Yes, I understand the water bill issue. It finally rained last night. It's the first rain that wet the ground in months.

I, too, am getting my hosta from the frozen north this fall. After Oct. 1, I should be getting (some oldies also):

Cathedral Windows
Victory
X-rated
Venus

Victory and X-rated looked great at the Arboretum after Sept. 1. We're talking after more than 40 days of over 100 temps. Venus and Cathedral Windows are both Plantaginea offspring, so should do well for me.

Bkay

We've also had rain, yesterday and it is raining again. First rain we've had too, nice and steady and ground-soaking, after 3 1/2 months of that same 100+ heat. Looking forward to more tomorrow!

I planted Victory this past spring, it has done well this summer. Ditto Cathedral Windows which has been in the ground 4 years now.

Sandy

Get real...It NEVER rains in California in the Summertime. La La La (I think there is a song like that)We pay for all the water BIG time. About $300+/for 2 months. We even have to water in Winter because our average here from Nov-April is only 9-12", and that comes in tenths of an inch with a half inch rain over a 24 hour period considered a downpour. Rarely do we have thunderstorms, just that misty/drizzle that doesn't even moisten the sidewalks under the trees. I don't own a raincoat or an umbrella. I walk fast on those "rainy days".

-Babka

Everyone in our township complained about their water bill this month. To make up for revenue lost with in property taxes from homes losing their values, they decided to charge your sewer bill based on your water usage. My brother's water/sewer bill at his ice cream store went from $200 to $400 (water cooled ice cream machines were the culprit).

Our bill almost doubled from same time last year. I actually think we watered more last year though. Plus, we now have renters now that are watering outdoor plants too. There's only one water meter, so we can't determine where the increase has been.

When our new irrigation system is totally installed next year, I'll go from using 2880 gallons of water each day I water my hostas down to about 360 gallons.

My garden is such a depressing place right now. It looks like I am growing papyrus out there. The leaves are all like paper from the sun and heat. The poor pecan trees are just about bare, and the sunshine and heat have damaged almost every hosta I have. I have watered every other day, and they are still alive. I truly think the reservoir system helped minimize my losses. My DH even commented that if they can make it through a summer like this, they can grow anywhere. I don't know how much this will set them back so I probably won't order any until the winter fever hits. Victory was new for me but looked pretty good. Komodo Dragon, Elatior, Ebb Tide, and my Blue Angel held up as well. My plantaginea family got crispy like pretty much everything else. American Sweetheart was the champion looking as pretty at the end of August as when I planted it in the spring. I lost 5 Japanese Maples, and there are another 2 looking sad. I even lost liriope and Chinese honeysuckle. I didn't think you could kill those with a stick. I hope the rain we FINALLY got last night will turn the tide. X rated will be at the top of my list for next year.

You can all thank me for the rain. I went on vacation Friday at 3p EST. I have not seen the sun since then. I am loving it. Not that I finally have to clean the house now but that we all needed it so badly. My water bill was doubled this summer. The most of my hostas are in pots and I had a few in the ground out back. I had to water daily but could use a soak-er head to minimize loss. (98+ deg daily). Many of the ones in the ground had to be moved back to pots as I could not get them enough water in this beach sand I have here. The last 3 will be moved this week. LOL I did not give up the hosta fund but I did slim my shopping on shoes and purses. My cannas had a rough time as they were at the end of the pecking order. PVC is the plan for this vacation to ready for next year. Have a great day everyone! Paula

We could have made a mortgage payment with the water bill this year......I think by the time it's over and done, it will cost us more than $1500 for water for the 3 1/2 months of drought and extreme heat we have had. And we still lost plants. Japanese maples, evergreens, a dogwood, and we won't know how many perennials and shrubs until spring.

I wish my water bill was as low as yours, Babka! I would be dancing in the misty/drizzle! Reality is quite different here!

You garden quite differently in CA than we do here in the midwest, as I remember from my many visits out there and all the plants I couldn't even begin to identify; and the rains came in the late winter in northern CA..

Looks like La Nina is back again, officially, so we might have a continued drought (we are still under extreme drought conditions, according to NOAA) and will be that way for a long while. Next summer looks to be like a repeat of this past summer.

