Pretty pathway, Deanna, and the phlox is lovely, NHBabs!

While waiting for Isaias to thumb its nose at us and take its rain elsewhere, I decided to post a few August garden pictures.

True lilies are blooming:

Lilium Arabesque

Lilum Casa Blanca:

Good old Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium)

Daylilies continue:

Hemerocallis Frans Hals:

A N0-ID daylily inherited from my mother's garden:

Medium-sized phlox are still blooming and the tall phlox are starting:

Blushing Knockout rose:

My wisteria has put out a blossom! It never blooms in August and this is a slightly different color than usual.

The doublefile viburnum has fruits which the catbird has been picking off as they ripen:

And the pokeweed has flowers which are turning into fruits:

I think I'm at Houzz's ten photos limit so I'll add a few more in another post.

Claire

Soapwort is now on its second flush as I've been deadheading, weather permitting:

I like the soapwort with the Autumn Joy sedum flowerbuds:

Phlox also goes well with sedums and soapwort:

Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake' has a few remaining blossoms:

Claire

Your garden path looks very inviting Deanna. I think Phlox Glamour Girl is related to Coral Creme Drop which I planted last year. So far I'm very impressed. I have a love/hate relationship with Phlox due to the mildew problems with many varieties. Hard to not grow it though as Babs photo shows.

I'm under a tornado watch right now and lights are flickering so if I disappear suddenly that will be why. The wind has already knocked a big Castor Bean over despite it being supported. I suspect I'll be picking up a lot of broken plant bits tomorrow. To add insult to injury we've only received half an inch of rain so far! (warning just expired but the wind is still howling).

You've got quite a bit going on there, Claire! Love the Frans Hall daylily.My Summer Snowflake is still putting out a few flowers as well.

Last night I shovel pruned my first plant of the season, a variegated Calamagrostis that has just been a dog in my garden for too long. Next on the list is a Buddleia 'Unique' I planted last year. It's supposed to be a smaller version of B. alternifolia but it just looks like a weed. I admit it doesn't get enough sun but I'm not impressed enough to try and move it. I'm also unimpressed by Phiadephus Innocence but I may try and move that one.

I don't have a lot of August pictures yet. This lone surviving Kniphofia Papaya Popsicle is blooming. I may try my luck on a few others in different parts of the garden.

Claire, I didn't realize the downward-facing lily was also called Tiger Lily. That lily shape is my favorite. It just seems so delicate. Hoping to get some one day. All of your phlox look wonderful. I'm hoping to increase my phlox, as I have so little now. I'm very happy with Glamour Girl and Flame Coral. Looking forward to more! I planted some Viburnum saplings ?two years ago?. Can't wait for the berries to form for the birds!

Sue, I don't blame you for shovel pruning Buddleia. They rarely perform too well up here for us. Looked up Coral Creme Drop phlox, and it is a lovely salmon-ish pink. Post pictures when you can!

So, about phlox...The above picture is actually Flame Coral, which I'll show again below:

Glamour Girl is next and looks practically identical except for white streaking, which I can't determine to be related to the flower aging or the actual true coloration:

Echinacea and JPW are doing fine despite the drought, thankfully.

My Casablancas just began flowering a little over a week ago. Staking is helping. I'll move them this fall and they were "plopped" there. Love the scent!

Overall things are too dry, but plants aren't too stressed yet, which surprises me. I think the humidity with the heat has helped prevent the leaves from drying as quickly.

Also, I moved a hydrangea, probably "Endless Summer." I moved it at a terrible time, but it was either move it now or not at all. There won't be time this fall, the bed needed to be finished, and it was doing very poorly over winter in its existing locale. Root ball did not come out easily. Do you think it will make it? Keeping it watered, and it is in shade after morning. Trimmed length off the branches to reduce the number of leaves needing water. if it lives, it will be VERY happy in this location! It will get mulch this week.

Great photos everyone! Those of you with August photos, great job having bloom so late in the season and your garden photos look well kept and cared for. Not easy to do with this weather.

