lawnmower was leaving actual TRACKS in the yard...he heh. It's definitely a scorcher.

On a positive point, your flowers look nicer than ANY I've seen around here. :)

August 29, 2007 at 8:23 AM
Twice Remembered said...

Jessica, I'll be looking for those tips about lavender! It's wonderful! Ugh, sorry you guys are going through this same dry, hot weather - how miserable!

Sugar Bear, isn't it amazing how grass is so resilient? Wish most flowers were that way, hehe!

Itsamomthing ( I don't know you're first name though I've looked for it on your blog - I'm sorry!), how neat that your mom in just a hop away from us! Hubs works in Nashville - just a few minutes away...Yes, half day for schools there! I wish we could just start in September like most of the rest of the country!

Violetlady, so it hurts to walk on your grass barefooted, too? Ugh, I feel your pain! Yes, scorching hot is right - on some evenings, at 10 oclock at night the temp is still in the 90's - just awful!

Pen, me too! I see the news reports about the terrible flooding in other parts of the country and I know they are as frustrated with their weather as we are. Hubs says the dirt gets too dry and then hard as a rock and doesn't absorb the rain well, thus the flooding. I hope you weren't affected!

Thank you, Rosemary! It rained this morning for an hour or two! Yes! I hope you get rain soon, too!

Chris, I'm glad the weather is pleasant in some part of the country, hehe! We need to move up to where you are! Thanks for the compliments on the flowers. Next year hopefully they'll look even better:)

Oh, Mary - isn't it awful! Tennesse is hot in the summer, but I'm not use to these triple digit temps! I hope you get some relief soon! I'm so ready for fall, too...By the way, I lived in the mountains of NC for about a year - a beautiful state!

Ashes, I sure wish I would have waited another year. It's been so much work to keep up - and just too hot to be outside to tend to it all. WHY were they mowing?!?! Just for the sake of doing it? LOL! That's one good thing that's come out of this drought - no need to mow! There is one - ONE - house in our neighborhood that does water their lawn and boy is their grass pretty and a stark contrast to all the other neighboring lawns...but they have to mow - in this heat!

August 29, 2007 at 9:25 AM
Ann said...

I live in southeast Tennessee and it's like that here, too. At least it's not 100+ degrees anymore. Now if we could just get some rain.

August 29, 2007 at 10:21 AM
jewlover2 said...

If you are caught watering your lawn around here, you are heavily fined. So even though we have lots of green around here (due to our big tall overgrown grass, I guess) most of the short lawns are brown like yours.

August 30, 2007 at 7:26 AM

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