A little about the garden in August. Bart, how's your weather?

last year

last modified: last year

We got a second frog strangler a couple of nights ago, possibly even more spectacular then the first one about a week and a half (?) earlier. Amazing lightning flashing like paparazzi bulbs and a continuous rumble and roar of thunder, while the rain lashed spray into our bedroom in spite of our efforts to hold it out. I'm hopeful this second rain, coming relatively soon after the previous one, and in the fast-shortening days of August, will have broken the back of summer; the forecast for the next week is for temperatures in the range of 70F-90F, significantly cooler than before. The air is much freshened, and, important, our uninsulated, thick-walled house has been cooled down. Good things.

The wind blew down into the Small Orto half of a good-sized aging black locust, which it's my task to saw, lop, and cut into manageable pieces and recycle into the soil. I'm tidying the area at the same time, dealing with the summer's accumulation of weeds and surveying the beds. They're messy, Heaven knows, and haven't been overly useful lately, but, we'll see. I did some propagating this spring, but in pots, and some of the cuttings look like they're taking hold. I haven't been down in the big garden in weeks (months): too sunny.

DH finished assembling the "Tempietto", the small pentagonal rebar pergola I designed to replace its leaning wooden predecessor. It turned out to be much harder to put together than I expected, and I'm not sure I'd call it a credit to its designer, me. The rose, 'Souv. de Mme. Leonie Viennot', which goes over it hasn't yet been hoisted up on its new home, so I don't know yet whether the pergola will stand up under the kind of weather we got two nights ago.

There are two, actually three, puny roses close to the "Tempietto", all resident for years: 'Cl. Mrs. Herbert Stevens', 'Mme. Jules Bouché', and 'Mme. Gregoire Staechelin'. Perhaps not coincidentally, all are Hybrid Teas, two own root, one grafted. I'm considering removing the two climbers and putting in roses that will actually grow. They exist: in the same area of the yard are Teas, Noisettes, and a Musk Rose, all doing quite well. Which rose might take a while to decide and then produce. I have quite a weakness for 'Dupontii' which grows down in the shade garden: it grows fine and I believe I've seen it trained as a climber, perhaps years ago at Cavriglia. I'd have to propagate it. The other rose can't be too large. I had a layered start of 'Alberic Barbier', but it seems to have succumbed to the drought; besides, AB's too big. I have what I think are two seedling roses, growing under 'Blush Noisette', and I've thought about just digging one up and planting it (after removing and potting up its predecessor), but of course I know nothing about this baby. Perhaps I'll collect myself sufficiently to dig and pot up the seedlings and watch them for a while.

The last couple of days have been rather lovely, and my energy level is much higher than it was in the heat; on the other hand, the rain seems to have brought the chiggers. DD is home on break, busy writing her first resume and studying for exams in September, but she's found time to make ice cream. Today's flavors are chocolate and coffee, and they are GOOD.

Bart, have you gotten any rain?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

jacqueline9CA
last year
Melissa - congratulations on the rain! I never heard of "frog strangler" storms - I guess that is what we would call a "gully washer". Whatever it is called, it sounded amazing.

We have had about a week of fog and overcast, which lasted all days most days, and gave the garden a really needed break from sunny days all day, although our temps were fairly moderate - I don't think it ever got over 90 degrees F.

Now it is getting warmer again, but still not as horrible as it is in many places - it helps being 4 blocks from San Francisco Bay, and about 2 miles from the Pacific Ocean. I am grateful every day for that.

Your pergola sounds interesting - maybe DD can take a picture of it for us? Funny - my DH just assembled one we purchased from the Kinsman catalogue - now it is my turn to try and tie some of the new, longer canes of Cl Rainbow's End which have sprouted and are now sort of waving around in the air, looking for a structure to eat. That is what we bought the pergola for - Cl Rainbow's End has exploded since we moved it to my new deer fenced garden in full sun - my DH is threatening to hedge prune it if I do not prevent it from blocking "his" paths, which he carefully built out of gravel and paving stones - the path goes all around the garden. So, I have to get out there soon and do that.

