Sounds like you did a great job, Ingrid! I need to get out there too but even though it has cooled down some it's still very humid and sticky out. Besides that I wracked up my knee so weeding will be a trial, I'm sure. Most of the roses have had a growth spurt since we had a real good soaking rain a couple of weeks ago. They look better with some new green leaves to replace all the ones they lost to black spot. But I need to clean up the beds and get those dead leaves up. Back to dry and watering again now. The day light hours are getting noticeably shorter and the nights cooler too. Coming on for fall here!

Being up the coast from LA, our heat wave has been many degrees less than yours I am guessing. But it was still humid and 80-90 for the past month.

I have been working all summer at some big lower garden projects, in addition to the ones in the upper yard around the house. My guy has been busy working out of state on his ranch and has no idea what I have been doing in the lower garden. Mom is a sport and loves a good surprise, so I decided to leave him in the dark about the progress in the lower garden. He has helped me with the removal of dozens of volunteer and massively over grown trees, including the horrible yucca removal and just before he left, removing one of the two long ago dead headed palm tree stumps. They were cut down at about 8 feet off the ground. Dad was a garden hoarder, so the tops had been there too until I hauled them off a couple of years ago.

So since he has been gone, I dug the lowest area of the yard (where decades of fine top soil has run off down the hillside) down about 8-10" and used that dirt up where one of the palm stumps used to be to make a large terrace with a much more gentle slope. I used the stacking block to make a 20" high wall to sit on and back filled with that dirt. We got a wooden bench left behind at a move out and now have a nice place to sit and admire the garden. The zapote tree (in need of trimming again) provides nice shade and with the clearing and terrace addition, it is funneling a nice breeze there most of the day. That is where I added some iceberg roses and one of our old pinks (unknown) that the gopher had eaten off roots. Because it is the chicken side of the garden and where our main veggie garden is located, I added a fence of tree stakes and 36" garden wire so moms worries about people falling are gone. (I had my son help me pound the posts and his sense of level is not so good....will fix that after some rains)

I have one more small terrace waiting on a fruit tree in spring, but with the same iceberg and garden fencing

And then the new big cleared area that we can hopefully back a trailer in to, have to work on the double gate to be a triple I think. It has the iceberg and fencing too And just this week I picked up a truck load of agapanthus to use for something green. This area has stacking block too, solar lights etc, just waiting on a few free loads of wood chips from my arborist friend and for me to finish splitting iris.

He just said he is heading back down next week, so in that week I have a bunch of clivia to plant (free from the agapanthus pick up) and about 12' of wall to put in and dig out.

I also dug up the other dead palm tree as part of this project. He will be shocked at how different it looks. Me I am looking forward to spring and seeing it come to life.

It looks completely different from when he left before summer and we are looking forward to showing him.

So I have not been idle all summer, but I am looking forward to showing off the work we have done.

I will share photos once he sees it, I use flickr and smugmug for hosting and he can see the photos there if I post.

Thank you, Kippy, for the tour desc. of your garden - Big project you got! it makes my garden's work a piece of cake. The joy of gardening is to smell all my fragrant roses early in the morning, and to cut them for the vase before the Japanese Beetles get to them.

Another joy is to walk the path by the shady trees, it's a cool spot there. I enjoy watering my garden, as long as I keep the number of roses below 50, it doesn't take much time. HTs and floribunda roses in zone 5a are really small. They become babies every spring due to winter-die-back to the crown. Only my 15 Austins become bigger, which I already gave away some, so less watering for me.

I look forward to get rid of more Austins, so I can sow seeds of the thornless crosses I made, and more thornless seeds which I'll get from Texas A&M University Breeding program. It would be fun to see what's sprouting in the spring.

It has been a busy summer in the garden, but that free old bench has been enjoyed so much, in a spot that we could not even reach just a few months ago. One of those little ways the garden gives back and thanks us for the work.

