Great thread and so important as climate changes everywhere. Here are a few things that seem to be working for us (so far): We had a handyman lengthen the hose that originally went from the washing machine into the utility sink so that when the weather is dry we can run the wash water into a large plastic garbage can on wheels (it fills up 2 x from each wash -- I never realized how much water it takes to do laundry!) Then my husband wheels the garbage can outdoors and we fill up watering cans to water the plants. Another trick we learned from a neighbor from the Middle East: put a large plastic bucket next to the kitchen sink and use a pot to ladle water into it when we've finished washing the dishes. We also use bathwater to flush. And we wonder who was the genius who came up with the idea that it was more sensible to use drinking water for toilet purposes instead of the traditional compost toilet or the new electric "zapper" toilets that use no water and turn poop into fertilizer. Now here's a question: anyone out there pee on the ground near their plants to add nitrogen? I know some hard-core gardeners and farmers who swear by their high-nitrogen "yellow gold." And I read that in some traditional communities it was impolite to have a meal at someone's home without making a "deposit" in the humanure facility! Another trick we've learned: plant roses and fruit trees in deep wells, then water by hand filling the well once a week at most. We've found this even more effective than using the PVC "black snakes" that look so ugly in many local gardens here (and are toxic too). And I've learned from Jeri and others that in California late fall, winter and early spring are prime rose season and a really silly time to prune! Right now I'm enjoying the winter blooms. In summer the roses "rest" and what blooms there are aren't the best. I agree that the old roses seem to take the drought much more easily than the newer roses, although I have to agree with Jeri that if you raise them "rough" and don't prune or overwater, it's amazing what some of the modern roses can survive. I just read today that Australia is near collapse from climate change (drought, heat make growing food hard) and that California, the American Southwest and other Mediterranean climate areas are predicted to follow suit. So I guess we'll all be learning a lot more about rainwater harvesting, graywater, swales etc.

I have a lot of damage in my rose field from last year's heat and drought. I THOUGHT I was doing a good job keeping the roses watered, until I realized in August that the hydrant that supplies my drip system had an underground leak. There wasn't enough pressure to push the water to the end of the system, and most of the roses in that garden went without water for most of the summer. Some of the own-root hybrid teas in my front bed also suffered from the double whammy of heat/drought followed by cold/windy winter. The ones that are struggling are the ones that probably don't do well on their own roots in the first place. I thought Los Angeles was a goner, but it had one bud near the soil line and is growing back a bit. Golden Ophelia looks pretty sad ... as does Chief Seattle. We had a minor late freeze here in April, and that did some weird things to some of my roses. Pink Peace, for example, was pruned in late March and it barely grew above the pruned canes but it opened 5" flowers on dinky stems weeks earlier than normal. It looks like the second flush should be a bit more normal. On the plus side, this is the perfect time to assess the superstars in the garden. Ellen Poulsen is beautiful ... so is Comtesse de Segur. I'm not sure the OGRs have ever looked better. My row of Hybrid Chinas is absolutely stunning. Connie

Thanks all. I'll address each comment below: "You can purchase pine bark fines, which would be a terrific amendment to a normal potting mix (soil-less) along with a generous amount of perlite. A good container medium might be an equal amount of those three ingredients." I've always had bad luck with perlite - it seems to keep the soil way too dry and has essentially killed anything I've experimented with. Also, with all the soils I've considered, I'm not familiar with a normal potting mix that is also soil-less. What materials do you normally see? I know pretty well that citrus hates to have wet roots, so that was my goal with finally finding some larger pine bark chips. Are you suggesting that I mash some of those up into dime-sized pieces and mix in some perlite? "I don't know why you're using Christmas lights if it's inside. How cold do you keep it inside?? Most citrus actually would prefer to be MUCH cooler than us in our winter homes. Don't know where in NJ you live, but I see 70's by day in the extended forcast and maybe 50's or upper 40's in some areas--this ain't cold for citrus!" My house has some poor insulation in the walls, so I thought the Xmas lights would help give the roots a little heat. The house is chilly but not out of livable temps. "Jer, what's a CFL lamp? Does this lamp put out a lot of heat?" It's a basic compact flouresent bulb. No heat, just light. On a timer, too. That was only over last winter while it was indoors. It is indeed dry in the house, but I don't think that would kill the tree. It didn't bounce back after a summer outside, either. "Let's address the root problem. Does the pot sit in a pan to catch water overflow? You need well draining soil and never let the roots sit in water. I'm going to suggest you find some sandy soil. Not pure sand but sandy soil. It will drain well and dry quickly. Repot in sandy soil and feed with Superthrive. An 8 oz bottle is about $15 but I put great faith in Superthrive. Many folks think it is snake oil but I swear by it. If anything will save your tree, Superthrive will." The wet roots and weaker draining was the reason I finally went with the pine bark chips. It was certainly wet in any part-soil mix I previously was using. Are you suggesting sand + crushed pine back chips? I am willing to try the Superthrive if you think it will help. Will it be much better than Miracle Gro for Azeleas (or whatever the acid-loving brand is named)? Thanks all! I'll have to start bringing the tree indoors soon when it dips into the low 30s at night. I hope I can save it!

Betty, Most of my tomatoes made it through the summer, but I'll qualify that by saying the weather here in southern OK often is very different from the weather in central and NE OK. We didn't have rain at all when the OKC area had flooding rains, but then we had 5" of rain in July followed by a very dry August and then 13" of rain in September. I feel like having the rain in July saved my garden from the June drought and then the rain in Sept. revived it after a brutally hot and dry August. A few of the tomatoes that "took a lickin' and kept on tickin" in my garden this year, producing virtually all season (some are still producing now) included: Sun Gold, Black Cherry, Heinz 1439, Santa Clara Canner, Ildi (a yellow grape type tomato), Tess's Land Race Currant, Heidi (a red paste tomato), Black Brandywine, Sweet Million, Nebraska Wedding, Red Brandymaster, Pink Brandymaster (both Brandymaster types seem to run out of steam in late June but then rebounded nicely in late July after we received some rain in July), Husky Red Cherry, Better Bush, Bush Goliath, J. D.'s Special C-Tex, Dana's Dusky Rose, Red Defender, and Indian Stripe. Some varieties that didn't set fruit well in May and June due to unseasonably early high heat/high humidity did rebound well and set fruit in September, although I am not sure if they'll have a chance to ripen before frost. Two varieties that were new to me and which I grew both in containers and in the ground were Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow. They both produced oodles and oodles of red or yellow cherry tomatoes and they produced them really early. There wasn't necessarily anything special about the flavor to me, but DS took them to work and the guys at the fire station happily ate them and thought they tasted just fine. They likely would be producing still, but the hordes of grasshoppers that hit us so hard here in July stripped them of their foliage, and compulsively ate each leaf that tried to leaf out after the plants had been stripped. So, I guess we could say that Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow won the Grasshopper Taste Test. I had many other varieties that produced great in May and June and July, but petered out after that. Hope this info helps a bit. Dawn