Williamsburg is shown in Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality maps as experiencing “severe drought” conditions. A little Internet surfing confirmed that both Richmond and Norfolk, our nearest large-city neighbors, both had record-high temperatures for the summer months according to accuweather.com. While I did some watering at home in July, I have to say that I haven’t done much since.
Along my property line, there’s a mature silver maple that provides a great deal of afternoon shade for my house, reducing the amount of dollars I need to spend on air conditioning. I made sure that it got more than enough water to live well. However, maples are thirsty by nature, so some plants living under the tree haven’t been able to survive.
That’s the bad news.
Now for the good news … I get to buy something else. I’m going to wait a while longer though to see if there are any other casualties. I need to think carefully about what I want to plant to replace them. I love new possibilities.
