I've lost a couple of things, but nothing too important. I'm worried about my Settler's fig, because it's dropping all its leaves, while the black fig is fine. It's in a large black nursery pot, and someone suggested that black pot might be the problem, but it's been in that pot for years, so I don't think that's it. I've scraped the bark from top to bottom and it's all green. I think it's probably just rootbound and not holding onto water, though it's mulched and I was watering every other day very deeply.

Even my elderberry is dropping leaves early. It usually doesn't start until October. It didn't make a mess this year because the birds I planted it for, finally decided to eat the berries. Very few got dropped, and even some of those got eaten off the ground by the birds. It kept on blooming, since it wasn't getting many "seeds" out. I really love that tree. It brings me such joy to watch the birds happily eating away!

I'm leaving for a few days the first week of September, and I'm praying it rains. I have a neighbor who said he will water my plants for me, but he's not the most reliable person. I'll probably water all of them exceedingly well and bring some of the most vulnerable ones inside so they won't be so exposed. I'm also praying there isn't a hurricane around that time.

This has been a harsh summer, very hard for me to keep up with even keeping the plants watered. This fall and winter, I'll be rehoming a lot of my larger plants simply because I can't take care of everything. Getting old, now. Hard to believe that when I joined GW 24 years ago, I was out in my garden every day, taking care of 1/4 acre of yard and hundreds of potted plants. Now I struggle to take care of the small yard I have now. I'm just glad I no longer have to mow the lawn!