I'm scratching my head at the lily photos. My Casablanca and Tigerlilies bloomed weeks ago. Claire is to the South of me and Deanna is to the North. Very odd.

I bought 'Glamour Girl' expecting it to be fragrant and mildew resistant. For me last year, it was neither. I shovel pruned them. Funny but they came up this spring anyway. I must not have gotten all the root. No matter, the rabbits enjoyed what was there. [g]

Deanna, I love your pathway, and those purple supports for your lilies are such a treat, that purple color! I think your Hydrangea will be fine too. For a little more shade, try positioning a folding chair or something during the sunny part of the day. Along with keeping it moist. Can you water a Hydrangea too much? [g]. I doubt it. I also like the Echinacea with the Joe Pye Weed.

Sue, we didn't have a tornado watch, but it's been overcast and windy here all day and not a drop of rain either.

Claire, love your lilies, and that branch of the Viburnum with berries is really great! Since I have so much trouble with Viburnums and wanted them for berries for the birds, I am very jealous!! :-)

Babs, glad you had company this weekend. Much better than being here starting a Gardenweb thread. lol

I spent more time in the garden this weekend with cooler temperatures than I did since the beginning of July! And it looks it! I tried to do some catch up and clean up and some of it looks a lot better, but a whole lot more to do. And some areas of the garden have been impacted too much by the dry conditions to look decent the rest of the season.

I noticed today that the Sedums are very erect this year. Did not splay open like the largest of them sometimes does. And they are already starting to color up?! Isn't that early?

Deanna love your purple supports! Not only do I love the color but love the form too. I've tried so many different kinds of supports and not overly happy with any of them. Now I just use small bamboo or plastic stakes and try (the operative word here being "try") to prop things up (in the perennial garden. Veggie garden (and big dahlias) get heavier, inch-square wooden stakes with twine, which looks oh-so-attractive.... not!) Can you tell me where you found those? I'd like to give them a try.

Such nice photos everyone! My garden is FRIED. We are in such need of rain. We actually got many hours of rain here yesterday but it was so light that even after all those hours the ground is still bone dry under the surface. I had been so happy at the prolonged rain that was forecast but honestly I could spit harder than the rainfall we had. Funny because a few weeks back (months? Sorry, can't keep track of time anymore) it rained so much I think I was starting to mildew lol. We've done a complete 180. Actually on my way out to water now. although being on a well I try to water judiciously - I water the veggies, the plants I really want to keep (i.e. the hundreds of columbines and digitalis grandiflora that reseed every year don't get water), what looks really wilted and on death's door, and I try to give the shrubs a sip as well every week, even if they don't look too bad. The potted plants on the patio get the dehumidifier water and any household water that can be reused.

At least it was a bit cooler here yesterday and today is looking to be the same. A nice respite from the heat!

:)
Dee

We had rain in the night, the ground was wet, everything was wet, but I checked my watering can and there wasn't even enough to cover the bottom of it. And the ground around the Taxus was dry even on the surface. I planned on fertilizing today and I wanted everything good and wet, so I'm out there watering this morning by hand. My neighbors must wonder about me. [g]

Yesterday I drove through about 20 seconds of rain. It only fell in that short area. No good for us. PM, I wishing for long soaking rains for you soon! We need rain, but I'm still amazed that many things are not wilting and crisping yet.

Dee, I bought the supports on clearance from Gardener's Supply. I've been pleased with my purchases from them. A defective nozzle purchase at the end of last year is about to give me my first experience with their customer service. I'm anticipating it will be good. These are Happy Harvest Supports which they don't have now. Maybe you can find more info and get them somewhere else. I like the color, too!

Is anyone old enough here to remember what 'rain' used to be like? [g]. I was thinking about when I was a young girl and when the forecast was for rain, you expected at the very least a whole day of mostly steady rain. Sometimes a few days of it. And I can remember a number of summer vacations stuck inside with rain for a few days. I have a song on my playlist by Carly Simon, titled "Raining". She really hits the nail on the head for what it was like away on vacation when it rained.

