Why are those crazy people watering when it's pouring rain out???

You're driving to work, it's pouring rain, and you spot landscape companies and city workers watering plants???

We had a pretty good rain storm overnight that continued until late this morning.  I mean it really POURED! (we got about 7mm overnight) Nonetheless I insisted that we proceed with our watering schedule today at work because I knew that in spite of all that rain the plants were still need of water.  My co-worker/helper said that I should blog about this because even though he knew that the soil would be dry, he was still amazed to see it first hand:

So here is the garden bed that was scheduled to be watered.  Looks pretty moist after all that rainfall, right?
  

Curious to see what 7mm of overnight rainfall would do, I stuck my fingers into the soil and wow!  Only the very first mm's are moist - really not that much at all!



Yep, looks pretty dry!!

Don't think it can be any drier than this!  Yep, definitely needs water!


 

Interestingly enough this is also why we have sudden flash floods in hot, arid locations when a sudden rainstorm hits:  the ground is so dry that it has trouble absorbing the water and therefore the water runs off.  If enough water comes down,  you have a sudden crashing river driven by gravity working its way through whatever channel provides the least resistance.  Woe to anyone or anything that is in its path!

 

As mentioned in an earlier blog about proper watering it takes time and patience to properly saturate dry soil.  So during the hot dry spells know that even a good rain sometimes just isn't enough.

 

Now you know why we crazy gardeners are standing out in the pouring rain in our raingear watering plants during the summer!