My beautiful Biloxi crepe myrtle, barely making it.



I'm going to mulch it and start watering. I think we'll never see rain again.

I feel this way also sometimes! No rain here.

No rain here - and no relief in sight... large trees in town are starting to turn brown... looks like a strange fall of crispy brown.

That is happening here, too. I have a gigantic southern red oak with brown leaves, as well as a huge water oak with the same situation. I'm not sure if these trees are going to make it.

They say half or better will around here and telling people not to cut them down. Only time will tell... .I have heard the farmers almanac says a cooler August for us - praying it is right.

After the summer of 2009, some of the trees around here that looked like goners later came back...with some dieback of limbs...some others didn't come back.

You never can tell - had one older lady once in Dallas tell me dont ever forget a plant no matter what WANTS TO LIVE... so always give them a chance.

A few years ago we had some really nice white oaks lose their leaves in the middle of the summer. The following year they leafed back out in the spring as if nothing had happened.

They sure are doing whatever it takes to survive. We walked around in our woods the other day and there is a huge amount of leaf and pine litter- much more than before. The trees are shedding leaves and limbs to make it.

Good news I guess if you want to see it that way mimosas and fruitless pears are dying and limbs falling like crazy... many many many are being removed all over town. The natives I think will live to see another day - it was bad before and it will be dry again, and they are still here. Just a very lean very hot year.

We have several dozen large and very old live oak trees with circumferences of 15' or more here on the ranch. Some didn't leaf out as usual this past spring. To make matters worse for a few of them, Blue Bonnet Electric, our service provider, is going to trim their branches back next month. As if they weren't stressed enough. Last year a few of the oaks dropped some large branches. Mostly likely as a result of the 2007 - 2009 drought.

We lost most of our water oaks to Hypoxylon Canker in 2004. Stress makes trees more vulnerable to diseases.

I've heard that if the leaves turn brown and fall off, the tree will live. If they turn brown and stay on, it will die. I wonder if that wisdom applies to the oaks that routinely hold onto their dead leaves in the fall?

Well, we are finally getting rain. It's obviously not going to last long (it's a small storm in size) but it is quite a heavy downpour. This might be half an inch by the time it's done.

This is the first rain we've had in I don't know how long.

And don't keep it there too long. It's supposed to come our way tomorrow!

We have had rain 2 days in a row and another 60% chance tomorrow.

That's great! It was 104 here today. A little shower would be nice.

It was 105 here today, come on rain!!!

That looks so wonderful Dave! I have rain envy! Can't remember the last time we had rain....like Josephine said it was 105 today. So far all I have see is a 10% chance this next week. That isn't even hopeful. Glad you guys in East TX are enjoying a nice shower.

Overcast all day here - no rain.

Shelia- this was our first in many many months. We scored slightly less than 1".