Beltane Waning Planting Moon
Ah. Those of us who prefer the northern to the southern breathed a sigh of relief today as the weather pattern changed and the jet stream bowed to the south. A dew point of 47 feels pretty good, too.
No one finds drought as interesting as tornadoes and hurricanes and snow, but nothing impacts those of us who garden and care about our landscape as personally as drought does. The yellow on this US Drought Monitor Map covers all or almost all of Anoka County.
The state climatologist says: “Portions of east central Minnesota are…depicted as experiencing Moderate drought. This is the result of long-term dryness that began in June of 2008. This long-term precipitation anomaly is responsible for very low water levels in larger lakes and wetland complexes across portions of Anoka, Ramsey, Chisago, and Washington counties.”
A large portion of the Arrowhead has extreme drought conditions. In fact, streams up there are at the 5th percentile for drainage into Lake Superior for this date. That’s low water. Superior is six inches below last year and well below historic levels.
My vegetables have required some extra irrigation to keep them on schedule and able to endure the heat.
