A very short story about drought August, 2006

Having dealt with rains of major proportions, it may seem ill-timed to talk of the effects of drought.    But when trees fall in a time of abundant rains, we may well ask why.

And more often than not, the answer leads us to...   drought.

We are grateful to the Silver Spring Garden Club's June 2006 newsletter, The Grapevine , for their small but cogent article about the continuing drought of 2002.

This serious drought, which began in the Summer of 2001 and has continued from time to time, still affects our trees today.

The very prolonged dryness caused a die-back of tree roots.    Unless trees were very thoroughly watered throughout this drought, it will take years for their roots to grow back to good health.

Even though the rainfall after the drought has been plentiful and above normal at times, such as in the year 2003, not to mention this June (!), the roots will still take much time to regrow to good health.

In the meantime, trees, particularly large ones, are weakened structurally below ground and weakened overall biologically by stress.   Stressed and weakened trees are more vulnerable to attack by diseases and insects.   During periods of high winds, a weakened tree will have less to hold it to the ground, and thus is more readily blown over.

Wind storms and drenching rains that wash topsoil away from shallow and weakened tree roots can result in downed trees.    And thus we have journeyed back to the effects of the drought of 2002.

Speaking of trees, we thank Takoma Park's arborist, Brett Linkletter, for his generous service on behalf of our trees, and wish him well in his next job.

Pat Howell is a Takoma Park gardener and landscape designer/contractor. She is available for hand-holding and answering questions through Deephaven Landscapers.

No comments have been posted to this article.

Want to post a comment to this article? Click here.