It has been a summer of extremes. Torrential rains in June led to widespread flooding and little rain in August has turned normally green suburban lawns brown and yellow.

The Philadelphia area has gotten so little rain in August that it is on target to be the driest month since 1896.

Landscapers and nurseries are complaining that the lack of rain is hurting business with people afraid to have plantings done.

“It’s slowing everybody’s business. People don’t want to put anything in the ground,” said Anita Kistler, of Greenwood Farms Nurseries in West Chester. The high temperatures put a lot of stress on recently planted shrubs and trees.

“We’re praying for rain,” said Kistler. “Yesterday, I saw a boxwood that was 40 years old and it’s completely dead. What we need is a slow, soaking rain. With the ground so hard and caked, a heavy rain will just wash off the surface. If you notice, nobody has to mow their grass. If it does grow,” Kistler added, “don’t mow it. Let it grow so it will provide some shade.”

Barbara Gardner, of Distinctive Gardens, a landscape design and installation company in West Chester, said that they are still landscaping but customers have to be sure and water the plants. She has seen brown lawns and dried-up plants. She recommends soaker hoses or gator bags, which are bags that are manually filled up with water and then provides drip irrigation over a period of time.

Doris Moore, of Moore Landscaping & Design, said that July and August are normally dry months. The company provides planting and maintenance services. The company plants grass that is drought-resistant and looks green even without watering. However, “it is still dry and under stress. Some of our clients with brown lawns want us to fertilize them, but it‘s not a good idea,” Moore said. No matter how brown it gets, she recommends that people leave the lawns alone. “Soon it will be getting cooler and the grass will recover,” she said.

As of Wednesday, the Philadelphia region has only received 0.06 inches of rain this month, compared to a normal rainfall of 3.82 inches.

“It’s been a dry month,” said Bob Wanton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mt. Holly, N.J. “If we don’t get any precipitation, it could break the record.” But there are twoevents in the forecast — one this evening and the early part of next week — that could raise the amount of rainfall received for the month above 0.46 inches, which was the record set in 1896.

The dry weather comes on the heels of heavy rain and flooding over eight days in June that dumped eight inches of rain in parts of the county and caused the Brandywine and Schuylkill to rise above flood stage.

© Daily Local News 2006