The weather looks bad everywhere: 100 degree heat on the east coast, floods in the midwest, and late snow in Washington state. This afternoon when it was 101 degrees (tied the 1923 record) rain began falling although the sun was shining. It was so hot that almost none of the rain hit the ground and what did evaporated immediately. Little steamy droplets rose so that it looked like it was raining up at the same time it was raining down. It was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. Nothing soaked in and the rain didn’t cool us off; we just went from dry heat to humid heat.<\/p>\n
The oleander still looks stupendous. The duranta and the crape myrtle looked good at the beginning of the week but are starting to fade by today. We harvested four ‘Juliet’ grape tomatoes and various jalapeno peppers.<\/p>\n
First flower: pomegranite (6\/8).
\n<\/p>\n
Dateline: 2006<\/h4>\n
The flowers of crape myrtle. which last week looked better than it ever has in my garden, withered and dried in the heat wave. The week began unseasonably hot and very dry and then turned unseasonably hot and more miserably humid.<\/p>\n
The one bright spot is the potted Meyer’s lemon. The week we were in England, I left it in the sun and its leaves yellowed and dropped off revealing a few small lemons. I brought it under the porch, babied it a couple of weeks and now it has completely releafed and is covered in thickly scented flowers.<\/p>\n
I’m concerned about ‘Ducher’. It is suffering from die-back and seems destined to go the way “Caldwell Pink” did last year.<\/p>\n
Dateline: 2002<\/h4>\n
First flower: Lagerstroemia indica ‘Catawba’ (6\/7).<\/p>\n
Dateline: 2001<\/h4>\n
Sunday June 10, 2001
\nYesterday, heavy rains from Tropical Storm Allison disabled Houston, turning freeways into rivers and killing over a dozen people, leaving over 10,000 homeless.<\/p>\n
Today in Austin, it is a beautiful day, hot, but not humid.<\/p>\n
Dateline: 2000<\/h4>\n
Sunday June 4, 2000
\nI water another section of the front lawn for a couple of hours in the morning. I’m trying to get the mulch on the south border, but I just don’t have the energy to do much.<\/p>\n
As we are returning from the library, dark clouds blow in from the west. We hurry home and get as much mulch out of the truck and just dump it on the winter garden. Soon it begins to really pour and we have a nice rain for about an hour. It is very dark and you can feel a cool breeze in the rain.<\/p>\n
Dateline: 1999<\/h4>\n
Sunday June 6, 1999
\nThe lower and middle meadow have a winding river of buffalograss wending through them. It makes beautiful waves of pale green, crested almost with white. When the lower meadow recovers from the over-abundance of bluebonnets and fills in some more, it will look just like I planned it.<\/p>\n
In the middle and the upper meadow, where I haven’t cleaned up the larkspur, some of it continues to bloom. The plants are brown and seedy, but and the flush of bloom faded, but the effect is blown and blousy and romantic and a little melancholy.<\/p>\n
Monday June 7, 1999
\nMow the back lawn at 4.0. This leaves it very tall, which is my plan to get it through summer vacation. After the heavy rains at the end of May, the lawn looks lush, deep green and filled in. A lot of it is still weeds.<\/p>\n
First flower: Helianthus annuus ‘Cinnamon Sun’ (6\/7).<\/p>\n
Dateline: 1998<\/h4>\n
Friday June 5, 1998
\nA welcome rain brings relief to the unseasonably hot week of hundred degree temperatures. It drops to sixty at night. And it feels so, so good!<\/p>\n
Sunday June 7, 1998
\nGot a truckload of turkey compost. Boy, does it stink of stale urine! Spent four hours spreading it on the meadow.<\/p>\n
First flower: moonflower (6\/6); balloon flower (6\/6).<\/p>\n
Dateline: 1997<\/h4>\n
Saturday June 7, 1997
\nRain yesterday and more rain today.<\/p>\n
Monday June 9, 1997
\nHeavy rains, lightening and thunder last night. In the meadow the mulch is washed in sheets, showing the pattern of the runoff. Some of the Velvet Queen sunflowers are beaten into the mud. I try staking them.<\/p>\n
Tuesday June 10, 1997
\nMore heavy rains cause flooding in the county. By afternoon the rain clears up.
\nMany bluebonnets are sprouting in the areas I cleaned out over the weekend.
\nI started reading Southern Gardens, Southern Gardeners and the author recommends starting many fall and early spring plants now. Of course, he lives in Charleston and doesn’t have to deal with our drought and heat. Perhaps it will work here too. Last year the cosmos that sprouted about this time were in full bloom in October until frost.<\/p>\n
Dateline: 1996<\/h4>\n
Friday June 7, 1996
\nThis morning, while JQS and I are sitting on the runway in Dallas, a major thunderstorm hits Austin. I think we get almost two inches of rain, which is the first real rain we’ve had since last September. When we arrive home, both lawns look green, lush and tall.<\/p>\n
Dateline: 1995<\/h4>\n
Thursday, June 8, 1995
\nThis morning at 7:30 it was 81 degrees!<\/p>\n
As summer progresses and seedlings become young plants, I find it easy to grow lazy, to forget to check plants daily, to water, weed, and feed them.<\/p>\n
I have seedlings that must be transplanted and beds to prepare for bulbs. Other plants need mulching. The patio plants need more water and feeding. I need to move the oxalis, perhaps to the meadow. And there is compost to turn.<\/p>\n
Looking back over the spring, the verbena is, without a doubt, the star performer. It has bloomed since I planted it. I’ve layered twice and it is at least ten times larger than when I bought it. The first plants layered I’ve cut from the mother plant and they seem well.<\/p>\n
I’ve learned I can hack back the mint, without hurting it. And if I don’t, the poor rosemary sits there engulfed.<\/p>\n
The cosmos and the black-eyed Susans are a disappointment. Although, they are growing, and at least the cosmos are flowering, they aren’t as rampant and wild as everyone suggests.<\/p>\n
Saturday June 10, 1995
\nSweltering heat. I water and clean up a bit. All over, the ground is dry down 3 or 4 inches . The lawns haven’t wilted yet, but I mulch everything I haven’t gotten to yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"Acanthus](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/400\/23week20080610.jpg\")
Why Acanthus mollis isn’t invasive in my garden.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[23,55,69,196,198,203],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5590,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions\/5590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}