Record drought hits trees hard - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

The driest June on record is having a major impact on crops and in our own backyards.

The National Weather Service says Indianapolis got just 0.9" of rain in June, breaking the previous record of 0.36" set in 1988.

First the grass, now shrubs, even trees - small and large - are withering and brown. The drought is draining the life out of them.

"We are continuing to see a die off," said Cathy Haggard at Sundown Gardens.

Haggard expects it will be an ugly summer and spring. After three exceptionally dry years, younger trees and shrubs haven't developed large enough root systems. Much bigger trees suffer double, from drought and old age.

"I see rows and rows and rows and rows of brown arborvitae. That tells me it's a real issue for this particular evergreen," Haggard said.

She is telling customers to drag out the hoses and turn on the water to a slow trickle.

"You can let it run maybe 30 minutes, or for larger trees, 60-90 minutes every few days," Haggard said.

She says sprinkler systems won't work.

"They don't do a deep drench," she said.

Summer workers and volunteers are drenching a forest of young saplings recently planted across the city, ten gallons at a time. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is watering 5,000 trees a week. Their five-gallon buckets, when full, weigh 40 pounds. For some, it is an arm-stretching, shoulder-wrenching labor of love.

"Definitely. I would love to come back and see the trees being successful and growing," said Liz Loehmer, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.

If you are not up to lugging buckets of water or spending hours watering, there is a product that will do the watering for you.

"It expands and there's a slow release into the root system," Haggard said.

It conserves water and hopefully saves a tree.

Citizens Water says the weekend showers didn't do much to refill reservoirs. Morse and Geist reservoirs are still more than a foot below normal. However, the sporadic rain cut down on watering. Citizens says usage dropped about 20 percent over the weekend, though the utility is still pleading with customers to conserve.