Saturday, August 27, 2016

Still Hot and Dry, But...

Following an incredibly hot and rather dry July, August was not quite so hot, but just about as dry.  And unfortunately, there's not much relief in sight and no appreciable rainfall until at least September 15th.

Consequently, the grass is not particularly attractive at this moment and portions are dormant, while the remainder is very, very dry.

On the up side, I had planned for a hot and dry summer and planted the gardens appropriately.  Those are doing amazingly well, and only require watering once or twice a week if it doesn't rain.  For the most part, it hasn't rained.

This is the north face shot, including some "red" marigolds (that tend to be orange and haven't performed all that well), plus Inca II gold marigolds, and yellow Profusion zinnia.  Sticking up in there are some blue Rhea salvia, red salvia, and the remnants of one white cosmos.
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The southwest face.  The magenta flowers are Madagascar periwinkle, which strongly prefer hot and fairly dry conditions.  Those have done well this year, but they're comparatively difficult to raise from seed.  The leaves on the Easter Egg plant are a bit curled in the heat (it's currently 96° in the gardens), but those will plump back up as the sun sets.
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These Moonstruck deep orange marigolds were done as a trial this year.  They're such perfect flowers on perfect plants that they'll be replacing a lot of the orange zinnia.
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While unimpressive en masse, the cherry Profusion zinnia occasionally throw a more saturated set of blossoms.  These have made friends with an Inca II Gold marigold bud, and the two are growing into each other very happily.
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