\nSummer’s hold on us is at an end. We finally got rain last Saturday (8\/11) and, almost overnight, the garden is transformed. Sure, temperatures remain in the high 90s the rest of this week. But it ain’t the 100s. The dust is gone. The ground is soft enough to pull weeds. The crunchy grass on what’s left of the back lawn is greening up. And I’ve started planting my carefully saved white bluebonnet seeds.<\/p>\n
Amazing how so many plants respond enthusiastically to the rain. Things like the yellow salvia and the wild Mexican petunias and the datura which I was considering cutting back last week are looking great. One datura is actually in full bloom. Some of the wild cleome that hadn’t completely gone to seed is a gauzy cloud of white.<\/p>\n
![\"Zephyranthes](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/33week20180814.jpg\")
\n2018-08-14 Rainlilies ‘Labuffarosea’. A passalong from Annie in Austin and still going strong.<\/p>\n
2018-08-31 Update. Anticipation was short-lived as the last 17 out of 18 days hit 100\u00b0F or higher. The one exception being 8\/30 which was a cool 99\u00b0F.<\/p>\n
Dateline: 2014<\/strong> After four years of neglect, I begin dividing and replanting oxblood lilies, too. I think I\u2019m dismantling the garden but once I begin digging up bulbs my own interests revive and I find that I\u2019m as curious as I am acquisitive. This means I must sort through my systems and try to figure out the lineages and histories of each clump.<\/p>\n Very little is blooming: a stray flower on the clammy weed, prairie verbena, rose of Sharon, and Mexican petunia. A few wild sunflowers that look pitiful but that I leave because the small birds attack the seedheads each day. I no longer have a front lawn nor much of a back one. I don\u2019t water at all, except the potted plants. Metaphorically my Austin garden is on the cusp of winter, waiting for spring.<\/p>\n One of my neighbors, walking by, stopped to chat as I was working and said she liked that about my garden: that she could see the seasons change in it and that it rested in the heat of August and the cold of January before it burst forth again. A garden that emphasizes change and time. That\u2019s what I like about it, too. I planned it so purposefully. Dateline: 2006<\/strong> For those of you new to Austin, no, this is not normal August weather. Non-gardening residents, as they race from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car, shrug their shoulders and think, “It’s August. It’s hot. Whaddya expect?” Well, I expect summer to be winding down.<\/p>\n We gardeners are out in the world and we’re taking notes. Although it’s not impossible for us to have 100+ degree days even in September (Austin’s all time record high was 114 degrees in September 2000–the most miserable summer in my memory), Austin’s average number of triple-digit days is ten<\/strong>. Ten! That means some years it’s less than ten. I’m just thankful I didn’t live through the summer of 1923. In that record-setting year, the thermometer topped 100 on 71 days.<\/p>\n Can you imagine that on August 14, 2003 the high was only in the low 80s after a front bringing heavy rain pushed through? Did I get out my sweater that day? This week in 1998, I was enjoying temperatures in the 80s and days of drizzling rain.<\/p>\n I’m usually dividing bearded irises and cleaning up and getting revved up for fall gardening. This year I’m lucky if I can stay outside long enough to get the potted plants watered.<\/p>\n
\nAugust is a pregnant month, heavy and expectant. After an unusually wet and cool early summer, August 2014 seems very evocative of my first August in Austin forty years ago and emblematic of all those in between. This week the dry and dusty days of early August have turned humid, the air almost too heavy and oppressive to breathe. And yet, I can\u2019t keep out of the garden. Even in the continued 100 degree heat, I sense a turn in the season, or perhaps I only expect one. I prune and turn the mulch pile and grind up leaf litter and straighten and order. Anticipation.<\/p>\n
\nNow I dream of other future gardens.<\/p>\n
\nWednesday (8\/16) was the hottest day of 2006 in Austin, 104 degrees. That’s not a record breaking high. What’s unusual is not the quality of the heat; it’s the quantity. In August so far 16 out of 20 days have been 100 degrees or hotter.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/320\/DaturaInoxia2.jpg\")
![](\"http:\/\/www.zanthan.com\/gardens\/photos\/320\/33week20060820.jpg\")