I enjoy seeing mom enjoying her garden when I drive up, it has been an incredible amount of work, but it is so good for mom to have these spaces for gardening that she never thought would be possible.

I go through awful summer doldrums every summer because it is so hot here and lasts so long. Usually by August I am able to get out in the garden some and do some clean up, but not much because it is still so hot. We have had quite a bit of rain here lately (at least for here) and "cooler" temps (in the 90's) so I've been able to get outside and check out my poor pathetic yard. It makes me feel so good to be able to get out and check out the roses and anything else that's still alive.

Roses are doing ok because they are on drip irrigation and get regular water but there are no blooms.

I look forward to October when it finally cools off and the roses begin to bloom again.

Kippy, you are Wonder Woman! I just sat there with my mouth agape reading of your exploits. And all this in the summer heat! What I find really touching is your joy in the pleasure your mom is experiencing in the garden due to your efforts. You're a great daughter and I'm sure she knows it. Your husband will be blown away by all you've accomplished. We'll definitely want to see pictures after he's back.

Seil, I'm sorry about your knee and I hope you take it easy. From what I understand, leaves on the ground with BS don't harm anything so why not just leave them as mulch? I was amazed when I read the latest research about the BS on dead leaves, after all those decades of gardeners religiously cleaning up every single leaf.

Strawberryhill, I really like the idea of your thornless seedlings after looking at all the scratches from thorns I've accumulated over these last few days. Of course I'm one of the silly people who can't ever be bothered to wear gloves.......

Ingrid

Thanks, Ingrid, the knee is healing slowly. I don't pick up the leaves because of the bs. I do it because it's such an unsightly mess. I've known for some time now that the dead leaves won't spread the bs. It's already everywhere so it doesn't really make any difference. But I hate a messy looking garden, lol! Besides, I do need to get out there and take some stock of how things are doing and it gives me a chance to do that.

Ingrid, how wonderful that you have had some relief from the heat and even more so that you were able to accomplish good things in your garden. Plant deaths are never fun, but at this point you're probably just happy to get rid of the ugliness - and finally the ugly thorny branches.

Coincidently, I was out in the garden today, too. I haven't touched most of the back garden since the trees were cut and Debby came through. That was June 24th!! All of the ornaments and the birdbath were still where the tree trimmers moved them. The paths were blocked by the tall Purple Coneflower plants that were blown over by the wind. I have been stepping over them, unable to get in that mood to make things right. Well, today I decided I HAD to deadhead the coneflowers to collect the seed heads and do some weeding. I really don't know how long I was out there - maybe two and a half hours.

It wasn't excessively hot, but I was still at the edge of keeling over when I came in. The near daily rain we've been having since Debby has really moderated the temps. And now I know that high heat isn't the only thing that causes roses to pause in the summer. High moisture does, too. I look at the roses and scratch my head. They are so odd looking. They have SOME leaves, but the leaves are tiny, and blooming has ground to a halt pretty much. The few flowers are incredibly small - nickel-sized. I did notice today that Louis Philippe is sprouting all over himself and nearly leafless.

While I was out there, I cut away my neighbor;s jasmine vine that squeezed through the fence boards and covered the lattice installed for St Swithun who HAS grown but not nearly enough to need the trellis. He is healthy though; no flowers yet.

You might remember back in May I planted Sunn Hemp seeds for green manure. I planted them everywhere where there was a bit of space. In a few days nearly all of them had sprouted, and I was SO hopeful. The seedlings got to six or eight inches tall, and then the squirrels got them - just clipped them off at about four inches high. There were a few they missed. I had planted some in pots of roses and in a huge vacated pot, and apparently, some seeds dropped under Pink Gruss an Aachen. The GaA's are only nice plants here in the spring. In summer they look like roadkill - except for the one with the Sunn Hemp growing up through the middle of it. Bingo! The SH roots are fixing nitrogen in the soil, and PGaA actually has green leaves!! The plants in the huge pot were at least 8' tall, so I cut them down, chopped them and mulched St Swithun, Mary Guthrie and Louis Philippe with the choppings and the roots and the soil from the pot. I'm going to plant more seeds in hopes they won't mind the lower temps that are coming. This time all of them UNDER the roses.

