Thank you. Drought resistance is more important than drought tolerance here...I'm only 31, so I don't have too many years of memories...we've only had 1 "drought" that I can remember, the summer of '88. '99 or '00 was dry too, but not really drought conditions. In continued reading, I keep leaning towards TTTF over KBG. I think I figured out the "fluffy", short-growing grass that I had in the front yard as creeping bentgrass...it was ugly. The only thing still inhibiting me from buying some improved TTTF is not being able to see the grasses first hand. I've eradicated many clumps of very thick-bladed tall fescue...so I'm kinda afraid to seed my lawn with it, even though they've been improved to a finer blade. The clumps I've had look like this... http://www.msuturfweeds.net/images/galleries/t_fescue/1.jpg I know it's not gonna be as fine-looking as KBG, but I assume it is far better looking than the fescue in the above link. Looking at TTTF pictures online just isn't the same as being able to see it in person. I love the look that my KBG had...I just don't think I'll be able to maintain it throughout the whole yard to keep it pristine...but if TTTF doesn't compare somewhat to KBG in texture and color, I may just bite the bullet and do what I can to maintain it. I still really want nothing to do with PRG...6 or 7 years of no lawn rust until I seeded the back and side with the mixture in the 1st post. Still undecided...and slowly running out of time, especially if I go with KBG. Entire lawn is dead and heavily aerated. The local OSU extension says Aug. 15 - Sept. 15 is the best time to seed in northern Ohio.

Well Good Morning to all of you who have added your helpful information to me while I slept. I looked out the window this morning at my now very sparse EDF and then came in here and read all of your input and I think I have decided that I will treat her to/with/for another year in place. Today I will gather every possible leaf that I might have missed, put another several inches of soil on top of that and then use Liqui-Cop to drench the canes and the soil. In the spring and summer I will pay attention to every leaf and see if I can keep the disease at bay. If she resists my attempts at renovation, I will dig her out of her current place, put her in a big pot, and see if that helps. I'm really not into giving up on her yet, although I was very tempted at some point in yesterday's conversations. Gee, I may have painted that shed behind her blue just to set off her lovely color....? For the record, the place she is in is not optimal. She's on the south side of a shed with an overhanging roof. She does get drip irrigation, but there are yellow flag iris crowding her roots (I try to keep them out, but they are pushy), and this year I made a tactical error by crowding rather a lot of potted plants around her base. Oh yeah, and the chickens do love to take dust baths in her shade. Poor girl. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to share your experiences with me. I've had roses for too long to be so ignorant of what I am really doing with and to them.