Carly Simon - Raining

I miss the weather we used to have.

Reading this because real rain woke me up in the night. 🥰

I feel fuzzly wuzzly inside now, and the breeze smells fresh.

We had about 0.2 inches of lovely soaking rain last night.

A few recent photos, all from before the rain:

I have a new theory that I am more likely to see groundhogs when the phlox are blooming. Little &#%$@s mowed down at least three phloxes on Sunday, and then sliced off (but didn’t eat) a couple zinnia stems on its way out of the yard.

I remember rain like you describe PM2! Soaking rain with out the associated drama of erosion and property damage. The good old days!

A few pictures. I've still had virtually no rain here. But with all the heat and some supplemental water, the tropicals are reasonably happy.

Tropical border on the patio. Hope to get that Musa basjoo to winter over in the ground.

My one and only Kniphofia with a funky Angelica called Vicar's Mead.

Stump pot. I've been wintering over that Acalpha in the house since they are virtually impossible to find in nurseries anymore.

Aralia Silver Umbrella

New gardens around the front walk are filling in nicely. Must have been the twelve plus yards of farm soil I brought in.

Deanna, I may have to look into Flame Coral. The heat and drought messed up the flowers on Coral Creme Drop. Maybe I'll try deadheading and hope for some decent rebloom. If you keep that Hydrangea watered it should survive. I used to move plants all summer. Lots of plant placements are bugging me right now but I'm patiently waiting for some cooler and hopefully rainier weather.

Love the Hibiscus nekobus! Do you ever have issues with Hibuscus sawfly larvae? Usually they decimate mine and have for years but they didn't show up this year. Hope that will be a trend that continues into eternity :).

No rain to speak of here either, Dee although it has been cooler and we did get .04" on Sunday and another .10 inch last night. As you said, spit would be equally effective. Last I heard we have a nine inch deficit in northern CT. Boo hoo!

Wow, Aralia Silver Umbrella. Wow. That's a keeper. Now to find a place for one of my own...

We continued to have amazingly wonderful and plentiful rain through morning, alternating from I-can-run-to-the-car to I'm-getting-soaked-in-three-steps. So delightful and welcome!

Everybody's photos are so lovely you would never know it was hot and dry. I know the topics like moisture, but they've gotta be loving this heat, too! I enjoy you your zinnias, nekobus. Our microclimate is generally cooler so I don't have enough "baking sun" areas to keep them happy. Gave up a few years ago.

Sue, no issues with the Hibiscus so far. I’ve had one about three years, the other at least five. Fingers crossed!

Sue, is the tall one the Acalypha? It's completely new to me. Really beautiful! The new gardens look fantastic, and I see that ?honey? hydrangea that you posted a while back. Boy, is it a keeper.

Nekobus, have you seen plants perk up after the rain came? Last night our .25" estimate turned into over an inch, with rain showers lasting longer than expected, and a bonus burst late this afternoon. Everybody who called the office made jokes about enjoying the beautiful rain. Boy, did we need it We never got rain when the hurricane/storm went through, so it had been a looooooong time. I'm so excited I feel like I just drank concentrated coffee or something. Came home and immediately went out to look at things. They look...normal (how anti-climactic) except for the newly moved hydrangea, which looked MUCH perkier than it has for the last week. .

Claire, your phlox color combination is extremely attractive. I really like it. I have a dearth of phlox in my garden, finally got some last fall, so I appreciate all the photos. I must say, if your wisteria has an unusual color, perhaps you have a marketable "sport" there. The self-seeding thread on the Perennials forum has sparked thoughts about how many gardeners have amazing plants in their yard that Mother Nature planned, and the gardening world doesn't even know about them yet.

