Boy, can I relate. Last year was just a bummer in Oklahoma. But, we are used to drought here and I know that you guys generally don't experience it on a regular basis like we do. This has been a very unusual year for us, with all the rain, and of course, we're not used to that much rain. A lot of people lost plants that were extremely drought-tolerant simply because they couldn't handle all the water w/o drying out in between storms. We have also had lots more butterflies that we are used to seeing (well, me in the urban setting anyway). I chose this year to upgrade and change my garden to a more wildlife friendly garden for the moths and butterflies and birds by planting primarily native trees, shrubs, and perennials. What a good year it turned out for that. The spicebush is doing great, while I lost my two last year in the drought - just couldn't keep it watered enough to settle in. I lost lots of bloom to the drought, too. The lilies, campanulas, anemones, ladybells, azaleas, hydrangeas, none of these bloomed. I finally had to stop watering because the plants in the ground were drying out faster than I could give them any water. The trees were soaking all of it up, depriving the perennials of any water at all. I was surprised I had some things come back this year at all. One of my hydrangeas died completely, my clematis really suffered. Things that did well were: Cleome Tropical Milkweed Zinnias Salvias Wild Senna Senna bicapsularis Passion vine Catmint Balloon flower Achilleas Borage Rue Aristolochia clematitis Tovara Indigofera kirilowii Honeyvine (cynanchum laeve) Lavendar Thought maybe that might help you plan some things, if you don't already have them, for future drought, which you may not have for many years again. Who knows? Even the weather folks don't really have a clue. It is depressing, though, I know! Susan

Jelwell, usually about $1 per 20 sq ft. but this highly varies according to the homeowner. Some are content with just having the area maintained, while others like to milk it for what it's worth. I was rather desperate in the spring to obtain sufficient land to make this worthwhile, so in some cases I paid more than I should have.

Whew! It has been a while since I've updated! It has been a rather bad year, in my personal life, so I haven't kept up with many of the plans I had, and even abandoned some that I had started. For example, the broccoli and brussels sprout seedlings I had started, well, they never got planted. I didn't do a fall crop for lettuce, and I didn't remember to get my sugar snap peas in, either. Tomato Lane caught the blight, but I just figured out what it was, so I was unable to treat it early. It really didn't look like the pictures of blight, until this week. So, I'll be going to get something to treat it with tomorrow. It'll be late, but it's too late to pull up the plants to stop the spread, as the whole row has it. Thankfully, the blight has not made it onto the fruit, so I'm still bringing in a harvest. Also, the weather is dipping back down below 90, so the plants are starting to set flowers again. The trellises, by the way, are phenomenal. The plants are nearing the arch, and it's so cool to not have to worry about the plants falling over due to their height. Production has been awesome, and I've canned several jars of stewed tomatoes, and I've given a few of the tomatoes away to friends as well. This fall I plan to build boxes around each of the trellises. This will serve to both help in the eventual winter conversion to a greenhouse, and to keep a deep layer of mulch on the plants, and to help contain the soil. I'll also continue to treat for blight throughout the rest of this season, and all of next year, even if no symptoms are present. I'd like to try to get this stuff killed off. The marigolds went absolutely bonkers. I've never seen such huge marigold plants in my life! They are really doing their job, too. Hardly any of the tomato plants have been chewed on by bugs since the marigolds really took hold. The wheat aisle experiment was a success, even if I didn't bring in the crop. I didn't take enough time and care to prepare the bed, so weeds overtook my wheat and made it impossible to harvest with any reasonable effort. So, I mowed the whole thing down and covered it with black plastic. This fall, I'll take the plastic up, build boxes over the entire row, and set fire to the interior. Then, I'll scrape it up, and set fire to it again. After that, I'll re-cover it with plastic until next spring. At that time I'll put down new dirt at a depth of 6 inches, and hope that the grass doesn't come back. So, no crop, but I learned a lot. Success! The Bee's Friend flowers didn't attract very many bees. It may have been that the flowers weren't planted with enough density to attract them, but I don't know. I'm planning on replanting them next year, and making them more plentiful. Perhaps I'll throw them out in the surrounding field instead of the garden, though. In any event, that patch was mowed down and covered in black plastic as well. It will be developed in the same manner as the wheat row, with the exception that part of it will get turned into walkway. The Emerald Gem muskmelons only produced one fruit per plant (user error?), and did not sprawl very much. I think they could be planted in the garden proper next year. Of course, they all ripened while I was out of town on business, so I did not get to try any of them. However, a friend of mine harvested for me while I was away, and he said they were wonderful. I'll plant some more next year! The Criss Cross watermelons are doing fine, but have not yet ripened. The Blacktail Mountain watermelons are also doing well, but have not yet ripened. A volunteer squash plant came up by the back door, and it went nuts. I need to figure out what it is! Next year, I think I'll plant the watermelons up there, instead of on the trellises. I like the trellis, but it is a lot of work to keep the weeds out from it. Perhaps if I planted them in a box, rather than straight in the ground it would have been easier, but I think I prefer to not have to coax a plant to grow somewhere it really doesn't want to go. The tomatoes go wherever you push them, but the melons really do seem to have an opinion about where they want to be. The zucchini did not do well at all. I thought they were a vine variety, but they weren't. So, they were immensely crowded, and did not yield much. To make things worse, I had several power failures this summer, so the crop that I had harvested, blanched, and frozen were all lost when the deep freeze defrosted. The corn was planted too closely together. SFG says that you can put 4 per square, but I think that is too close. Perhaps two, but not four. The crop was dismal. The beans are still growing, so it is unknown how the final result will be. I remain hopeful. The eggplants have only set one fruit so far, and I am very excited to harvest it. I hope that the plants will set some more fruit, though. Its lack of production could probably be link directly to the soil. They are growing in the box where I got the soil mix wrong. The carrots did great, and I have planted again for a fall crop. They are all coming up nicely. The beets are planted for a fall crop, and they too look good. The lettuce did great, but I did not replant for a fall crop. The cucumbers are awesome. We've been making dill pickles 1-2 times a week, and have over a dozen jars now. It was my first attempt at pickles, and they turned out great! I will definitely keep this variety of cucumber in my garden. As you can see, the cucumbers did not need the entire trellis to grow upon, so next year I am going to put some beans on the other side. I'll probably also interplant some peas in early fall, before the beans are ready to be planted. At the trellis by the corn and squash, I will also plant beans next year. I'll probably just build little 1x4ft boxes around base not in the garden, rather than a full 4x4 box. I may expand in that direction eventually, but I doubt that I will next year. For the wheat aisle and the Bee's Friend spaces, I'm not sure what will go there next year. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun dreaming up the schematic as the cold wind starts blowing and we get snowed in week after week!

Thank you all so much for the ID. I do believe it is "Coral Nymph". I have noticed seedlings around it and am happy to let them grow where they are for now, but it will be nice to have some to share as well. I love this salvia. It is tall and yet dainty and lacy looking and pink is my favorite color. I'm going to make a plant label and put it out in the garden tomorrow. Thanks again for such quick replies. Kay