So thankful for the rain we have gotten the last two days, but it wasn't nearly enough. Hoping for more. And it just started raining again! But I've moved a couple of pots and things, and even after 4 1/2 inches of rain, the ground was still dry as powder under them.

Ilovetogrow says, "PVC is the plan for this vacation to ready for next year."

Are you intent on running PVC piping? And how will you connect it? Or to what will it be connected?

Last summer our drought was really long, and I had first a $150 water bill, and then almost $400. That's when I called to have the irrigation meter put in, a $200 charge from the municipal water folks. It is still city water, but no sewer processing fee....house water costs less than 1/2 the total bill, because sewage charge is way more than half the bill.
Of course, we are not giving up on the idea of a well here, because it could even be done by water jetting it down. No rocks, some clay, but not deep. Our height above sea level is 22 feet because we sit on a clay hillock, and all around us it goes down to 13 feet to 3 feet above sea level. If the sea level continues to rise, we'll be living on our own little island one day. Me and Gilligan.

Oh yeah. After putting in the irrigation meter, only once has the plant watering (not the lawn)cost more than $50. And that was when I transplanted a large Japanese maple back in late winter.

This was a very wet year for me. I think I watered twice until the past two weeks. I am spending my budget on slug control. That isn't fun either.

I never realized before how expensive water is. We're on a well, so we don't pay for water. But we rarely water any gardens even when we first plant them.
We spend a lot of time watering plants in pots, so there is no inclination to water gardens at the end of the day. And gotten away with it too, until this year, when a lot of the mature hosta began to sag in August without an occasional drink.
I find it fascinating how many of you grow hosta under so much more challenging circumstances than I do. But I imagine their colours must be very cooling. They are here.
Hostas have been magnificent this year. Near perfect. Huge and lush. And very few slugs.

Yes moccasinlanding PVC is on tap here. I have been buying fittings, tees,45 deg, end caps for 1/2" schedule 40 PVC. I have my glue and cleaner and cutter. I am ready. Dragging the hose around this year was a major time spender. This is not an elaborate system. I will still be connecting the hose to them for a while but once I am done I will only have to flip a couple of valves to water. The hostas will forever be in pots so I have been thinking of a soaker system for them. OMG I have watched too much This Old House! Why is simplifying your life a lot of work? Paula

Yep, la nina once again according to the paper. I'm hoping it won't be as bad as this year. People who haven't watered have lost trees and shrubs. My lawn is really hurt. I just can't afford enough water to keep it green. I just hope I've kept it alive.

My hosta are crispy, too. Guacamole is the only hosta without many crispy edges. I've had a couple revert to juvenile leaves, maybe from overwatering. It's been a tough year for sure.
bkay

Oh dear! Get 3/4" schedule 40 pipe. You won't be able to get very many heads on the 1/2" pipe. Been there, done that.

-Babka

Ilovetogrow, in Mobile, just 450 miles west of Jax, we do not have the pipe in the ground YET. I had sort of put the soaker hoses snaked through the flower beds, beneath the mulch. That was two years ago. When I remulched, I picked up pieces of shredded soaker hose, black of course. The sun and heat absolutely killed the hose. Black is a bad color for products that stay outdoors in intense weather.

Bkay, not looking forward to another Lanina year. Down at the river former neighbors have lost some trees, one a big old hickory fell over into our lots there. They are waiting until cooler weather to remove it, so the camellias in that area are probably all gone too. Former owners owned a nursery, and so the lots are full of old camellias.

I didn't think I would be responding to this post,but here's my 2 cents. I live in a wooded lot on the side of a mountain. We are on well water,so no water bill. First of all,I never water,except newly planted hostas. Second,it has been a very hot dry summer,but I have never lost a plant,due to drought. It is raining right now,but it's the first appreciable rain this month. I don't have any lawn,as I am in the woods,and the only mowing I do is a strip beside the road I live off. If I had to do what all of ya'll have to do,I would have given up on hostas years ago! Just my opinion. Phil

Nonsense. You don't give up on something you enjoy, even if it's difficult. Accomplishment is the thing the majority of us enjoy most. Besides, as my mom once said, "If it was easy, it would only pay minimum wage."

bkay