Claire, I was shocked to see a gardener showing off her American Poke weed plant which I thought was poisonous. I had one growing up in one of my compost bins and it was tough to get rid of then earlier this summer I discovered my husband's dirt pile was festooned with them. He has taken them out and buried them. My main concern was that they would end up infecting the hayfields. I'm already on the watch for a relative of bedstraw that can be a serious problem in hayfields. Our neighbor was inspecting for it and when he told me the name I had him look at a clump in our backyard to see if it was what he was watching for and it was. I hope I haven't robbed our wildlife of some tasty berries. Perhaps it's only poisonous to people.

I'm going to show a "Before photo" of the narrow border I am renovating. I'm sure everyone is going to think "glad my garden looks better than that". I hadn't even trimmed the dead flower stalks from hosta, lady's mantle and lilies. In the photo, my husband had already torn out the southernwood shrub that I had never trimmed. If I had, it might have been a nice neat shrub. I'm debating on the catmint which also has never been trimmed. I might just trim it up for this year but move in next spring. The wide white patch is the compromised mowing strip that has been packed with fine gravel/sand. It was easiest for my husband to remove the sod by dragging the backhoe bucket along the border. There used to be a board edging due to the slow. Rocks are already added and then bark mulch spread to provide a weed barrier. The mower can now mow all the grass and hopefully no edging and weed whacking will be required. The whiskey half barrel was new this spring - the 35 yo one finally disintegrated. The planting looked a lot better when I was watering. *sigh* . On the good side, it's hard for me to forget to water the two planters on the kitchen porch granite step planted with a single geranium and white alyssum. The alyssum is fragrant and you can smell it every time you step out the door.

defrost49: There's an old thread I started years ago about pokeweed.

Does anyone besides me like pokeberry?

I understand the concern about poison, but with reasonable care you can live with it (and even eat it) and the birds love the berries.

Claire

I think pokeweed is beautiful - foliage and berries - but I always yank it as soon as I see it because I know how aggressive it is. I keep it well under control now, but to me it's not worth having in my garden. I admire it when I take a walk and see it on the side of the road!

:)
Dee

Claire, I enjoyed reading that old thread. Thanks for the link. I'm still mystified but now I think I have finished lusting after butterfly bushes.

I grew butterfly bushes for many years. I really enjoyed them. Lots of butterflies and those hummingbird moths. Nice fragrance. Surprisingly, I rarely had any issues with them coming back after the winter, but usually from the base. I never saw one seedling in my yard. Maybe those reporting issues with self seeding, were in warmer zones. They didn't indicate. I did finally stop growing them, because they didn't always fill in well and looked a little informal for my front full sun bed and I changed my plans for what I wanted in front.

Defrost, I have areas that I don’t post photos of. [g]. And I keep saying I am going to renovate those areas, but I still haven’t gotten to them. So you are doing well to be working on yours.

I like your new whiskey barrel.

I was weeding in an area getting ready to plant a couple of divisions of dianthus a few weeks ago and I suddenly got a whiff of something sweet and kept asking myself, what is that fragrance? I finally figured out it was the alyssum! I have one nice patch of it this year. I tried to sow new seed along my walkway edge and it poured buckets the next day and the seed was on a slight slope and they all washed away. Next year I’m going to have to buy lots and lots of packets of seed. The past five years I’ve had a ton of alyssum of all colors and they usually reseed. I don’t know why I didn’t get much this year. I love it.

Sue, your Tropical corner with the banana looks wonderful. It looks like it is enjoying the heat. Your property has lots of great rocks that add to your garden.

Nekobus, that is one big Hibiscus flower and I love your coneflowers.

Prairiemoon, in my post way above I meant to mention to Dee AND YOU where I got my supports. Just read that and am disappointed in myself for not mentioning you, as well. Thank you for the complements for my bright purple supports that scream I-AM-HERE! They do add a little fun to the garden.

Defrost, I look forward to watching your area mature. I know it's going to be nice to have it maintenance-friendly. I would LOVE to have the scent of sweet alyssum greet met at the door, so let me ask some questions. How much shade? I always considered it a full-sun plant not suited for the porch. What are your conditions, and what conditions have you found to maximize the scent?

