A statement from the NWS regarding this summer in central NJ: ...WARMEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...FIFTH DRIEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...EIGHTH WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...THIRD DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD AT TRENTON... ...MOST DAYS IN A YEAR THAT REACHED OR EXCEEDED 90 DEGREES ON RECORD AT TRENTON... METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER (JUNE, JULY AND AUGUST), 2010 IS THE WARMEST SUMMER ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 77.67 DEGREES. THE PREVIOUS WARMEST SUMMER ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1898, WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 76.47 DEGREES. ALSO, METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER, 2010 IS THE FIFTH DRIEST SUMMER ON RECORD WITH 5.90 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION. THE DRIEST SUMMER ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1966, WHEN 2.66 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION FELL. AUGUST, 2010 TIES AUGUST, 1900 FOR THE EIGHTH WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 77.1 DEGREES. THE WARMEST AUGUST ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1895, WHEN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 78.7 DEGREES. ALSO, AUGUST, 2010 IS THE THIRD DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD WITH 0.80 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION. THE DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1964, WHEN 0.47 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION FELL. FINALLY, THE TEMPERATURE THIS YEAR AT TRENTON HAS REACHED OR EXCEEDED 90 DEGREES ON 47 DAYS THROUGH AUGUST. THAT TIES 2010 WITH 1983 AS THE YEARS WITH THE MOST DAYS THAT HAVE REACHED OR EXCEEDED 90 DEGREES. THAT TIE WILL NOT LAST, BECAUSE THE TEMPERATURE AT TRENTON WILL EXCEED 90 DEGREES AGAIN TODAY. TEMPERATURE RECORDS DATE BACK TO 1893. PRECIPITATION RECORDS DATE BACK TO 1866. $$ THE TEN WARMEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMERS AT TRENTON DATING BACK TO 1893: RANK TEMPERATURE YEAR (DEGREES F) 1 77.67 2010 2 76.47 1898 3 76.27 1983 4 76.07 2005 5 75.97 1895 6 75.93 1896 6 75.93 1973 8 75.90 1966 9 75.83 1899 10 75.80 1893 THE TEN DRIEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMERS AT TRENTON DATING BACK TO 1866: RANK PRECIPITATION YEAR (INCHES) 1 2.66 1966 2 3.80 1957 3 5.48 1913 4 5.53 1874 5 5.90 2010 6 6.80 1929 7 7.02 1925 8 7.09 1976 9 7.11 1949 10 7.22 1912 THE TEN WARMEST AUGUSTS AT TRENTON DATING BACK TO 1893: RANK TEMPERATURE YEAR (DEGREES F) 1 78.7 1895 2 78.2 ...

Tom Tasselmyer (such a Baltimorean name) is reporting that January was the 8th coldest January in Baltimore history. The official records for Baltimore go back to 1871 though the records prior to 1893 are not catalogued at SERCC. The average IIRC was 27F. Coldest ever was 1977 at 22F. The Barnes Foundation Sequoia was planted in 1971 so it would have survived that. None of mine have 'tons of dieback' so far. I'd say it varies from minimal dieback on the largest one, which is about 7' - mostly snow burn near the snow line - to 30% needle damage on my smallest plant. 'Atlanta' might be a hair tougher than 'Chapel Hill'/'Swarthmore'. 'Soquel' has the least damage but it is the big one. Lows were 3F, several times during the month, and a couple 48 h+ stretches that stayed below about 15F. FWIW Pseudotsuga sinensis has similar burning just above the snow line. We had the longest stretch of powdery snow "lying on ground" as the Brits say, that I can remember. 95% of the time here, powdery snow will be mush within 3 days. It stayed cold for so long that a lot of things show a ring of damage where light was reflected by the snow. Even something as hardy as Cryptomeria has completely dead branchlets in that zone. I think I might have posted earlier that I was surprised by how little damage there was in the first freeze. Sadly, the 2nd and 3rd were just too much for various plants. Particularly the 2nd round of snow, which was accompanied by even stronger winds than the first. Maybe they were more brittle because of the earlier freeze, but all of my arborescent Ericas (hey, they kinda look like conifers) were totally destroyed, stems split clear to the ground. I've never seen that in almost 20 years of growing Erica arborea alpina, for example. Not 'alpine' enough, apparently. The foliage was fine though. It's sad to see the green foliage attached to broken stems and dying from the point of the break upward. Camellias are ok so far, including 'Aida' which is the hardiest C. X williamsii, I was lucky I didn't go below 0F as most points about 15 miles north of me in York and Lancaster Cos. did.

Impact of the drought... We decided on Monday that we needed to do something with our front yard. The combination of heavy winds, heavy clay soil, and no measurable precip since LAST spring, left our yard looking like, well, hell. We are now having various rock laid in the yard and have planted 4 brooms, 6 russian sage, 2 cistenas, and 2 pokers. I still have five various sized beds for higher water needs, but I suspect the new yard will help us decrease our water use considerably. I am so ready to move to Portland or Seattle... :) Cori ~ The Challenged New Mexico Gardener

Hi Rich~ I'll try to answer your ??'s best I can.. :) but one question I will answer up front... the pool was definitely worth every penny.. :) The summer is not even in full swing yet & it's been great ! :) As far as the pool decking, the PB included 500 sqft in that price.. the additional we added was done thru their sub at an additional 8.50 per sq foot. (stamped-two colors)I think we wound up with about 1200 total... Also keep in mind our original estimate for the gunite pool was closer to $42,000, but I added alot of extras that brought it up.. a little higher... As far as choosing gunite, it was for the design ability you have with it, as well as the quality... My inlaws have a 20 year old gunite pool that has been issue free.. they have re-surfaced it once, just last year... The estimate you received for $900 sqft of pavers seems way high... I have a raised patio that's about 400sqft and a lower patio thats about 600sqft and my total cost was $10,000 lower then your estimate. I used the same contractor for both the pavers and the deck and pool landscaping, but our paver patio was done about 2 years ago. I worked with the landscape guy to design the look I wanted ...but the norm is he designs for you (I am just a control freak..lol) I think that it's nice to have something planned beforehand for the 'Big picture'.. but sometimes like in our case, we just had an idea that we built on.. cause it seems what you want sometimes changes when you see the real thing.... Anyway I am happy to give you the name of the landscape/paver guy... I am not sure where you are located, but their office is in Monmouth County... (FGM is the company and Joe is who you should ask for 732 580-1967) You can say Lori referred you if you want.. :) Here is there web site : http://www.fgmlandscaping.com/home.htm Good luck with everything and feel free to ask whatever ??'s you may have... The computer is such a great resource.... :)