The rain has been pretty intense here in Middle GA - everything is growing mildew. It's 1:45 pm and it has not rained yet today and I'm constantly checking the radar... it's supposed to be dry. It's hard to believe. My raised beds have been an enormous benefit - usually they dry out so fast, I spend much of the summer hauling hoses and changing out what got shorted on water so I could water something desperate. This year I'm hearing squooshing sounds when I walk between garden beds. My tomatoes are so sad - lots of disease, tho they are still sort of producing. Hardly any bird damage this year. The okra is pitiful. The peppers are worse and I have no idea what is wrong with the eggplant other than too many flea beetles and too much rain. My beans are growing by leaps and bounds, but almost no flowers on the limas and no pods. The rattlesnakes are growing, but even they are looking sad and are slower than usual. I'm hoping that the predicted dry for a few days will help me get some harvest. My corn mostly collapsed and is growing horizontally. (First year growing it for me.) This is the first year that I have had tarragon actually live tho. And I had a bumper crop of garlic and onions.

Thank you. These are the biggest pads this lotus has had and I haven't even fertilized it this year. The water is usually pretty clear, but this is especially clear and I bet it's the clouds keeping algae from building.

I don't believe anything except heavy construction is going to outright kill those trees. They're tough! Lose some roots? No problem, we'll make more! As to the suggestion to topdress with compost and aerify, that will be good for the turf but of little impact to drainage or for that matter, tree health. @ viper....I disagree. Rain gardens, such as I understand them anyway, do most of their work via the soil layers. The main function is infiltration and that has relatively little to do with the plant material which may be on site. Further-and this is new information-it seems that melt water which constantly enters the device at a slow rate even in winter is sufficient to defrost the soils in many raingardens. I suppose I may as well toss in the caveat that this was from research out of Ohio. I'm sure nobody in Ohio thinks they're living in a warm spot, but contrast that with a place like Wisconsin, where it's even colder in the winter.....and you can see there's still room for question. But so far as my understanding goes right now, raingardens can and often do work in the winter as well. Now for some balance: Raingarden proponents like to tout the "deep roots" of the prairie species used for these practices. But..........(there's always a "but"), this has far more to do with soil characteristics than it does with anything to do with a given plant species' rooting characteristics. That's the dirty little secret that all these prairie warriors either won't say or don't know. They parade around as if another patch of ironweed ( a cool plant) is going to save the world. As far as I can tell, it's what has happened to the soil, and especially the subsoil, that is going to influence rooting depth. Not species of plant. All that said, a properly designed rain garden or bioswale can be a wonderful thing. I think it's important that aesthetics be considered. Nobody's going to fall inline with a technique-no matter how useful-if it doesn't look interesting.

Yes, I think we could throw a protective cover over a bush or two or five if need be. I went ahead and planted my potted Anna Jung, Acadia Louisiana Tea, Souvenir de Pierre Notting, and Tamalpais Homestead Tea from Rosepetals (August 2018) and Spanish Beauty (Madame Gregoire Staechelin) from Greenmantle (March/2018). I am hoping for the best. Like you say, Ingrid, getting them in before the heat seems wise. This doesn't look like a sunburning week either. Yes, KS, it is a trick picking the best time. I bet your GH will do great! My baby one has made it through winter fine and really looks ready to shoot up. The rose leaf buds are all starting here. The potted roses are all going in when the ones in the ground already are starting to grow. I hope they know what they are doing.