I have realized that August is the month my pollinators are posting on their garden forums, I hope. It's Pollinator Palooza for them, but for me it's just lots of "stuff" crowded together with perhaps a lack of design finesse. It is indeed pretty, but surely the best part is the hummingbirds FREAKING OUT over the jewelweed and Joe Pye Weed, the bees continuing to love the echinacea, and (in the past) monarchs on the milkweed. August is for them more than it is for me. The prettier part of the garden is kind of waiting for September when the asters and mums can start blooming. I need to add more August interest in that part of the garden so I'll be as ecstatic as the pollinators, but I must admit I get pretty happy watching them overeat!

Deanna, no worries - at all! I saw the response about the supports and was happy to know where you got them. Thanks! I really do like them a lot. They are different and they look easy to use. I have a half a dozen of those peony rings for some reason and they aren't much help after the fact. If you set them before everything starts growing they're great, but come out after a storm and need to give support and they are useless. Yours look very flexible for what you can use them for.

Deanna, the alyssum gets a lot of sun. It is planted in two concrete planters, maybe only 16" wide sitting on the granite step to our kitchen porch. I put 2 plants in each container and now they are hanging over the sides and possibly choking out the single geranium plant in each. The porch faces south so they get quite a bit of sun but not all day since we have a maple tree across the driveway that shades the porch are around noon. The planters need daily watering, at least a half gallon. They get a very occasional dose of liquid fertilizer fish/seaweed type that is mixed with water.

I don't think all varieties of alyssum are fragrant. I think this was Crystal Palace. I lucked out for a couple of years and a Proven Winners variety self seeded but did not show up this year.

Although the plants still need planting, the rock edging and bark mulch mower strip are a huge improvement. You can see this bed as you come in the driveway and even my husband who did all the grunt work said it was worth it.

Donna

Well, I have a rhododendron blooming in August. It's got little a few little blooms all around the plant. It's been a strange year.

Kudos to you for attempting any garden renovations in this heat, Donna! I'm spent!

Deanna, Aralia Silver Umbrella is a cool plant but it's grafted on plain green rootstock which is sending out runners at the base of the plant. I'll be keeping my eye on it.

PM2 the tropicals seem to be the only plants enjoying this heat. Although I am pouring quite a bit of water on them. Much of my garden is collapsing in this drought and heat despite my best efforts watering. As soon as it cools off, I'm going to start cutting plants back and making planned moves.

We had garden company yesterday for the first time this season. I spent a few days spiffing things up before the heat kicked up again. Today I was useless. All I did was water, water, water. Somebody shoot me...lol.

One of my deck containers doing well. The deck starts to go into the shade around 1 PM.

Fountain from the back side fronted down with Pennisetum Cassian. A nice grass but an annoying reseeder. The plants in front of the fountain collapsed in the heat and I had to cut them all back. Time for a redo!

Sue, your patio is lovely. We've had recent rain when the farm in the next town didn't get any and desperately needs it for their corn and other vegetables they sell. But our temperatures are a lot cooler than they have been or my husband would not have agreed to the grunt work. We get out early since we're retired and fade early. Naps after lunch are usually necessary. I can only do 2 hours of manual labor and would really prefer working in my tee shirt with temps in the 60s.

We finally had a downpour for all of 15mins yesterday. It gave us a reprieve from dragging the hose around the yard for a day or two, but certainly will have to be back at it, if we don't get another. By the forecast for this week, we should have a few more chances to.

Was it Dee, who said, even when you water, it gets to a point where it doesn't seem to be making a difference? This year that is true for us. We have watered. I missed a 2 day period of not paying attention and the bed furthest away from my kitchen window, has a lot of brown foliage. European Ginger is a brown crinkly mess. Even epimediums in that bed and Calycanthus and Clethra all with brown leaves and edges. We always leave the sprinkler on for about an hour and a half at each position too. Of course, the Maple tree is looking as green as ever. It gets it's water at the expense of all the other plants near it. A lot of my ferns were flat on the ground the other day and are coming back a little. They are Japanese Painted ferns and 'Ghost' for the most part. They usually are pretty drought tolerant. I did lose one that I really liked, that I moved in the spring and it was that 2 day period that I didn't water quick enough that did it in. It appears to be dead as a doornail.

