We always have a period of seriously dry heat - 90s, long stretch, little/no rain - in the summer. This year I was away during 10 days of it, too, so anything that was still in containers was pretty crispy when I got back. But in the ground, my gaura, echinacea and gaillardia were the absolute best; rudbeckia Cherokee Sunset and althea officinalis were both winners. Rosemary, which I love, love, love, did fine. Basil was singing for joy. Squashes, not so much - the heat breeds all kinds of bugs down here - I still haven't identified them all yet, but I sure know the squash bugs and squash vine borers. Yeah, I could do without them - better remay plan next year. Tomatoes, too, were just so-so. Annuals - portulaca loves the heat here - my cuphea Batface did well, and so did centratherum Pineapple Sangria. The centratherum is a later bloomer though, as is hibiscus sabdariffa, which was doing fine, but I think tonight's freeze will kill it. That's about all - the big hydrangea on the property did NOT do very well this year - very scanty blooms. It may need a pruning; I'll have to research that. Hope "y'all" had good luck!

I've got several in one bed that are starting their Leap Year in 2011, and I'm excited for them all: Liberty Thunderbolt Dick Ward Heatwave Abiqua Drinking Gourd Dream Queen I bought this house 3 full years ago (starting my 4th gardening season now), and this was the first official bed I dug out grass from scratch and planted & spaced everything with a proper game plan, structure shrubs, jap maple, a birdbath. Nothing was shoved in or randomly placed. Everyone looked great in their Creep Year. I don't do official written eye counts anymore, but my mental count is telling me every single hosta has put on multiple eyes between Creep and Leap. Liberty is up. The rest range from nubbins to being ready to unfurl. This is the first year I'm going to stand back with a critical eye and determine if the bed needs companion plants or whatever. Very excited! Gayle

First Frost is still the best looking hosta in my garden. Halcyon is next, and Color Glory. Rainforest Sunrise,Paradigm, Cathedral Windows, Stained Glass, T Rex, Guacamole, Abiqua Drinking Gourd, all still look great plus a few more. We have not had a killing frost yet tho, maybe later this week. Then we shall see who comes thru that.

Against my better judgement, I looked at the NWS forecast this morning, lol, and our chance for Monday precip has gone from 70% to 80%. I would love snow on any day but Monday. If we can just have the Christmas Parade in town that evening and have it safely, then it can snow every day after that and I won't complain. At the parade, we collect a lot of food and donations for our local food bank, so we need to have decent weather so we'll have a large turnout. I actually think a lighted parade, Santa's arrival and the lighting of the Christmas Tree on the courthouse lawn would be beautiful in snow (not sleet or freezing rain!) but the snow also could hurt the size of the crowd and/or make travel difficult. Jeanie, I know we all are ingrates. No matter what weather we have, we seem to want something else. I am dreading a long, cold winter like last year's and was hoping it wouldn't start up until January, but it looks like it is starting early. Actually, for the OK Panhandle and for Jay's part of Kansas, the cold weather already has brought them some snow. We're all stocked up on groceries now for winter. I keep the pantry really full because the nearest grocery store I like is 30 miles away. There's a small one in town, but I don't care much for it and won't go there if I can avoid it. I do need to start stockpiling deer corn and wild bird seed for the really cold weather because we feed a lot of 'visitors' in the cold months. Jeff, I know that early snowfall fits right in with everything else this crazy year. I was looking at the video footage of all the damage in California from the Santa Ana winds yesterday and thinking to myself "at least we don't have those here". Paula, I agree with you on the shaking and the quaking. I am sure it was felt much more strongly at your place than ours, but even though y'all have had a lot of quakes in central OK, I never, ever expected to feel one way down here and I don't like that feeling at all. My plan for the spring garden is to plant less cool season stuff because it takes up so much space for so long, and instead try to get warm-season crops in the ground as early as possible with the use of low tunnels of floating row covers. Then, if I can get the warm season crops to produce before the dreaded heat arrives, I'll be happy. I won't spend endless $$$$ watering all summer long either. I'll stop watering the big garden at the end of June, and then everything can sink or swim on its own. When we first moved here, an older gentleman I met had his own planting strategy, developed from long battles with the intense summers and late cold springs. He planted on April 1st. He stopped watering at the end of June. Then, in September, he planted spinach and other hardy winter crops. He didn't have to deal with the recurring freezes in spring. He didn't spend money on irrigation in July and August. He got pretty good harvests most years, and great ones some years when rain actually fell in adequate amounts in the summer, without letting the weather drive him crazy. The longer I live here, the more I see the genius in his plan. I know we are better gardeners for having experienced all the extremes, but I sure would like to have a nice, quiet year when the weather is mild and mellow. It's not likely to happen, is it? Dawn