So I felt good about the garden today, too - out of shape but good. I can walk the paths safely, and the birdbath is in its proper place. Little by little.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

A few weeks ago I did replace a couple of sad looking roses with a Gardenia and a Butterfly Bush. The Butterfly Bush is always in bloom, and the Gardenia is glossy deep green and lush--can't wait for the fall flowers.

But for me, a small joy is also seeing a rose, like Sophie's Perpetual, which has sulked all summer, suddenly start putting out new growth. Finally!

You'll like this one, Ingrid. I found a new joy in gardening: cutting grasshoppers into half with a scissor! I was cutting roses for the vase, and there's this grasshopper that jumped off when I tried to squeeze it with my finger.

So I sneaked behind the grasshopper with the scissor opened, then I snap it and cut the grasshopper into half. It was so much fun, I kept doing it, none escaped.

Oh Strawberryhill,

I don't know if Ingrid will like it, but I sure do! I giggled for five minutes after reading that. Thanks!

Ingrid does like it since I talked in another post about how I ruthlessly do the same to the grasshoppers I see. I like most insects and wouldn't hurt even a stinkbug but grasshoppers are the enemy!

Ingrid

I've cut a few grasshoppers with scissors, too. I thought I was the only one with such evilish instincts, but it's just such a satisfying thing to do once in a while. Another satisfying activity is popping black blister beetles with my gloves of death. These horrid shiny black beetles love yellow flowers like calendula, and had invaded my garden a couple of years ago. By relentlessly popping them, I guess I lowered their numbers enough that only about a dozen have come back each year since. Nearly eliminated the hateful things without a single spray of poison. Now that is a small joy of gardening. Diane

This post came at a good time for me. By August and September I have become discouraged and overwhelmed. Just keeping this garden watered is a huge task. The responsibilty of it is daunting. Tired looking leaves and dead wood are heartbreaking to me. Cleaning up and pushing the wheel barrow up the steep hillside is tough in the heat of the day. By 3 PM after working 6 hours I am completely exhausted. When I go to bed thinking about the watering strategy for the next day keeps me awake. Then I read your post this morning. Your hopefulness and the care you gave to your plants is inspiring. I feel so much better. There are so many moments of beauty. They come like blooms, fleeting but wonderful and each day there are more. Thank you for reminding me.

Pam, are you watering your huge rose garden with a hose? That alone would take many hours, although it's my preference because it gives me a chance to look at each rose and also knock off insects and dead leaves. Working for six hours during the heat of the day is an amazing feat to me. I'm glad my post helped in some small way, but I'm now wishing you had several people to help you. One thing that really helps me is to get rid of the poor performers or roses I really don't like. I often put in replacements but in your huge garden I would imagine you wouldn't have that need. The relief I feel at not having to care for even these few (at least until the replacements arrive in late fall) is great. I'm so glad I got rid of the huge haystacks of day lilies. The iris replacements look very nice and will be a lot less work.

I'm sure even now your rose garden is beautiful in many ways. That's the prize that keeps us going from day to day.

Mendocino,

I can relate! Those with out hillside gardens have no idea how tiring it can be to walk up and down it so many times a day.

I have put the upper yard all on a drip system and will start with the main veggie garden for next year.

I think it is a lot easier to turn on a section at a time and water it, but I am having a hard time convincing Mom to put down the hose.

This year we used a bunch of soaker hoses I picked up free for the veggie garden. The will get moved around under fruit trees for next year as the drip goes in, but it might be something that works for you (although you do have to watch for thirsty varmints biting through the hoses for water) We leave water out for them so we have been lucky with our lines so far.