Sue, are all. your tropicals in the ground or do you have any in pots? I have a tropical hibiscus in a pot and I can't seem to find a fertilizer that works well with it. I tried using Neptune's Harvest Fish Emulsion - Rose formula, thinking that would trigger more blooms. It did the opposite, I started getting yellow leaves dropping a mile a minute. It looked better all winter in the house. Someone recommended Foliage Pro 9-3-6, that is supposed to be good for tropicals and after two applications, I'm not seeing much difference. I'd like to get it greener and growing before it has to go in for the winter.

And I added a Pennisetum last year and this spring, I've discovered it really reseeds a lot. I'm very disappointed. I've had Pennisetum 'Hamelin' a long time and it never reseeds. I forget which variety it is.

Sue, I love and envy your fountain. I've tried a few but don't have the patience for cleaning and maintaining the pumps and water supply challenges. I've settled for bird baths which I can fill with a small bucket.

I may be making this up, but I observed extended drought changes the soil structure. Drought seems to make the soil less able to absorb water. The top inch may be damp but the rest is just dust and seems to repel water. I think the Dust Bowl may offer lessons. I agree that no amount of watering from a hose seems to really work. I 've left the sprinkler on overnight and the soil is still dry 5 inches down. I'm sure we could take an extended vacation with what the water bill will be this year. But who's taking vacations?

This morning started with light rain and then it gradually got stronger for several hours, all courtesy of hurricane leftovers. I feel for those who bore the brunt of the storm but am profoundly grateful that some of the rain ended up here. It is back to light rain now but we should get more this evening of the moderate to perhaps heavy rain. I have been watering far more than usual this season, including even the lawn at times, so I am hoping that much of this is able to soak in rather than run off. We have had three or four brief rains over the past 10 days, but they didn’t add up to 1/4”, while I could see heavier rains either north or south on different days, so this is much needed since we are many inches below normal. It has been 6 weeks since we had any decent rain, but before that things were abnormally dry, so the wilting plants should look a bit less unhappy.

I am hoping that others of you got some of this as well.

We’re getting a fair bit north of Boston right now. Had about an inch all told over the last week — finally! The garden looks kind of tired, but relieved by the rain. And the woods at the end of the street no longer seem like a tinderbox waiting for a lightning strike, which is a relief!

The leaves on my dogwood are already turning yellow and red and dropping. It’s been a grueling month.

It was supposed to start raining about 2AM last night and continue throughout the day. It's close to 2PM now and I'm still waiting. Supposedly it's imminent, and the weather map looks promising but I'm still out on the deck eating lunch (after pulling a bunch of crabgrass that I couldn't stand looking at any longer).

We had about 1/3 inch of rain a few days ago so the garden is happier. I have a variegated hydrangea in mostly full.sun and it's been miserable this summer, wilting like a Victorian lady with the vapours. I finally put a shade cloth over it and it's been very happy since - not a great landscape look but better than total wilting.

The latest estimate is 0.44 inches of rain. I'll believe it when I see and feel it.

Claire

I'm getting rain in dribs and drabs here. An eighth of an inch on Monday, three eighths on Thursday and so far a quarter inch today. I haven't had a beneficial rain here in months. My part of CT is now classified is being in severe drought. I don't think I needed any experts to tell me that...lol.

We had some yesterday and again this morning, which was lovely (other than the fact that I inadvertently left my muck boots out both times. Ugh.) My husband drove my son home to Boston today and said he got caught in a torrential downpour up there around noon, 1pm, so I'm guessing those of you in the Boston area got some rain today too! Nothing torrential here, but some nice steady, at times a bit heavy, rainfall which hopefully will help.