Jackie
bart bart
last year
Yesterday I couldn't even finish reading your post, Melissa; I was attacked by envy. Here, we are still on Desolation Row. True, it's a bit less hot, but we have had basically no rain (unless if you want to count 1 millimeter as "rain" ), and the forecast is deeply distressing : every time they predict rain, the next day they change the forecast. It seems like it's rained everywhere else except for here.I'm seeing established trees dried out and dead in the woods and in the city. I'll doubtless lose some plants in my own garden. I have been watering my new implants,but I'm feeling pretty hopeless. Supposedly the tremendous heat is due to return, too.
Related Discussions
August 2014 how does your garden look?
Q
Comments (44)
I love all of the canna posts and pics. So nice! I see so many around the Valley with browned leaf edges--it's nice to see some that look so perfect! You're giving me a craving, hah! Beautiful echinopsis bloom, dusti, thanks for posting it. So nice! I'm getting an occasional off-season flower these days and hope for some more this autumn. Just for fun here's a passionflower I grew from seed (sown indoors in January), Passiflora foetida 'Belem' making its very first bloom this morning. Pretty little flower with a nice floral scent. Full hot sun and water 3x a week this time of year. Enjoy these gorgeous mornings! Happy gardening, Grant
...See More
What's blooming in your August garden?
Q
Comments (9)
My garden has struggled this year with not nearly enough water. I have watered some...but - not really enough. What's blooming- Several Clematis - Polish Spirit, Jackmani, The President, & Multi Blue..these all very only a few flowers. But, my Mormari Estonia has bloomed beautifully all summer. Many phlox are blooming - seems like David needs extra extra water and wilts no matter what I do. Scabiosa - pink and white. Such workhorses in the garden. I am getting second flushes of blooms on my lavendar Munstead. Various hostas are blooming. Boy I miss all my daylilies in bloom. For six weeks or so it was wonderful. Now there's May May, Many Happy Returns, Royal Palace Prince, Autumn Gold and Eenie Allegro. The Hibiscus are gorgeous...thank goodness. They are so colorful and cheerful. Other perenials blooming are: Russian Sage, Mexican Hat, Yellow Ratibida, Echinacea, Kalimeris, Helianthus, Heliopsis, mini roses, mums, honeysuckle, Tradescantia Sweet Kate, Becky Shasta Daisey, Rozanne Geranium, butterfly bushes, veronia, ornamental oregano, campanula Anna Loddon & joe-pye weed. One of the most beautiful plants in my yard right now is the cupplant...silphium. It's about 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide with bright yellow daiseys at the top. Outstanding!! Of course...lots of annuals too. Good question, Alison! Beverly
...See More
show us your gardens - August 2013 part II
Q
Comments (65)
Greenhaven, I'm so glad you posted pictures. Welcome! You've really done a tremendous job in a short period of time. How lucky to have all that ledge and the way you've incorporated the gardens is really great. It all looks quite natural. PL, Love those sunflowers! I've tried them from seed before a handful of times, but as soon as I get them planted the chipmunks come along and dig them up while mocking me. Jewel weed brings me back to nature walks with my mom. Used to use it on poison ivy. I always thought it was a great cure, but as I got older I realized I'm not allergic to poison ivy, so I'm not sure if my "tests" as a child were valid! It looks great in such a mass like that. I guess I made it just in the nick of time to post for August. Hard to believe tomorrow is September. I know there was some talk in another thread about the smaller butterfly bushes. They're kind of hard to photograph, but I have three in a row forming a bit of a hedge and I really like the way they bloom later. There was also a discussion about heptacodium on another thread where everyone said it would break and most were unhappy with it. That really changed the way I'm treating this shrub/tree. I was planning on limbing it up into a tree, but after reading everyone's experiences I've decided to leave it more as a very large shrub, or at least a non-limbed up tree. The hibiscus are in bloom now on the other side of the fence. Those will stay when we get our new fence later this fall. I've never done annual asters before, but this middle bed of the veggie garden starts as lettuce and once the crop is done I let the nasturtium take over. I threw in some annual asters and I have to say I really like them a lot. One of the back beds with zinnias still going. Another bed back there. Holy cow! The bees are insane with the turtlehead and anemone blooming. Interestingly, the bees swarm to the barely open anemone flowers with 5 or 6 of them all huddled and fighting for space. The open flowers are not touched. The lespedeeza is starting its show. I do wish the clethra would bloom just a tad later so the white would be blooming with the pink. Here's a closer shot of one of the back