July Garden Notes and Anecdotes

Here is a picture of our geographic region shown on our local weather Friday, July 26. 2024. My location is in the middle color of the legend for the current drought. I am in growing Zone 7a.

It's been a very dry summer, and the garden - particularly my grass - is suffering. I am suffering (in terms of first world problems).

Welcome to Panoply, where landscape gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. Today I want to share just a few garden notes and anecdotes of my experience this July and late June, since my last garden update, here.

On the 4th of July I posted this photo below and captioned it: "Tell me your garden needed rain without telling me your garden needed rain. June was rough!" This was one hydrangea, photos taken early July (top) and the month prior (Bottom), with no rain and very hot temperatures (high 90s, real feel triple digits). 

We haven't had much rain since June 18th. Since then, only a few times did it rain. It's been barely enough to even wet the rain gauge.

Look at my pitiful grass! We wait three weeks in between cuttings, and that's just to even up the edges to the straw-like, dormant grass. September can't come soon enough!

However, when we received nearly an inch and a half of much needed rain, it was fast (windy) and hard falling. Those can do a number on the plants. Can you say splat? Here's what that inch and a half of rain in June did (top frame of next two photos). 

That's when I have to go outside and try to either stake, tie and/or thin out plants after the beating from a quick rain with wind. Since that rain in June, we've only received an inch and a half total for July. 😒

I suppose it's due to the drought, but I only saw my first butterfly on July 8th, can you believe that?

I haven't seen one hummingbird, other than on a neighbor's feeder, and that was just this past week (July 24th). In spite of my additions to the landscape to hopefully attract hummingbirds (cardinal flower, penstemon, penta annuals, and my already established crocosmia), the hummingbirds seem elusive.

Clockwise: Pentas, Cardinal flower, Penstemon, Crocosmia

But those weeds sure don't discriminate with type of soil or weather. Do you ever go outside and wonder, "how in the world did I miss that one?", referring to finding a weed right smack in the middle of a good plant, waaay taller than the plant. It's like playing Where's Waldo? when it comes to spotting all the weeds in the garden (and the snips I constantly lose while cutting them!). Somehow I seem to always have at least one yard waste bag full of weeds each week.

And let's not forget the pests in the garden. In spring it was slugs, in June it was Japanese beetles. A deer has been spotted in the neighborhood, but deer have to cross either a busy highway or the river to get into our neighborhood. 

What we have the most of are rabbits and squirrels. Back in May I spotted a squirrel on top of my book reader statue. 

Come back he did. A squirrel came in late June, sat on that statue as if it were a bar stool, and chomped off every single daylily flower blossom in that bed. He even used the concrete bench across from the bed to massacre the blooms, leaving bits of anthers and petals on the bench and on the mulch below.

Rabbits (those pictured below are not in my yard, but representative just the same) delighted in one of two of my balloon flowers. One month later, it's just now starting to show blooms again.

I have watered every.single.day, just trying to keep all the perennial shrubs and annual plants I've invested in this year alive. My typical routine is to walk around 7am, then water immediately after. A few days I had Jacqueline early mornings, so I didn't get the chance to water until later in the day. With the sun's heat, I didn't even think that the water would be scalding hot! I literally burned a few blooms on my quick fire hydrangea (isn't it ironic?!), and my containers. 

I was too embarrassed to even photograph my patio container that was scalded. Thankfully, they've mostly recovered with some bloom boost and tlc.

In spite of the weather conditions, I've actually been pretty successful with everything I've planted this year. The vinca annuals always fill out among my geraniums in front. This year I've had a lot of volunteers from last year's annuals - vinca, pansies, and celosia. I planted zinnia seeds from the shorter (yellow) variety I had last year.

On July 24, my volunteer crepe myrtle finally started blooming! This started as a stick in 2022, was transplanted twice in 2023 and only grew leaves in July last year (very late for the region).  

The north bed is filling in quite nicely, with room still for growth and a few more plants to be tucked in next year. It was early July when the pink hydrangeas were in bloom in this bed. The lower frame was late July, still looking fairly good, compliments of my water bill.

The south bed is one I'm still toying with, but am keeping things pruned while I decide, and adding a few annuals (by seed). I also added a few "fireworks", thanks to Jeanie at Marmalade Gypsy. My neighbor across the street (brick house shown in photo) has since added some to her bed too!

I keep my arsenal close at hand for all the potentials of gardening. 

They say one year of seeds is seven years of weeds. I'm still fighting that upland cress crap that was in my compost last fall. At least now I have an arsenal to combat it. And I'll use RoundUp when I have to. For someone who grew up in the chemical valley armpit of Monsanto, Union Carbide, and Dupont, I'm not afraid of any of it!

When it's really hot, I typically wear flip flops to piddle in the garden. I've already blown out one pair of flip flops, but good ol' Dollar Tree was at my rescue. I picked up a pool and sunglasses for Jacqueline too. And while watering one morning last week, I noticed someone put a painted rock of a red bird on the ground beside my hose reel. Later on my walk that morning, I saw a heart rock on the head of a St Francis statue in a neighbor's yard. They both made me smile.

I know a lot of my blogging friends have had a lot of rain lately. Well, we're supposed to have rain this week. I sure hope so. My blog friend Christine of Rustic and Refined was kind enough to make and send me videos of her drip system she created for her garden. I may try to do that next year. If not, I guess we'll just keep on hosing. 

What garden trials and tribulations have you endured this year? I love to read your comments, and happily respond if I have your email. If you show up as anonymous, please let me know who you are!

Thanks for your visit today! 

Rita C. at Panoply

A special thank you to Linda from Life and Linda's Love Your Creativity #294 for featuring this post!

Parties I Share With:Love Your Creativity, BNOTP,  County Road 407 Farmhouse Friday