Behind the Fence

Monday, August 6, 2012

Surviving the Heat and Drought


With temperatures above 100° for 17 days this summer and almost no rain, I am often asked how/if my garden is surviving. Watering a couple of hours every morning, it is surviving but certainly not thriving.  Let me take you on a little tour; we will start with the patio.
The ferns and ivy are doing well with a weekly deep watering.






Off to the side of the patio the lavender and moss rose flurish in the heat and require only occasional watering.






.





The herb garden also likes a hot dry summer.










Not so the hostas along the garden path. The ice storm of 2009 took away most of the shade. It is time to remove the hostas and replace with something more tolerant of sun. I am open for suggestions here.








In the cutting garden the zinnias look a bit sad, but are producing a few blooms for the house.






I didn't plant many vegetables in the potager this year and that is probably a good thing.


We had a decent amount of strawberries. I am potting-up runners in hopes of increasing the strawberry yield next spring.



As I mentioned in an earlier post figs require a lot of water. I didn't water the fig tree after a rain last week, thinking it wouldn't be necessary. Wrong, it was not enough and now the leaves are dropping. Since the tree is through fruiting it isn't a disaster. It is still alive. Fig trees are pretty tolerant.
We are done with azelias! I have started cuttings to replace the landscape azelias with Knock Out Roses. This one was started from a cutting 2 years ago. The Knock Out Roses have bloomed all summer.



In addition to the Knock Out Roses, I have cuttings for Peggy Martin and Majorie Fair Roses as well as geraniums for next summer. These mum cuttings were started earlier in the summer for the Master Gardeners Fall Plant Sale. They have done well in spite of the heat.




It has been a stressful year in and out of the garden. So, with the help of my husband, I added a little retreat to the back corner. I am looking forward to adding ferns and hostas this fall.


The birds love the water as much as I do! 




No comments:

Post a Comment