beds. There's a carpet rose blooming in the bed behind the butterfly bushes. I like the peach and blue combo with the physocarpos mixed in for good measure. Love the fairy rose that comes back strong while so many other plants are withering in the heat! The front slope is filled in with all the colorful shrubs. Lobelia and caryopteris. I put them together because the caryopteris can hold up the lobelia when it flops. Cottage garden gone wild! I really, really, really love amsonia hubrichtii. I'll post this picture again when the amsonia and the climbing hydrangea both turn glowing yellow. Ironweed is great this time of year. Okay, okay, I'll stop! LOL! I get carried away. There is so much going on in the garden now and so much more to come. Such a great time of year.
...See More
How is the weather treating your garden?
Q
Comments (17)
Maybe the white round radish y'all are thinking of is the variety called Hailstone. (If ever there was an appropriate name for a radish in our state, Hailstone would be it.) And, just to show that whoever names varieties has a sense of humor, there's a long, pointy white radish named Icicle too. Alexis, Those poor tomato plants! Maybe it was all those changes over a few days that stressed them more so than the neem. When hardened-off plants go back indoors after already being outside for some time, they can lose some of their hardening-off. I know I had that happen with some pepper, flower and herb seedlings while they were hardening off. I think I already had most all the tomato plants in the ground by then. I battle spider mites every year. They are everywhere here in our rural area, and the hotter and drier it is, the worse they are. I started seeing them on some plants back in March. March! It used to be that they wouldn't reach high enough population levels for me to worry about them until July....and gradually it became May....and now that I am resigned to seeing them in May, they arrived in March. Here in this state, you never know with tomatoes. Sometimes we get periodic "cold fronts", which bring us slightly cooler weather, even in the middle of summer and we can get fruit set at that time. If a cold front is coming that will put temperatures back into the right range for fruit set, I'll buy some Super Bloom or another brand of a bloom-booster fertilizer and feed it to the plants about 5-7 days before the expected arrival of the cold front to ensure they are in bloom when the cold front arrives. When I have done that in some previous years, I got great fruitset even if that cold front only brought us temperatures in the right range for a couple of days. I saw something interesting at the Ardmore Wal-Mart a couple of days ago. The way retail usually works is that tomato plants in six-packs are common in March here, but as we move into April, the tomato plants are in increasingly larger containers, as people buying them later want larger plants to make up for the fact they are planting later, right? Right now, I am seeing half-grown tomato plants with almost full-sized fruit in roughly 3 gallon containers in stores....for about $20-25 per plant. A couple of days ago, though, the Ardmore Wal-mart had six-packs of tomato plants with plants that are maybe 4-5" tall. Irrationally, I wanted to buy some. Being rational most of the time, I didn't do it. I cannot imagine that anyone buying tomato plants that small and putting them in the ground now would get any fruit from them until fall.....and that would be strongly dependent on daytime and nighttime air temperatures at the time they finally got large enough to blossom. This is sort of an awkward time to plant tiny tomato plants---too late to consider them part of the spring planting but too early to plant them for fall. Still, I bet lots of people will buy them, especially if their spring-planted tomatoes have major issues. Some years I don't aim for keeping plants alive all summer. Some years I just keep them going as long as I can, and then I cry "uncle" and surrender to the summer and stop watering. You'd be amazed what might survive even after you cut off the water. In 2011, Piricicaba broccoli at the shady west end of the garden survived at least 6 weeks in July-August with no irrigation and probably no rainfall. I didn't even realize it was still alive until maybe October or November, and there it was producing! I had been gone to wildfires day and night and night and day all summer, and after I stopped watering in July, I really didn't step foot in the garden. When I went back into it after the wildfire activity dropped after rain returned in September, I found I had broccoli to harvest. It was just bizarre. Despite it seeming all wrong, we harvested broccoli from that Piricicaba until the plant froze in December. So, sometimes gardens just surprise us, and in the oddest of ways. I hope the forecasts of the return of El Nino come true. I almost always have a great garden in El Nino years because we get plentiful rainfall those years. Dawn
...See More
seasiderooftop
last year
Hi @Melissa Northern Italy zone 8 ,