Mendocino,
I certainly related to your exhausting hose watering job, too. I did the same for several years (on a smaller scale than you), until I decided a system of small sprinklers was needed in the beds to augment the emitters that ran to shrubs, roses, and trees. In our extremely dry climate, we rely totally on either some kind of irrigation or the dreaded hose. What a relief those little sprinklers were. Finally, my perennials and roses are adequately watered. The sprinklers come in different sizes, can be moved around, but most stay in place all season. You might give a system like this a try. We did it ourselves, too, with parts from good old Home Depot. I hope you find a solution to your watering that allows you to enjoy your garden more and frees you from the chains of a hose! Diane

I do use oscillating sprinklers to water overhead in a big part of the garden. It requires moving the hose around still. There are other areas where hand watering seems the only way. I once had a large part of the garden on drip. What happens when you have a very large garden is that drip actually becomes too much work. In the spring you have to go through everything to make sure it is working properly. On this intensely planted hillside it became impossible to do that. It took too much time and effort, more than what I do now. Diane, probably what you suggest is better. We may get around to it one of these days.

If the volume of water used is not an issue, like here with the cost, the farm supply stores sell high volume "rain birds" that can hit a giant area. My guy drops his intake water line in to the river, starts up the generator and the pump and can do a big field pretty quickly.

We have several of the bigger sized over head rainbirds for our veggie garden, but they just seem to use too much water on places we did not need water, like walk ways/paths, so the soaker hoses and drips work the best for us.

I run shut off valves on one side of the garden so we can pick who gets how much and it will be even tighter controlled once I change to drip. I plan on being able to do a terrace at a time and roll up the lines for winter when not in use. Since we have to plant seed/seedlings, it is no big deal to check the dripper while sowing/planting

There is a special enjoyment to using the hose that you miss when dripping, it also feels like you are "watering" unlike with the drippers

Volume is a bit of a problem here. We have our own water. The springs run well until July. Then we start pumping out of our pond. It's a complicated dance. I certainly appreciate the suggestions and commiserations. This morning the pond pump broke. Thank goodness the weather is cool. I will now get very behind in my watering.

Like Ingrid, I got rid of my hay-stack daylilies, and my garden looks so much better (much more enjoyable without those eyesores). It feels good to give away roses that I don't like, so I can plant roses that I enjoy, to increase the joy in gardening.

There are so many other perennials in my garden, that for a rose to keep its place, it has to out-perform the perennials, either in scent, or in non-stop blooming. Knock-outs, FlowerCarpet, and newly-bred drought-resistant roses like Lynnie give a great show, and I never water them either. I enclose them in huge beds of plastic edging, which acts like mini-swimming pool. We get down-pour of 4" of rain per day in the spring, those roses survived wet-feet, but irises all died.

The key word for me, Ingrid is 'small'. My allotment can be overwhelming (and here is where I bow in amazement at those of you with acres to care for). After a summer (ha) of rain, the weeds are appalling but, as long as I do not raise my nose higher than a foot, the careful and intense weeding (of a square metre)can be astonishingly satisfying - teasing out every single weedling, with a daisy grubber and trowel, I feel completely in control and what's more, it becomes totally apparent that a garden can always be brought back from the brink by doing a small job extremely well - as opposed to my normal MO of attempting to move mountains, rushing and skimping, bodging along with a maniacal sharpened hoe. And then, as a reward for industry, there is nothing nicer than to sit opposite my eldest son,with a large sheet of paper on the kitchen table, sorting and cleaning our seeds - I have a started a special collection of big seeds such as nasturtium, sweet peas and sunflower, ready for my grand-daughters baby fingers to poke in little pots and wait for the spark of life.
I have to say, though Ingrid, it sounds like you did more than just a gentle primping about - digging daylilies in the heat sounds heroic....but so very virtuous and enjoyable, gazing upon the results of your labour. Glad to hear you are not being beaten down by the US weather.
I hear you, Mendocino - I have fantasised about drip irrigation but always foundered at the prospect of directing water to the hundreds of pots of different sizes, with different needs - the continual rain this year has been a let off for me as by August, I am usually totally disheartened and fed up with the endless chore of watering (that sick pressured feeling when you can see your plants practically lying on the floor, wilting like a lettuce leaf on a tin roof.
If all else fails, a good broom in the garden can be my most useful bit of kit.

