Surviving the Dog Days

Wavy Leaf cactus (anyone know the "real" name of this?; it's almost spineless & the pads curve & bend)

This is the third summer I've blogged about my garden and now I notice that around this time every year, I start pooping out on blogging. And even reading blogs. It's just too darn hot and I don't even want to think of gardens (hard to do when I have to edit so many gardening articles!). The temperatures we had to endure at the beginning of this past week were horrible and record breaking - was it 105 F or higher? After the heat indices started going over 115 F, I stopped listening to the weather. I started thinking I was back living in Austin ( :-) the smile is for all of my Austin friends). But then the miraculous occurred - it started to rain. Buckets. Toad stranglers. Too much rain to sink in properly. Lightning everywhere. I guess it was bound to happen.

'Crimson Pirate' daylily

So to celebrate the return of rain, I've decided to focus on the good things in my garden and world, and ignore the negatives. Take this 'Crimson Pirate' daylily. This variety has been blooming since late May. That's more than two months of blooms! Research on this variety tells me that it first came out in the 1950s. I guess you could say it's not a fat and lazy daylily, like so many of my other ones! I have four of these plants, bought last year from a big box, and this year they've been spectacular. Especially when they all bloom at once.

Foxtail fern (Asparagus myers)

How's this for a juicy, fluffy fern? This is the younger of the two foxtail ferns I have, and looks the best. Of course, it should be as I water it every day!

'Red Cascade' miniature climbing rose

You have to be a tough rose to survive this summer (see my last post about one rose that didn't make it). 'Red Cascade' has had no trouble.

Unknown nasturtium variety in front of flapjack succulent

I have to smile every time I see the few remaining blooms on my nasturtiums. Normally they're kaput by this time of year but just to see what would happen, this year I cut them back after their spring bloom period. A few of them have made a heroic effort to survive the summer. This is probably the last bloom I'll get this year though!

A few assorted blooms and Nasella tenuissima, Mexican feather grass

Be glad I didn't include a close up of the asters behind the Mexican feather grasses. All that brown on the asters is damage from the aster lace bug. Did you know that such a bug existed? I didn't but I sure do now. I think they're past the worst of the damage now and am hoping the fall blooms hide the rest of the brownness. (btw, I don't have an 'X' painted on my cactus behind the asters. It's just a shadow from my fence.)

'Zagreb' coreopsis and Mexican feather grass

The 'Zagreb' coreopsis is a big winner in my book this year. New to the baby garden, it's never stopped blooming since I planted it!

47 Daisies farm produce

More goodness in my world - our farmers' market. As National Farmers' Market Week winds down, let's celebrate local farms and farmers and everything they do for us, shall we? We (those of us who "work" at the farmers' market) laugh every time this national week of celebration comes around. Someone up north obviously picked the date for it because down south, the farmers and their produce are struggling to get past the dog days of summer! But we still have some intrepid souls at the market and in fact, for the first time since we opened almost three years ago, we're still open in August (not sure how long that'll last though). But let's celebrate it while we can with a few photos.

The last(?) of the tomatoes for the summer from Mack's Tomatoes and Produce

'Silver Queen' okra from Wayne's Specialty Produce

Terrell Farms' fig preserves

Talar's Mediterranean Specialty (hummus, taboulleh, etc., ... I'm in heaven!!)

Matlock Farms' peaches (very yumm-o)

47 Daisies' sunflowers

With all the lovely produce and foods from our farmers' market, the recent drenching rains, yes, I guess you could say I'm surviving the dog days of summer. And I'm thinking and hoping we only have six more weeks til our first little cool front. :-)

This post was written by Jean McWeeney for my blog Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog. Copyright 2010. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.