According to the map, areas in orange — including Newton — are in a severe drought and urging people to take conservation steps The full release is here.
“With drought conditions persisting, and worsening in some areas, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is asking the public to actively conserve water by reducing indoor and outdoor water usage” said Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Director Kurt Schwartz. “Additionally, because of the increased threat of brush and wildland fires due to the extremely dry conditions, the public is urged to exercise extreme caution when using matches, charcoal grills, and other open flames during outdoor activities.”
It wasn’t until after I posted this that I realized that it was dated Friday Aug. 12, five days ago. I have a call into City Hall seeking further information.
Aaron Goldman in the mayor’s office responded to my inquiry and says a water ban in not in place in MWRA communities, which includes Newton. He shared this from the MWRA. The headline as been revised.
Read this past Sunday’s Globe West article about trees and the drought! Water your trees! They won’t recover like grass. I just saw a Nonantum Sq tree that’s been in the ground for 8-1/2 growing seasons ( I paid to have it planted, so I looked it up in my emails) go from healthy looking to apparently dead in the space of about a week and a half. Drove by it one week and it was fine. Next time I saw it all the leaves were brown. Every twig I scratched was brown under the bark (dead) instead of green. I’m watering a bunch of young street trees with gallon milk jugs from the back of my car.
Even older trees need water, especially with the stress of winter moth caterpillars, and likely gypsy moth next summer.
@Julia: How much water do trees need? How often? And is it sufficient to just water close to the trunk or are you supposed to guess where the roots extend to?
So apparently “within normal range” means we have nothing to worry about? It’s a shame that the City has not taken the steps to limit the use of water by instituting at least a partial ban. While we may have plenty of drinking water, it is clearly evident everywhere you look that nature is struggling with the “dry spell”. Trees are clearly stressed and several sections of the Charles River have significant sections of the riverbed exposed. None of this is “within normal range”.
Water the trees. Forget the lawn.
It is time for the City to have a partial ban. Lets water the trees, but the lush green lawn are luxuries that we can’t afford. We all share the water. Shorter showers won’t fix the problem alone. Watching people water their lawn at noon daily isn’t going to off set my shorter 5 minute shower (instead of 8 minutes). It is the daily 30 minutes of lawn watering, especially from 10 AM to 2 PM that really gets me going. And until the homeowner defies a ban and gets a ticket, that lawn will be an amazing shade of green.
Yesterday, I cleaned out my berm and sidewalk areas of crabgrass and more weeds than I can ever recall seeing there. This drought has produced a lot of wild twists with most everything in my garden and yard area. And I’m seeing a number of exotic “weeds” that have never been there before. I put the term weeds in quotes because some of them are actually quite attractive. There were about a dozen or so of this one exotic plant with thick leaves and a very attractive small blue flower. I yanked out most of them, but couldn’t bring myself to pull a few of the larger ones since they sprouted up in a corner of my lawn that has gone completely dormant. I’ve concluded that “weeds” are really just plants and flowers that nobody wants. My lawn is almost entirely brown and my garden isn’t doing nearly as well as it has since I put it in 3 years ago. I have three giant hibiscus bushes that have been the crown jewels of this garden, but this year they die almost as soon as they bloom despite daily watering. I hope this coming winter is somewhere in the middle of the last two. The overall effects of a very mild winter and dry spring and summer are not good.
Re watering, generally an inch of water a week is sufficient. You can assume that a tree’s roots extend at least as far out as its canopy, and usually beyond (except on the side with the curb for street trees), so that’s the area you should try to water.
As with grass, it’s better for trees to water deeply once a week. With grass, it’s to encourage deep roots that will be more drought tolerant. With trees, most of the roots are in the top 18″ of soil anyway, so you should water enough for the water to seep that far down. Doing it with a soaker hose instead of a sprinkler with get more water into the ground instead of evaporating. If you just water a little bit every day, instead of more water less often, it encourages more roots near the surface, which will be more prone to drying out if not watered.
With the TreeGators you see on recently planted trees, which hold 20 gallons, normally it’s enough to fill them once a week. But with the drought and the heat, we’ve asked people with Newton Tree Conservancy trees to water every five days instead.
The other thing that’s good especially for young trees is to keep about three feet on each side weeded so the crabgrass is not taking water away from the tree. And mulched, to help keep the soil from drying out. But no mulch volcanoes!