Mike, I had two 50 ft. lengths of drip hoses wound in, out and around the plants with mulch covering them - all throughout the garden in the veggie garden. The mulch was piled on 8 inches thick or thicker under and around them. I put covers over the tomatoes in late July through August. I have good well water, so no chlorine that can damage plants. Notwithstanding all that I did, when temps reached 110-120, everything just turned brown, and then blister beetles ate what was left. I had tall, dark green, beautiful corn plants with 2-3 huge ears on each plant, but upon checking them, they had few developed kernels. Total loss. I planted more than one hundred tomatoes (seven varieties), corn, beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, bell peppers, three types of hot peppers, Red bells, zucchini, and onions. Normally I get enough to can, freeze, eat fresh and sell at the Farmer's Market & Health Food stores and still have enough to donate to the Food Bank. Not last year. The only tomatoes I got were a handful from the plants I grew in large pots, but only a few. They were sure good though. Cherokee Purples were especially yummy and the Lemon Boys. I think I got about 20 tomatoes altogether. I got more than everyone else around here. Their plants kicked it in June and July. I did get some okra from the plants in the smaller, lower garden and a few pitifully small Early Girl tomatoes, and a pretty good harvest of Jalapenos in September when it cooled down a bit, but that was all. I put so much work into it and expense. But it was just too hot. It was like standing inside a furnace ever day. I lost several small trees, one large weeping willow and several Eponymous shrubs. And what the heat didn't kill, the voles did, chewing the roots off several of my roses. What a horrible year! Sorry to go on about it...

Hi marcia, thanks for the tip! I will watch out for that lychnis!!! I saw that in my parents' yard in BC and it was in a shaded and moist area, so it was tiny. Therefore, I dug it up and flew it back with me LOL. A year later, it's now this huge clump! My parents could not believe it LOL!!! I guess I may not believe it later either.... ROTFLOL! As for the Black Lace, please try it. It's so worth it! Even though we had such a rough winter this past year, it still came back from the base and is now over 3 feet tall. It's just a lovely thing. Donna, thank you! I actually have a Bugbane Chocoholic and is doing quite well. However, it has been "eaten alive" by that 3 feet tall Geranium Rozanne!!!!!!!!! LOL! That Geranium acts like it's on steroid or something and so I probably will need to move that poor Bugbane elsewhere next year so it will be more visible.... As for the Rodgersia, I am so happy to hear that it's hardy here! I actually saw that for the very first time just recently in the Botanical Garden in Newfoundland and I was very impressed by it. However, when I looked it up online, it was listed as a zone 5 plant. So I was disappointed. However, I am pleased to hear that it's really a hardy plant! Donna, do you have a photo of that please? I would love to see yours! Thanks so much.

I always liked having my profile up there for other members, too. I thought it was a nice way to tell other people about my approach to gardening, things that had been successful for me and those that had proven troublesome. I was always fine with the "send me an e-mail" aspect, too. I knew from whence the message originated and was able to keep my e-mail private unless I replied to the message (which I generally did). After the hand over, however, I had to REsubmit my information to the powers that be. In spite of opting to have my address remain hidden, there it was, BOLD AS BRASS for anyone to see/use/ ABuse. Naturally, I was blissfully unaware until the volume of messages in my in box increased markedly... . I was BULL----. I was not the only one, as I soon learned. More than a few "regulars" from other forums thought everything was OK, too... only to realize that the "changes" took time to percolate through, and what they thought was hidden, WASN'T. I complained, too... and received an anemic reply/apology about 4 days later. I was less than impressed. It was then that I decided to eliminate the entire profile. And I "flushed" any e-mails from places I didn't recognize; it still bothers me that "regulars" probably felt "blown off" (but I had no way of "recognizing" them via the subject line)... the very people I would have happily replied to had things not take the turn they did. I wasn't really interested in giving personal drapery consultations FOR FREE... in the past I had welcomed questions, requests for clarification. It will be a long time before I'll be able to rid my mouth of that bad taste.

On a somewhat related note: One might want to Mouse-over the "Your Houzz" in the top right and click Edit Profile. Then in the left hand column look for and click Advanced Settings. One of the things I liked about GW is that I never got spammed by emails, but by default we are setup to receive "Updates, Promotions and Research ( I'm guessing for Marketing) emails." Along with that it looks like things are set up to email you every time someone smiles at one of your posts. By default, we would get lots of spam filling our mailboxes. I found out this while looking to see if there was a Signature feature in-which I could put my USDA Zone info, but I didn't see one.