09/04/2026
Put your hand under the hose tonight after it has run for a minute. Not the water that was sitting in the coil in the sun. The water from the pipe.
All summer that water comes out warm, because the pipe runs through ground that has been baking since June. The ground is slow. It takes weeks to catch up with the air in either direction, which is why the hose is still warm in early September when the mornings have already turned. One evening soon it will come out cold, and that is the evening the ground has finally given up on summer.
It matters more than the thermometer on the porch. Roots live in the ground, not the air. Grass seed, garlic, spinach, the fall lettuce, all of it goes by soil temperature. When the hose runs cold, the ground is ready. š§