Claire, hope you get your rain today. Loved your description... wilting like a Victorian lady with the vapours. I will never look at another wilting hydrangea without thinking of that lol.

:)
Dee

Dee/Claire, is *that* why Annabelle is always drooping lately? Her corset’s laced too tight? :)

I am grateful for our rain today of over one inch. It is very frustrating to look at the map and see huge rain clouds on the radar that are just missing your area. Sue, I feel your pain and hope for rain for you. Dee, we are also on well water and I have already run the well dry twice this summer when watering garden transplants, laundry, and morning showers all occurred to close together. I'm letting my potted annuals mostly die now to preserve the water for perennials that I still need to transplant.

Deanna, if it helps, I have started watering in the evening for the lawn and veggies and then turning it off right at bedtime with the thought that the well will have all night to recharge. The leaves aren’t any wetter than they would be overnight from the fog and heavy dews that occur at this time of year.

When I checked midday, we had gotten about 1/2” of rain, but in the areas that I have already harvested and removed early veggies and so I don’t water, the soil was still powder dry below about 1/4” down. Like Sue, we have also been classified as in severe drought conditions, so while this will help some, especially if I water more tomorrow, I expect that we are still classified in some stage of drought unless we get a lot more this evening,

Our lawn is all brown in a circle around our favorite maple tree so we can see how the tree is sucking up the water. I have one vegetable bed that is too close even though it's beyong the drip line so I will put it back to lawn next spring. It was also out of the way to get watered. We had a good amount of rain - at least 1 1/2" I think. We also have a high water table so that might be helping. The front of our property is boggy and can usually only be mowed in August. A seasonal stream runs through it with enough moisture to grow cat tails.

I agree that I think the soil structure changes. I think it's pretty much like a hanging pot that's left to go too dry. When you water it, the water just rushes through. Except for one perennial bed, mine get some shade for at least a few hours each day. I have a wash tub of impatiens next to the barn door on the east side of the barn. I tend to forget about them so they rarely get watered and only have had one time when they looked thirsty. But the potted annuals including a rail planter on the east side of the house really suffered from neglect. My morning duty is to fill two gallon jugs with water for the pots on the kitchen porch and to use the short hose to water what I can reach. The vegetable beds get an hour from an oscillating sprinkler every few days.

I was surprised that impatiens seem to tolerate drier conditions while verbena uses any excuse to die. Marigolds and petunias in a large pot near the faucet get plenty of water and sun. The nearby planter with just one petunia (need to check variety) needs a lot of water every day or it sulks.

The herb garden never gets watered but it gets a little shade in the morning.

I ended up with half an inch yesterday. My well doesn't support running sprinklers for a beneficial amount of time so I hand water right to the root of the plants Initially the water runs off but soil is like a dry sponge. Once you get some water to start soaking in, the soil starts to accept more. So I pre water a few plants, move to a few more then circle back. Yes, it's hugely time consuming but the time I invested seems to have paid off. The majority of my garden is in relatively good shape. The surrounding trees, not so much. Leaves are turning yellow and just dropping. It's starting to look like fall in August out there.

Funny you should mention impatiens, Donna. I have a bunch of New Guinea and Sunpatiens planted in the ground. Some get a fair amount of sun and after getting established I've barely watered them at all.

Today I plant to begin moving some plants to what I hope will be more hospitable locations for them next season. We hired an excavating company to come and clear the remainder of the back yard. He should be starting soon. He'll be pulling stumps, removing brush and some trees, moving boulders, and grading the area level. Dealing with the redesign and initial planting of that area should keep me off the streets for the remainder of the garden season....lol.

NHBabs, thanks for the tip. I've been capturing water from the tub while I wait for it to get hot and have been doing laundry at the office. The day I ran the well dry was when I moved a hydrangea and rhododendron in the heat, as well as deeply watering swamp milkweed because I assumed the monarch caterpillars would not do as well with the drooping water-starved leaves And some other things got watered, too. That was a bad idea. I feel for you all in severe drought. Right now we are just moderate drought and the rain we got this weekend did saturate the soil as far down as my trowel will reach. Feeling dry soil underneath is disheartening, for sure.

