Could it be? Cooler days ahead??

First off, I want to tell you these pictures were taken over a week ago in June.  I would love to tell you it still looks like this, but it doesn’t.

After 10 days of consistent days near or over 100 plus degrees it seems to have been the final straw in my poor garden.

Oh, all is not lost, but it is sure suffering.  Even after diligent watering the hot sun is what hurt the most.  But they say the end is tonight, and I pray we do get some of the rain coming our way.

Things like this coconut lime coneflower have been highlights in the drought.  You can very much tell which plants are drought resistant and those that are not.

COQUETTE DES BLANCHES

I am so envious of any shade since I have almost none at all.  But even things in the shade look horrible when it gets to 108 like yesterday.

So my efforts have been the front walk here and the rose garden.  Even in these areas it is all I can do to keep up.  But my main goal is to try to have something for fall and preserve as many plants as I can.

But even the things trying to bloom like this garden phlox are having a hard time.  Blooms are lighter and spotty and sun-burned.  Just as soon as they look done blooming I have cut things back leaving large ‘holes’ in the garden.  I am hoping by stopping seed production if will give the plants energy to regroup and possible rebloom if we do cool down and get rain again.

This week I cut back all of my daylilies to about 6 inches and anything looking brown.  I hauled out 9 muck-buckets full and could do more.  Summer annuals like sweet alyssum and moss verbena are thriving, but anything more lush like petunias and marigolds are about to be toast.  I count on many of these plants for color in July and now I am just hoping for green…. anything green.

So like I have said in pervious posts, my lessons in gardening is plant your beds super full and they will protect each other and be more drought resistant.  I really do hate mulch, but it is necessary to keep those roots cool.  Water in the evenings or really early mornings… never water when it is over 90 degrees if you can help it…  Plants do burn if they are watered in hot sun.

I can definitely tell the new beds from the older ones this year.  I has made me want to divide and replant so many areas.  Of course that will have to wait for many months.  I have a new outlook on my garden.  After this hard lesson learned many tender plants will be moved and things like sedums, grasses or shrubs will be added.

I have so many things that in normal seasons would have been cut back and shaped but I have let them grow because they are shading plants around them.  Things like spireas, weilgeas, butterfly bushes, knockout roses and smoke bushes would have been cut back after early summer blooms so they would rebloom.  But not this year.  Leave them be.  We can do that much later in the fall.  I have noticed so new growth on the evergreens.  Some things have handled this weather surprisingly well.  Not so much the gardener, but for that I am thankful.

So today I will be patiently checking the radar hoping it comes our way.  Last weekend we got about a half inch, but it was not near enough to make much of a difference.


Honestly I feel like I had things almost under control on the drought issues, but it was the high temps that did me in.  Lesson learned.  And I know I am not alone in this.  So hang in there friends.  This too shall pass they say.

Thanks so much for stopping by and please consider becoming a follower!

Happy Gardening….Brooke

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