O, Melissa-how I feel for you! Getting well soon is the main thing; I'm glad you're going to see the doctor.

As for the garden -what dare I say about that? As you know,in some ways my conditions are similar to yours,but this time I'm lucky (for now)-we have been getting rain,and things are blessedly rather soggy. This makes such an enormous change in one's outlook-we are so helpless in the face of real,prolonged drought ; people just can't water plants the way Heaven does,no matter how "water-wise" they are. The summers here in Italy are just so awful; it's really horrible when fall and winter can't bring comfort and hope. I hope that things will improve for you soon. The weather forecasts on the sites I look at are predicting the arrival of some honest cold,and hopefully this will be accompanied by abundant (but not destructive) rain and snow.

Best wishes, Eileen

Oh Melissa . . . I truly "feel your pain." Really. I do.

Because your climate and mine are on the same trajectory. We have stopped watering some roses. Including some I was rather fond of. But there is only so much water to go around.

Now, California is getting LOTS of rain. Enough rain to cause some real disasters. But there's far less for SoCal than NoCal, and our little valley gets far less than most of the region. Moreover, where our "rainy season" generally runs Dec. through March (or in a good year even into April) I have an uneasy feeling that this bounty of rain may just be ready to stop. And that would not be good.

I don't know what the future will hold for gardening here. I know that there are some roses I am going to keep alive (as long as I am) by hook or by crook. And I think it's noteworthy that the roses that are surviving and blooming most successfully are the ones that were "found" to begin with, and so have proven that they are tough and adaptable.

Jeri, I would like to gather some data re your climate vs where we live - can you let me know what your amount of rain has been either since Oct 1 (when they start counting our rain), or Dec 26th, when this series of amazingly close to gether major storms has hit? We are up to 27 inches since Oct 1 as of today, and another storm is predicted to come in tonight. That will make the 9th storm since Dec 26th, and about 24 inches of rain during since then for us. "They" claim that tonight's storm will end this coming Wed, and is the end of this "series" of storms. I know you get way less rain than we do generally, but I thought all of these storms would be a good test to see how much less, even when there is a lot of rain. Thanks!

Jackie

Eileen, I really appreciate your heartening sympathy. I'm glad you've been getting rain; this evening we had a bit of precipitation, too! That won't do much, but I do feel better when I hear the rain coming down.

Jeri, you've had a long time to see the changes happening, and on a negative trajectory. Patience, is all I can say. I keep an eye out for plants that do well under neglect and ponder how to incorporate these survivors into my plantings.

Actually, though, although my roses are looking rather sad--many of them--my post was actually somewhat positive, in the sense that I was making up a list of plants that have been growing well the last couple of years. Many of them are Mediterranean plants originating south of here. I have a smallish part of my large-ish garden that's predominantly evergreen and which has a certain classic Italian garden air, despite the lack of marble balustrades and statuary. It's amazing what Italian cypresses and massed evergreens, plus terracing, can achieve in the way of sober dignity, no matter how rough the hardscape. Well, at least, to my eyes. I had started with trees. Continuing on with shrubs. Box would be excellent were it not for box moth; Eleagnus x ebbingi is excellent in all seasons, handsome, but not too striking for hedging; Phyllirea latifolia, very slow-growing but otherwise good, not easy to get locally; the outstanding subshrub Phlomis, three species, growing to a meter or more tall and 1.5 meters or more wide, good-looking all year long; shrub germander (Teucrium fruticans), another subshrub, slow to root from cuttings but otherwise wonderful, a 4' x 5' mass of airy silver foliage. Small-leaved privet is iffy in the worst soil. I'm currently trying the central Italian staple Viburnum tinus, which people locally grow here and there; and myrtle, which no one grows in the ground around here but which is hardy. I hedge, with some effort, some bay laurel and a couple of holm oaks. Of the subshrubs, rosemary sometimes struggles--it doesn't like rain at the wrong time of year, or really bad drainage--while Mexican sage does well, though it's light in texture. I want to get more Pistacia lentiscus--lentisk, mastic--in the garden; another southerner, aromatic, that grows slowly and as the years pass makes a dense shrub, though it's perhaps too sprawling to be a good hedge.