As for hand watering not working well, one thing I've wondered about is water "wicking" away. When I spot water plants, which is my normal, by trying to water one plant's root zone very deeply, I wonder how much of that water is wicked away by the dry surrounding soil. Water tends to move to dry areas, doesn't it? It's something I've wondered about this summer, because rain sure does a better job than me, even when I know I'm providing one plant with lots of water.

I have very few areas of true full sun, if I have any at all. This summer that is working to my benefit! For all the years I have wished I could grow zinnias, now I'm happy for the partial shade. And, strangely, I wonder if the humidity is helping plants because they aren't losing as much water through transpiration. Strange to have a humid drought.

I do the same as Sue - can't run sprinklers, and once I tried soaker hoses and couldn't sustain those either. I use the hose and water cans and hand water at the base of the plants. watering a bit, then going to other plants and coming around for a second and third time, to let the water soak in. Very tedious, and I hate dragging the hose around. LOL, I have to say, though, Sue you must be better at it than I am because your garden looks a heck of a lot better!

I'm already looking ahead to fall and thinking about what I'm going to move and hopefully what I will add, although additions may have to wait to see if I become employed again soon lol. But other than my dahlias which are coming into their own now, I'm ready to close the books on this season and look forward.

:)
Dee

I am very lucky that I have never run my well dry at this house, so it must be a real gusher, but since it was pre-existing at this house when we bought it, I don’t know much about it.

The well we put in at the shop isn’t nearly as prolific.

I ended up with 1 1/4” of rain according the the rain gauge spread out across almost 24 hours, so I am hoping that much of it soaked in. I think I have had less than 3” of rain since May 1, so it is still pretty dry here.

Water definitely wicks away. Nothing beats the the watering we get from Mother Nature but she's been incredibly stingy this year. In my former garden I was on city water so I could run sprinklers as long as I wanted (as long as I was willing to pay the bill). I found that to be beneficial, I had to run them about three hours per area. I've probably said this already but my takeaway from this drought is that plants in better soil and/or planted closer together fared much better even in places I didn't water regularly.

My cats love the sitting walls around the patio.

The Amaranths never disappoint.

It's a good thing I got out and staked this Rudbekia Henry Eilers this year. It's six feet tall!

Wow your Henry Eilers is lovely, Sue! Mine is a bit more sparse, and maybe about 4.5-almost 5 feet tall. Luckily standing up on its own lol. I've been meaning to move it for the last, gosh, five to six years?? (Embarrassing to admit that, but I'm a plopper, not a planner so this went where I "had room for it". And if you couldn't tell I'm also a procrastinator lol. ) But then my natural tendency to procrastination was furthered by two years ago losing the oak trees it was near, and it got more sun.

You'd think that would spur me to move it to its intended, even-sunnier spot, seeing how it did better with the extra sun, but my mind went, "oh, it's got a bit more sun now; the pressure to move it is off". But I was just thinking about it literally yesterday as I was sitting about six feet away from it all afternoon, and how it needs to move, so hopefully this year I'll get to. (Yeah, I know, my yearly mantra haha!)

Are those wonderful amaranths as tall, or is that a trick of perspective? What variety are they? A nice splash of color!

:)
Dee

Dee, Henry has been a flop fest for me no matter where I plant it. I planted a Little Henry last fall and it has been a dud...maybe 18" tall. But in all fairness it's in a bed I didn't really water much this year. I'm giving new plants a pass for this season.

No, that Amaranth is tall. I bought one plant probably 15 years ago and have had plenty ever since. It rode over here in the soil of one of the plants I moved. The tag on it said A. erythrostachys.

Here's a picture from a second story window from one of my gardens it has invaded.

I pull out hundreds of seedlings every spring.