Glad to hear you are getting rain! Malta finally got rain today too after almost six months, well the northern half of Malta did, and not a drop where I am... @bart bart we are on the same boat!

I hope your tempietto will be amazing!

I read your mention of Mme Gregoire Staechelin and I am curious about how she does in the heat. I plan to order two other Dot hybrid teas (Tarde Gris and Luis Brinas) in the fall. My thinking is that being bred in Southern Europe they might be more heat tolerant, but maybe not. It's hard to tell because even on HMF the reviews of Dot roses are scarce. Curious what your experience has been with Mme GS!
Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author
last year
Bart, I'm so sorry: that really is an awful feeling, and the heat just makes it worse. I hope you get rain, in good amounts, and soon. I know it's been miserable for you, and I suspect even worse since you live in town. Good luck to you!

Seaside, the same to you: may rain soon come your way. About Mme. GS, I wonder whether our soil and conditions in general simply don't suit her. Mine has been in the garden for over a decade now, and she doesn't want to grow--unless she needs severe pruning which I'm not giving her. As I mentioned, roses growing close by are doing fine.

About heat tolerance, I don't know how Malta is. I wouldn't call our heat all that severe compared with what I hear about in parts of California, for example, or the hotter parts of Europe (though I think our local area has gotten off lightly this year), so I don't think how a rose variety does here is indicative of its behavior in hot areas. It isn't a consideration I give much thought to: our climate is a relatively moderate one, and the temperature range seems to suit most roses. I'm more concerned about excessive sun and too open an aspect, including wind as well (trees! we need more trees!!); soil, and amount of water rose varieties need. Also susceptibility to cane girdler, which we have and which some roses simply can't deal with.

Jackie, fog and coolness sound wonderful, and I hope you enjoyed them, though we've been fortunate. Your garden always sounds so beautiful and interesting.

The "tempietto"--well, we'll see. It's rebar. Also it turned out considerably less elegantly functional than I had hoped. When I get the rose over it, if it stands up to winds and so on, which is an open question, I think it will be well enough. We need to get a bench in it.

The black locust has been almost completely disposed of: still a few sawed-off branches on the ground to be chopped up and distributed. And the main trunk to be hauled away to a suitable spot. I hope DH and I together can manage it. I got most of the side branches sawed and lopped off the trunk, working from a ladder, then chopped up everything with the pruners, but the trunk, perhaps twelve feet long and almost a foot in diameter at the base, was stuck well up in a conifer that had a large rambler growing in it, and no way I could see to get a purchase on the trunk. I left the problem for later; DH employed some of his magic and got it down. How does he do it? He's a little guy in his upper eighties. Mr. Miracle. Anyway, the trunk is down, the conifer is free, 'Brenda Colvin' hasn't been destroyed. Life is good.

A little about the garden in August. Bart, how's your weather?

Comments (4)

jacqueline9CA

bart bart

Related Discussions

seasiderooftop

Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

A little about the garden in August. Bart, how's your weather?

Comments (4)

jacqueline9CA

bart bart

Related Discussions

seasiderooftop

Melissa Northern Italy zone 8Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Melissa Northern Italy zone 8
Original Author