To be continued.

I live on a hot, dry and sunny hillside, but before the recent rains came everywhere I looked the vegetation was in a precarious condition in most of inland San Diego County, and only luck and I have to think a very vigilant fire department kept us from horrendous wildfires. Sadly I think we are beyond the tipping point worldwide in regard to global warming, and not much will be done to save us. In another decade or two when the situation becomes so dire that even the very rich begin to fear for themselves the government and large corporations may suddenly become very creative and come up with ways to end or at least mitigate our global ecodisaster. The next 20 to 30 years will be challenging, and that is putting it mildly, but humans will muddle through and there are at least way too many of us to be in any danger of dying out. Of course the animals and probably even the plants would breathe a sigh of relief if we did.

Hello, Jackie and Ingrid. Jackie, your comment came to my attention after I had posted my most recent contribution. Ingrid, am I correct in thinking that your area in its native state is relatively arid? That recent droughts would weigh on it more heavily than in customarily wetter areas, like where I live. Also your description of your soil doesn't suggest it's great for holding water, unlike our clay. I agree with you that we're all likely to have harder times ahead, some more, some less. I'm able to garden here, if not always exactly the plants I'd like (roses), and there's still plenty growing in spite of prolonged low rainfall. Don't know if it will last forever.

Currently it's snowing, has been since last night, and with a forecast of real winter temperatures in the days to come such as we haven't seen since the beginning of the cold season. The amount fallen so far is still moderate, three inches perhaps, but every bit helps.

I saw the doctor Monday and she said I was suffering the effects of the Covid I caught over the holidays, even though I tested negative a good while ago for active infection. It happens to some people. DH and DD are still coughing from their bouts but are otherwise fine, thank goodness. The current weather suits my need to be perfectly quiet and warm. The pantry is stocked to the ceiling.

In addition to being suitable for often-evergreen, Mediterranean plants, there's a whole suite of temperate climate plants that grow well here and have good drought tolerance. Barberry family members: the big hybrid mahonias, Oregon grape, Berberis julianae, B. x ottawensis, nandina. These are all handsome plants all though the year, though the Oregon grape is invasive and needs keeping an eye on; the hybrid mahonia blooms in winter and is highly desirable for that. Winter jasmine, also in flower now and climbing common jasmine; fragrant shrub honeysuckle, my fave lilac, which I hope continues to get the winter chill it needs; forsythia, photinia, though the deer love its young foliage, kerria. A group of good shrubs is the cotoneasters: I don't know whether they're unfashionable, being so bombproof, or whether they're less bombproof in other conditions than ours. Particularly handsome is Cotoneaster lacteus, a large arching shrub, broadleaved and evergreen, with showy red berries in winter. Bart bart has expressed her dislike of photinia's red new foliage, and Heaven knows it is gaudy. But I planted it next to C. lacteus, and am looking forward to the spectacle of deep green and bright red next winter. In January, that's exactly what I need. Some of the viburnums are good: I have V. x burkwoodii in particular all over the garden, and the unshowy, native V. lantana.

Among herbaceous plants and not, peonies tend to be pretty good, as do hellebores in light shade, along with Ruscus and Alexandrian laurel. This list could go on forever, but I'll stop here. To sum up, for a garden that has heavy poor clay soil, bakes in summer, and is living with prolonged drought, so far, there's plenty of life.

Yes, Melissa, my area is quite arid with light soil (decomposed granite) and at 1700 feet on a sunny hillside it is not optimal for growing roses. I had planted roses again, hoping against hope that I could succeed near the house where there is shade in the afternoon and deeper soil. Unfortunately, due to climate change even the few ground squirrels that are left are eating the roses now, in spite of the barriers I've tried to put up. Sadly it just was not meant to be.

Thank you, dear Melissa, for your concern. We are all feeling our way forwards in conditions that we've never experienced before. Some plantings will succeed and others not, but if we're flexible enough we'll still find a few things, even now, that will grow and give us pleasure.