Surviving Sizzling Summer

A wall of heat slams into me as I open the door to let the dogs out.  They trot, rather than run, to do their business while I walk to the garden, the brown grass crunching under my feet. The air is so thick it's as if a blanket of steam has settled above me.  I move the sprinkler to another part of the garden and adjust the nozzle; as usual, I wind up soaking myself, but the cool spray is a welcome relief.  Satisfied that the hose is positioned to water the garden and not the grass, I look for the dogs who are already at the back door anxious to return to our air-conditioned cocoon.

Normally, I am not a glass-half-empty kind of  person, but I can be prone to pity parties, and I am a total wimp when it comes to heat.  Day after day of heat indexes over 100 degrees have turned me into a full-blown whiner.  Nagging aches and pains seem to be exacerbated by the heat.  Inertia has settled in, as I postpone projects and plans, all of which seem to require more energy than I can summon.

Early morning and late evening are the only times I venture outside, other than quick trips to move the water sprinklers.  Even then, it doesn't take long before rivulets of perspiration are running down my face.  The picture above of my roadside coneflowers shows that even at 8 PM, the sun's rays are still strong, and the haze of humidity has settled even closer to the ground.  When my daughter lived in Arizona, I used to feel so sorry for her during the summer when temperatures often reached 110.  But Arizona doesn't have humidity, so a heat index (temperature + humidity) is more accurate in comparing our weather--I think right now we're much hotter than Arizona!

But you didn't come here to hear me complain, and I realize even as I write, that it could be much worse.  While my garden is suffering from not only the heat, but  the prolonged drought as well, farmers have much more to be concerned about as they see their crops shriveling in the fields.  There are no wildfires threatening my home, thank God.  And, unlike some areas hit by recent storms, I have power--which means I can always retreat into the comfort of air-conditioning.

'Dragonfly Corner,' a passalong from friend Beckie, is thriving in spite of the heat.

Instead of complaining, it is a good time to look at the positives. It has taken me three weeks, but I finally have the load of mulch I ordered spread over all the flowerbeds, with some to spare.  Hopefully, this will keep down the weeds, and I can spend some time on some much-needed deadheading--when it cools down.  The daylilies are all in full bloom, providing the usual riot of color this time of year, even though some of their foliage is turning brown and the color of their blooms seems rather washed out by the sun.  I keep waiting for an overcast day to photograph them at their best.

On the Fourth of July I looked around the garden to see if I could find a patriotic tribute.  Finding something white wasn't difficult, which is a bit surprising, considering up until a year ago, there was hardly a white bloom in my garden.  Now there are all kinds of white blooms--phlox, 'White Swan' echinacea, nicotania, annual salvia. 

Probably the best-looking of the bunch, though, is the 'Becky' daisy.  The original plant pictured above in Roco's garden was divided last year, and an even larger plant now blooms in the Arbor Bed. More divisions were taken this spring and shared with best friend Beckie.  Such a great plant--it seems totally unfazed by the heat and the lack of rainfall.

Finding red was a little harder, especially a true red.  But the first zinnias are beginning to bloom, and a bright red one opened up just in time for the holiday.

A blue to complete the patriotic theme was even harder--the pot in the shade garden is a little too blue.

Searching a little harder, I found this bloom which may look purple here, but in the right light it is the perfect shade of flag blue.  What makes me excited about this bloom, though, is that it's my first ever larkspur!  I've tried for several years to plant larkspur from seed with no luck. 

This year I have several plants popping up here and there in various colors.  I finally realized that larkspur needs cold to germinate, and in the past I had planted it too late in the season.  These seeds were scattered in February, while the ground was still half-frozen.  

Another success story--one lavender plant started from indoor seed sowing a year ago survived the winter.  Perhaps there will be enough to make one lavender sachet??

While parts of the garden are showing the effects of a stressful summer, the liatris seem to be energized by the heat.  I'm not sure what's going on with these particular plants--they're 5-6 feet tall and still haven't bloomed!

The first 'Stargazer' bloom opened up yesterday, with buds promising more to come.  Yes, there is much to happy about in spite of this miserable heat, and there's nothing I can do about the weather anyway.  I'll just view the garden from the cool comfort of the family room and keep repeating my favorite mantra for all unpleasant times . . . "This, too, shall pass."

Stay cool, everyone!

ABC Wednesday: Rambling "I's"

It's been a couple of weeks since I last participated in ABC Wednesday, so I wanted to catch up today. The letter I is not an easy letter to use, especially when I try to focus primarily on gardening. Today's post is a miscellany of I's, starting with . . .

An IGLOO

No, this is not what my yard looks like today; this picture was taken in January. This igloo is actually a dog house which Older Daughter brought home in August. When I asked her about it, she just smiled and said, "Just wait." Knowing her propensity for taking in any four-legged creature who needs a home, I was afraid a new dog would soon be occupying it. However, she flew back home to Arizona shortly afterwards, without bringing us a dog or ever explaining the purpose of the doghouse. I must remember sometime to ask her what she was thinking.




Of course, as most of you know, there is a new dog at our house now. Miss Sophie, however, has sniffed at the igloo doghouse, but doesn't find it to her liking, nor would I dream of leaving her outside to sleep in it. She prefers lying at the foot of my bed at night to sleeping in her crate, but at least that's better than sleeping in my bed.

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A favorite "I" word of mine is Irony. I picked up this magazine at the supermarket a few weeks ago--notice the headlines. Why is it that almost any so-called women's magazine always has a quick weight-loss program as one of its lead stories . . . and a picture of a scrumptious 2,000 calorie dessert on the cover?? No wonder I can't lose weight!

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There is also some irony in my garden. The only flower I could think of that started with the letter "I" is Iris.

This is an Iris.

This is not an Iris.

In my Bloom Day post on Sunday I showed this foliage which I assumed were "Siberian Iris," or so they were called by the friend who gave them to me. Every spring the foliage appears, but they never bloom----or so I thought. Sharp-eyed Tina pointed out that they look like "Naked Ladies." The more I thought about it, I realized that is in fact what these leaves are, since this is exactly the place where the Naked Ladies surprised me last August.

For anyone not familiar with this name, we're not talking some kind of porn here. The picture above is of Lycoris squamigera, commonly known as "Naked Ladies," "Surprise Lilies," or "Mystery Lilies." The foliage of these lilies appears in early spring, then dies back over the summer, and suddenly bursts into bloom, seemingly out of nowhere in August. The irony is that all this time I've been looking futilely for some small iris blooms, when I had these gorgeous blooms instead. (Incidentally, I suspect the original Siberian Iris fell victim to Mr. Lawnmower Man some time ago, though he's never confessed to it.)

That's it for the I's this week, but now I'm regretting that I missed the last two weeks of letters, especially H. I realized too late that the letter H stands for some of my favorite flowers: hyacinths, hostas, hellebores, heucheras, and hydrangeas . . . just to name a few.

Last spring's hyacinths

Oh well, these beauties will all have their day in the sun very soon.


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