The 2015 growing season on Ebey’s Prairie will go down as one that Dale Sherman would like to squash.

A season that started out so tantalizing for the Coupeville squash farmer literally wilted right before his eyes in the summer heat.

For the first time that he could recall in a lifetime of farming, Sherman lost nearly his entire pumpkin crop because of the dry weather.

With fall activities and attendance at  Sherman’s Pioneer Farm largely dependent on pumpkins, Sherman was forced to order about 30 ton of pumpkins from a Mount Vernon grower.

“I have to have pumpkins,” Sherman said. “If the public comes by our pumpkin patch and I don’t have any pumpkins, I won’t have customers next year.”

Whidbey’s dry summer put a wrinkle in many farmers’ crops this season.

Many farmers on Central Whidbey are dry farmers who rely on rain for irrigation and typically get enough incrementally to prevent seeking much water, if any, from other sources.

That wasn’t the case this year as Coupeville and Oak Harbor went through a three-month period from May through July receiving roughly an inch of rain total.

“May is what really killed us,” said Georgie Smith, who owns Willowood Farm on Ebey’s Prairie.

The average rainfall in May for Oak Harbor, Coupeville and Greenbank was .22 inches, according to data collected by Washington State University Island County Extension weather stewards.

That is in stark contrast to about 2 inches of rain in May in each of the past two years and 4 inches in 2011.

Smith lost most of her Rockwell bean crop in June. She was forced to replant and is still waiting for the final outcome.

Garlic and onions, two of Smith’s staple crops, also suffered reduced yields, and some other vegetables struggled due to the lack of moisture in the soil.

Smith spent thousands of dollars on drip tape but found that method to be largely inadequate this summer, turning to sprinklers as a last resort.

“It was a really difficult year,” she said. “I’m not done yet. The next three or four months can make a real difference.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to make up what I lost by the end of the year. It could put me back a couple years unless I make it up. It makes me reconsider a lot of what we’re thinking of doing and how we farm next year.”

Whidbey’s summer wasn’t just dry, it was hot.

Coupeville, for instance, experienced temperatures of 80 degrees or more 16 times this year, compared to six last year and only two the year before, according to David Broberg, who operates a weather station downtown.

More than an inch of rain in August in Central Whidbey put a smile on farmers’ faces but for some it was too little, too late

The dry spring followed by an arid June and July stressed crops and in some cases wiped a few out before rains in August could save them.

“By the end of July we knew we’d be in big trouble,” Sherman said.

Sherman said his plants that produce the most popular carving pumpkins shriveled up and died after he was unsuccessful in providing an alternate source of irrigation in time.

In all, about eight acres of pumpkins were lost.

“I don’t remember it ever happening before,” said Sherman, a third-generation farmer who grew up on the prairie.

Sherman quickly ordered two semi-truck loads of pumpkins to ensure visitors to his farm won’t be disappointed come October.

He was relieved that his Sugar Hubbard squash were better able to tolerate the dry conditions and produced an “average” crop this season. Also, three acres of specialty pumpkins survived that were grown in soil that held moisture better.

According to Broberg, 2015 is only slightly drier than it was in 2013 on Central Whidbey to this point.

Through Sept. 1, there was 8.45 inches of rainfall this year compared to 8.53 inches during that same time frame two years ago.

Hay and grain production also was hurt by the lack of rain, said Coupeville’s Don Sherman, who farms 450 acres.

“Overall that was an unusual dry spell for us to go that long with very little precipitation,” said Sherman, who is Dale’s cousin. “The result of that for us overall in the crops we grow are reductions in yield for sure.

“We typically get moisture here and there and it just didn’t come around. Everyone on the island talks about the splash of water that comes around the Fourth of July and we didn’t get that much then either.”