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How to Manage Texas Weather Texas is famous for its droughts and floods. Drought occurs when an area gets less than 75 percent of its normal rainfall in any given year. Some part of Texas is affected by a severe drought once every ten years. You have to laugh when you hear the folks who want to transport our groundwater to another county say they want to "guarantee groundwater supplies for generations to come." No one knows and no one will ever know how much groundwater we have available or what future weather patterns will be. All groundwater studies are based on theory, not fact, no matter what the so-called "experts' tell you. Texas weather is just impossible to predict. In 1756 the San Gabriel River completely dried up. From 1949 to 1951 Texas was in such a severe drought that Lake Dallas was at 11 percent of capacity. Even if we are hit by a drought caused by God, man, or a combination of both, there are ways to manage your garden by planting things together that have high water demands like turf grass and annual flowers, perennials, woody shrubs and vines that need occasional water in another place, and plants that can live with natural rainfall in another. Texas floods are another story and it seems most long-lasting droughts that cause fire, grasshopper plagues, and topsoil losses are broken by devastating floods. The most vulnerable during periods of wet weather are vegetable plants. In Texas, it's impossible to grow a good vegetable crop without supplemental water for dry periods and raised beds for those periods of really wet weather. Even patio tomatoes should be caged so hard rain won't pummel them into the ground and ruin your crop. Alvin, Texas holds the record for the most rainfall in 24 hours recorded in 1979. It was 43 inches. In 1921 Thrall, Texas was deluged with 38 inches of rain in 24 hours. I doubt anybody's tomato crop lasted through that one, but if the plants were caged and in raised beds, who knows? Why do we live and try to garden here? I think it's because Texas, especially our little slice of paradise, is just a great place to live. The thought of a beautiful warm spring covered in wildflowers can get us through the dampest, coldest winter, and the thought of that first blue norther in the fall pulls us through the most withering summer heat. I pity the person who has never seen a life-giving Texas thunderstorm build on the horizon and then come barreling straight toward them after a hot dry day spent in the field. Texans are tough, but not all ornamental and vegetable plants are, so managing the garden for the worst weather extremes will help you avoid a lot of heartache and keep those beautiful flowers and vegetables coming all summer.
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Part of the "fun" of gardening in Texas is managing your garden throughout our wet and dry spells. We just went through a dry spell that delayed some of our crops and caused some ornamentals to fade away earlier than normal. Bare root trees planted in the early spring probably didn't do so well if they didn't have supplemental water. If you don't plant native plants and grasses, or manage your garden in case of dry or wet spells, you may have lots of problems that can be easily avoided with a couple of changes to your landscape or gardening methods.