Hi, Finding this thread very interesting. I am in the Northeast and I had heard of flooding in the midwest, but didn't realize the southeast was having heat and drought conditions. So sorry to hear that. It seems to me, you normally have high heat, so it must be very hot if you are noticing it more than usual. Having spent some time in Florida, I just can't imagine what it is like in that heat, with no rain. As a matter of fact, I love the rain you get in Florida. Coming down in torrents and then stopping in a few hours and the sun is back out, with everything steaming. Just love that. We have also had drought this summer, but not even as much heat as we normally get in a growing season. My tomatoes are half the size they usually are and nothing happening with any of the warm season crops. So glad I decided to forgo the peppers this year. I have tried to add natives to the yard, and drought tolerant, low maintenance plants to the yard over the years and thankfully some of those plants did fairly well this year. That is not easy to do in the Northeast though. At least with the drought tolerant plants, like lavender. Usually drought tolerant plants prefer sandy soil and most of the northeast is clay. I try to offset that by raising many of my beds some and add compost to the beds. Then we have unpredictability to deal with. Last year, I swear I might have set the sprinklers twice the whole growing season. Lots of rain and frequently enough that I barely had to water anything. The drought tolerant plants in the yard didn't look as good as they do this year? The grass looked the best it had ever looked. Huge amounts of mildew etc though. This year, I have never seen zinnias so clean of mildew. Even the tomatoes are much better in that respect than usual. We are really pressed to water everything this year. We had a total water ban for the month of June and nothing was looking good at all. We could use a watering can but that was all, so I tried to give everything a little drink, but I just couldn't do everything. Most things survived until we were back on rationed water, every other day. My yard does not look very good right now either. The grass is brown, and I have lost some plants but most things will survive for next year. The full sun area seems to be doing the best actually. The shade area..is near tree roots and even running the sprinkler for an hour and a half, the next day the hydrangeas and hosta can start drooping by late afternoon again. What is doing well... Butterfly Bush...had some yellowing leaves but bloomed fine Pennisetum Hamelin grasses look excellent Zinnia don't seem to mind at all Coneflowers did ok but between the dryness and the critters, they have not had a blooming or increasing year at all. Dianthus did fine with some supplemental water Iris like the dryness and seem fine Cosmos still looking okay..with some supplemental water Lavender did pretty well too Penstemon did well and produced a bumper crop of seeds Ninebark shrubs don't seem to have been bothered at all...Dart's Gold and Seward's Summer Wine. Knock Out Rose...didn't do as well as last year, but looking respectable. Foliage looks good and did get bloom Meidland white rose...surprised at how well this one is doing. It was planted in late June in a heat wave when we were still having drought and a water ban. So I had to shade it for 10 days straight and water daily with a watering can. It managed without noticing really. Slowed down it's bloom for about 3 weeks, but now is pushing out new stems and plenty of buds and the foliage looks really really great. Shasta Daisy seedlings added in June, barely noticed the drought. No yellowing leaves, blooming intermittently in their first year. The short varieties of Becky and Snowcap, just love them. In that same bed with the Meidland, plus lantana, penta, dianthus, silver mound artemesia, portulaca, a grass, some million bells. Not one plant there has shown any sign of stress and has gotten less water than the rest of the garden. Little bits of watering can water when it was really hot and the sprinkler was set twice all season. I am hoping to plant the same next year. It is a full sun bed from sun up to sun down. Tropical Hibiscus, Dahlias, Four OClocks, Nierembergia Purple Robe in pots...all seem to be doing fine with an occassional miss on the watering schedule. Hosta Guacamole...wow, what a surprise this was! It took the drought better than some of the native drought tolerant plants and it is in quite a bit of sun. No wilting, one little brown edge on one leaf and with very little supplemental water, it sailed through and bloomed and grew three times larger than last year. California Poppies...my first time growing them. Did great! Epimediums are practically indestructible in the shade. Nepeta Walker's Low..wow, what a trooper that plant is. LOVE it! What hasn't done as well... Hydrangea wilting every other day, needing most of the supplemental watering. Love them and will keep watering them by hand if I had to. Oakleaf Hydrangea, especially, has brown edges on all the leaves and looks horrible. Need to mulch it heavier next year and hopefully put a soaker hose around the base or something. Surprisingly, Asclepias and Joe Pye Weed in their second year, showed wilting and yellowing leaves with the lack of water. They showed more of a problem then the Knock Out Rose and the Butterfly Bush near them. Hosta Frances William, hates the heat and drought. Looks awful Hosta Patriot was a small plant that barely came back this year and what did come back just disappeared at some point. Dicentra King of Hearts..it was a very pretty healthy looking plant that I added in June to a very shady border, and I watered and watered and watered it because it was so dry looking all the time and it kept losing leaves. I can barely see a little remnant of it. It is supposed to be one of those dicentras that bloom all summer. Sambucus shrubs...the dark and the light one, did not like this weather this year and looked great last year. Viburnum Maresii..wilts at the first sign of drought Ferns...had a tough year, although 'Ghost' seemed to do better than the others. Heucheras had a rough year and none of them look very good. Sedums, don't really look their best this year, surprisingly, I don't know if it is the drought or they just need dividing. In the containers, nicotiana didn't fare well at all. Sorry to be so long...hoped something I might have to report might help someone trying to decide what to try next year. :-) pm2

Hi Ellen! I'm glad you saved one! lol I think you are going to be surprised at how well the alfalfa pellets do. I just worked them in a circle around the base and covered them with soil and mulch, so the rabbits wouldn't be looking for them. My camera is broken or I'd send you a photo of roses. .....Yes, a rose that comes back after a bad winter is a keeper. I don't pay attention to mine before winter either. I know some people mound up soil around the base to protect it more over winter, but, I like to keep it simple. I buy plants that are one zone hardier than mine and then they are on their own. :-) I thought I pulled up all my Casa Blanca Lilies last year. I was so disgusted with how bad they looked from RLBeetles. I didn't have time to fool with them last year and there was barely any foliage left on them, so we dug up the bulbs and threw them away. I was so surprised to see them growing again this year. You can tell they are a younger version, so they must have been side bulbs? Any way, I must have gotten rid of most of the RLBeetles with the old bulbs, there weren't that many this year and I figured out a new way of getting rid of them. I had a tough time before because I would try to pick them off and they were too fast for me and would drop to the ground. They turn themselves over so their brown underside camouflages them. Now I get a 5 gallon pail with water in it and hold it under the branch and flick them down into it. They seem to know how to swim though, so I pour them out on the driveway and dispose of them that way. My foliage is looking really good this year now. Good luck with your roses! :-)