In past years I have tackled dry spells with just pure watering. But
this year I am changing tactic to that of thinking that a good mulch is
even better than watering. I say this because the ground has alot of
moisture and what removes it is evaporation. It evaporates faster than
spot-watering over long stretches of time. What I want to prevent is
the plant from leaf curl and shrivel and the plant turn off metabolism
due to drought conditions. So if I see the plant putting on more new
leaves in drought conditions I know my mulching has been very
effective.

What I use is roofing tar shingles, those asphalt shingles. It
suppresses the weeds around the base of the plant but most importantly
moisture that comes to the surface remains there and not evaporate away
as fast. In past years I have given those plants two 5 gallons of water
every third day. Now I give them just one 5 gallons of water.

Here in South Dakota, near Sioux City we had a overabundance of rain in
May that caused some flooding, but when June arrived set off a dry
spell and no rain for the past 3 weeks and my currant bushes are
showing signs of drought. So I am applying those tar shingles and my
raspberries are doing great because of it.

We are supposed to get some rain on late Monday but if that fails to
deliver then we could face a dry period of no rain for nearly 2 months.
And 2 months without rain is a long time for plants.

Also, I like these roofing tar shingles as mulch because my soil is
alkaline pH and these shingles when decomposed add some acidity to my
soil and thus conditions my soil for a better pH. My apple trees and
raspberries really like the mulch because they grow better than the
unmulched ones.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies