I know, this year has been one of the "wet" years we have in North Texas on occasion. The rainfall has been more than adequate for even our most water-intensive plantings. But that was June and some of July. What happens in August and September if our weather patterns return to a normal scenario? All those beautiful plants from East Texas and the Deep South will start to suffer mightily.

To start, a brief discussion on climatology is needed. My family has lived in Texas since the 1830s. We have seen, first-hand, just how unforgiving this great State can be when it comes to harsh climates. I personally grew up splitting time between Amarillo and Stephenville. Both are in the more arid part of Texas. Amarillo is also in the panhandle. That area of Texas is one of the most unforgiving and inhospitable places, climate-wise, in Texas.

The one thing I've noticed in my travels about our great state is that I-35 is a dividing line of sorts between the water haves and have-nots. In Corinth, we are right on the line. From here headed west, the rainfall amounts drop rather significantly. For us that means we will have a few wet years mixed with several average years and, on occasion, a few dry years. This means we should be ever mindful of how we use our valuable water resources so that the dry years don't destroy all the hard work we do during the normal years.

What is normal? Our average annual rainfall here is around 36 inches. We have lived through several drought cycles in the last 70 years. The big one was the dust bowl of the 1930s. That one made the headlines and affected all of us in some way or another, whether we had a connection to agriculture or not. Wells went dry and springs stopped flowing here that had never before been affected by dry times. It was during the dust bowl that the United States Department of Agriculture and the State of Texas began planning for the next big drought. Educational training was provided for the farmers and ranchers of our area. The cities in North Texas started looking around for new water sources and some basic conservation planning was put into effect.

The next really dry time for our area occurred in the mid 1950s. That drought cycle created Lake Lewisville (which was developed from Lake Garza, or as it's better known, Lake Dallas). Planning was also started on Lakes Grapevine and Ray Roberts. These new lakes made our area more water independent and gave us resources to draw on. In the early eighties, another dry spell caused Corinth and other area cities to re-evaluate water needs. Corinth drilled water wells to ease the draw on Lake Lewisville and also help make our water more affordable. This program remained in place until the The Upper Trinity Water Authority was able to handle our needs and relieve us of having to buy water from Denton.

All of this being said, it is very important that we conserve water and institute drought-tolerant plantings where and when we are able to. Water conservation is not the only factor involved in our landscape choices. One other factor is heat!! How many of you were here in 1980? That summer was the hottest on record here. We were over 100 on several occasions, most notably a long string from June through July. That stretch baked everything! It took several years for the landscape business to recover from that particular summer. We have also had some epic cold snaps as well. The winter of 1983-84 comes to mind rather vividly for me. That snap put temperatures below freezing for several days, with many lows recorded in the sub zero range! Yes, I said sub zero! This event caused the USDA and NOAA to re-do the plant hardiness zones and actually moved our area into a more cold tolerant planting region.

So how does this history lesson help us determine what to plant now? Good question! Over the next several weeks, Keep Corinth Beautiful will be adding installments to our website on drought tolerant plantings, with links to several useful and helpful websites designed to help us all become more mindful of just how much water we use and what can be done to conserve this precious resource for, not only our use, but the enjoyment of our children as well.

One of the first places to go in researching water conservation is takecareoftexas.org. This website has a wealth of information and data collected by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The TCEQ is our State version of the Federal EPA. The TCEQ has several wonderful and useful guides on its home website as well. The best way to get to the TCEQ website is through the above mentioned website.

The next installment of our conservation messages will tackle just what to plant and when to plant in order to make your yard a more drought tolerant, water wise landscape. Want a hint about what is to come? Think about this: COMPOST IS OUR FRIEND! And, St. Augustine grass may be pretty, but what happens to it when things get dry?

Come back soon and see just where this plan for a more drought-tolerant world will lead us. Watch the front beds at the Corinth City Hall for some soon to be sprouting projects involving a Texascape landscape that is both functional and beautiful.

1. Reduce
2. Recycle
3. Reuse
4. Rebuy
   
   And the new "R"
5. Rot