Heat and more heat

I heard on the radio today to expect the heat wave to continue through late August. This was not welcome news. The afternoon thunderstorms have been non-existent lately and even the hardy perennials need watering. My friend Meg's husband Joey grew up in this area, and remembers that the thunderstorms came like clockwork every afternoon at three. Not much evidence of them currently.

I ran the hose on all of my vegetables (they're waterhogs, of course), but we're now watering plants that normally never droop.

A climate change specialist mentioned on our public radio station today that rain events more than an inch had greatly increased over the last decades. It went from something like 8% of rainfall events were over an inch to 12 or 15%.

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Stifling heat and parched soil

It's been pretty miserable for plants (and people) in the garden. The temperatures are close to 100° F ; it doesn't get below 70° degrees F at night and I don't even want to think about the humidity. Walking in the morning seems like a wet blanket envelopes the landscape, making it almost hard to breath. Morning and evening are tolerable, and the luminous light, because of the humidity, is some compensation. The vegetables, even the hardy sorts, are looking wan. The trombocino squash twining on the fence away from the thirsty woodchucks suffers from not being able to benefit from the abundant adventitious roots at each node. The large leaves predictably wilt each afternoon, recovering later on.

Milkweed bugs at different stages on the butterfly weed pods were a diversion. They're seed predators, pretty and easy to raise, so a popular classroom insect.

We're running the hose on even some really hardy plants. This evening, the oakleaf hydrangeas and Salvia guaranitica (Anise blue sage) were droopy and will benefit from evening refreshment. Unfortunately, there's no rain in the forecast.

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Squirrels and salad?

In a optimistic mood, I sowed Treviso radicchio in the spring, thinking that I'd have nice small red leaves, in spite of the approaching summer heat. Unfortunately, Treviso radicchio turns red in cool weather, so I've had a lovely robust green patch all summer long; it's trouble-free but too bitter to eat without leaching out the bitter compounds before cooking, and then it's tough. I've left it in the garden as an experiment. I'm hoping that cool fall weather will mellow the taste, and encourage the leaves to actually look like radicchio. I had some lovely round heads a couple of seasons ago that were beautiful in the winter garden. So imagine my surprise when something started nibbling on a few leaves. We first thought maybe squirrels were using the flexible leaves in their summer nests, but I thought that the bitterness would deter them from too much activity. Yesterday evening, however, we had quite a surprise. The culprit (a cute female squirrel who's actually nursing according to a wildlife biologist friend of ours) was in full view of the kitchen window munching away. Who knew that squirrels like salad!

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Summer bees and flowers

There are so many kinds of native bees, in addition to the introduced honeybee. They've been fun to learn about and observe in different flowers.



The big carpenter bees with their smooth black abdomens are the biggest, except for the occasional queen bumblebee. They visit a variety of different flowers, and are strong flyers. They're not above 'robbing' nectar from Salvias, either, poking holes at the base of the flowers, thereby circumventing entering the flower 'correctly'.

All of the smaller bees are fun to watch gathering pollen. These were visiting native Helianthus hirsutus and Rudbeckia fulgida flowers in the meadow.





There's a specialist bee that collects pollen from these portulaca flowers in one of my containers, but I wasn't able to catch it in a photo.

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Goldfinches in the garden

The bright yellow flash of male goldfinches this time of year alerts me to their presence. Lately, a pair of goldfinches has been eating Liatris,
Rudbeckia, and purple coneflower seeds in the front meadow. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of the male hanging on the spiky Liatris -- they're skittish enough that it's hard to sneak up on them.

The woodchuck(s) must be hungry. They're now starting to eat almost green tomatoes! Or maybe this is a hungry cardinal... woodchucks are most likely.

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Small summer containers

I like to keep something green in my containers throughout the year. Perennial herbs, herbaceous perennials with rosettes, Sedums and succulents; all of these are fun and easy to use.



Of course, I also don't want to be tied to watering all the time in the summer, too, which means drought-tolerant plants. But that still leaves lots of great plants to use, creating wonderful contrasts of textures and shapes. This summer's containers aren't quite as spectacular due to our drought here in SC, but some of them are quite nice.

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Early morning

Coming back from a long walk on a summer morning often finds the view from the gate slightly misty with early humidity, with the colors clarified by the soft light. It's one of the best times of the day in a southeastern summer.


Mocha posed by the front meadow while I cooled off and snapped some pictures of the garage hanging baskets.


Amazingly, the nasturtiums are still flourishing in these baskets, in spite of the 90+ heat and afternoon sun.


I'm trying to use only drought-tolerant plants in large baskets to minimize watering!

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