Strawberry, around here they regularly cut the daylilies to ground at the shopping center. They look bad for a couple of weeks, but they come back really nice. Pretty sure one of the many conditions for this shopping center was limited use of pesticides (close to a wet lands zone- I was part of meetings about it and my friend was working on the project for the developer) So cutting them rather than spraying is easy-that is what my gardener does too if he sees an aphid infestation on them.

Hi Kippy: Thank you for the tip. I have these GIANT daylilies that require an ungodly amount of water for them to bloom. Using Ingrid's term, they are "haystack" daylily that I am ready to throw a match and set them on fire. That's how ugly they are in hot and dry weather. Mine are 12 years old clump - they get bigger, and bigger root-wise. Just a bunch of hairy knots. Some perennials like daylilies bloom better if they are divided every 3 years, I don't have time to divide them, so I kill them.
Roses are better in that aspect: I don't have to divide them every 3 years, and as own-roots they don't get to be gigantic clumps like perennials.

I thought about cutting the daylilies down but I'm also trying to cut down on future work and just getting rid of piles of dead fronds and the flower stalks year after year was more than I could contemplate. For health reasons I'm very limited in what I can do, and it was my sweet husband who dug up the daylilies and planted the irises. Whatever work I did was in the cool of the morning and the evening although fortunately we had a few cooler days (back to hot now).

I had an irrigation system in another garden but checking the emitters as the plants got bigger was a chore and sometimes a rose would dry up before I'd notice that the poor thing was dying of thirst. With fewer than 90 roses hand watering is not such a chore, and my husband often helps with that too. But I do think that every person sooner or later finds a method that works best for them, and that's the way it should be.

Ingrid

Time was I used to get the most horrible summer doldrums, but since I bought this tiny house with its tiny courtyard six years ago it's vanished. For years and years I used to get the jitters as early as March. There's nothing to beat a piece of land, even if it's the size of a post stamp.

I started my garden from scratch. Six years ago almost to the day I planted my poinciana (slightly over 3 feet) and a privacy hedge of 70+ thujas, and now at long last I have a microclimate of my own. I spend most of my free time staring at the poinciana leaves from a folding camp bed that I keep moving around to follow the shade. There's a lot of shade all day long but it keeps moving. The heat is still intense but instead of fighting it or fleeing from it, I now give myself up to it. It feels like touching the very heart of summer.

Every couple of weeks this summer I'd rouse myself to pull out a couple more rose bushes and put in a crepe myrtle instead. The crepes are just reveling in the heat, whereas most of the roses aren't, so why go against the grain of things? Up until this year my garden was all but flowerless and it didn't bother me because I'm a tree person really (it bothered all visitors without exception, though). Then I suddenly got bitten by the rose bug which eventually led me back to more trees.

I'm keeping Ragged Robin, though. Can't part with this rose.

forgive, wintercat, but 70 thujas does not sound like my definition of a tiny courtyard. 70 buxus maybe. Here, tiny is 3.8m x 9m (but hey, not getting into a competitive tiny garden thing and yes, you surely cannot beat having a spot of land to call your own).

Dang and drat! You're absolutely right. Growing up in a 30 duman farm spoils one for life I suppose.

Sorry for the belated reply. I don't have a computer at home - only at work and this is the beginning of the workweek for me.

I'll take this opportunity to thank you for your amusing posts. I usually save them for my lunch break: munch munch - giggle giggle - choke choke! (and in a very open open space to boot).