Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging!
Vol. 12.29
Have I mentioned how blistering hot it has been lately? Excuse me for sounding like a broken record because although we haven’t been breaking records quite yet, since the middle of June temperatures have been consistently running about 5° above normal here in Central Texas. Factor in the heat index and it has been pushing 110° or more in the shade for a few weeks now. Add in an almost constant moisture-sucking wind and nighttime temperatures barely dipping it into the 70s and it all combines for a very unpleasant and extremely uncomfortable sweat-through-your-clothes-just-standing-there mid-July here deep in the heart of Texas. It really makes you wonder what August has in store for us this year.
So please carefully jump over the ever-widening gaping maw in the earth and join me below as I detail some of the miseries and mini-miracles of our current heat wave:
Lately most of my time outside has been spent watering the garden. And watering. And watering some more. And then doing it all over again. We haven’t had any precipitation in 39 of the past 42 days and the last time it did rain we managed a whopping 3/100ths of an inch! I’m fairly certain I captured every drop of it in my hand as it fell. As a result, the cracks in the earth keep getting larger and larger and larger:
And no, I do not consider these ginormous cracks to be pre-dug holes! The soil bakes into large cement-like clumps which require gallons of water and a heavy-duty jackhammer to break apart. Rock hard soil and relentless sun do not exactly create ideal planting conditions. And with each passing day of intense heat, moisture-sucking wind, and no rain the situation only gets worse. We are just a few days away from being officially declared in the grips of yet another drought. How long it lasts and how deep it extends is the question and the concern.
But all is not lost. As the result of a lot of sweaty effort there are moments of success scattered throughout the landscape. While I eventually allow some areas to succumb to the harsh conditions others receive extra attention and water to help make it through these brutal and earlier-than-normal dog days of summer.
Here are a few of the plants and flowers I’ve been able to coax into defying the withering effects of the relentless heat. Most are in large pots that are watered daily:
Hold on a moment, Jaxon just fell into a crack in the earth!
Y’all talk among yourselves while I fetch a rope, a flashlight, and a doggie biscuit and rescue Jaxon from the dangerously dry depths of this perilously parched planet. Share with us all that’s going on in your corner of the world and how Mother Nature has been treating you and your garden so far during this sizzling summer of sudden heat…