All the phlox are fried in the potager. The grass is NOT green.
The hellebores WERE lush after a cool spring.
But I did get to see the last of lily ‘Pizzaz’ in bloom
…and drip irrigation kept the containers watered.
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sorta like suburbia 
That sucks but if you cut the phlox back they should grow back. Soaker hoses on a timer should keep everything moister for the next trip.
I’m thinking nearly everything will recover…. next year.
Right now I’m mostly getting over the fact that so much stuff is a total loss for this year and I’m trying to figure out what’s left to look forward to.
I do have a few things set up for automatic watering. When I’m done with my little self pity fest I’ll show those areas 🙂
I know this isn’t going to go down well Frank but you have to decide, garden designed to withstand drought and heat or put in some irrigation (not for the grass) for the plants that really need it. I only water the vegetable garden, the cut flower beds (drip hose) and the left hand bed by hose (its not looking great because I haven’t done it enough. For the rest this year I’ve had to water a couple of shrubs that were very stressed and the roses. I sometimes feel like that too but the the bulbs arrive and I’m inspired again.
I did order a few new iris today, and already feel better 🙂
I was quite disgusted with the year in general when I posted these pictures. It seems like 2016 has been one thing after another and I’m just curious as to what the next thing will be. Insect plague perhaps…. I look forward to spring so optimistically each year that any stumble always comes as such a surprise. I should really know better by now.
In general most of the garden is very drought resistant and I expect the grass to die and the garden to need watering, but this has been an unusually early and lengthy stretch. -and I do mourn the phlox and despise the spider mites.
I’ll try to get some pictures of the things which are doing well and which will recover quickly. The annuals in the front border should bounce back with water and as long as the spider mites don’t suck the life out of them all should not be lost. Also I put drip lines through the tropical garden the day before I left and things there look ok.
If all else fails there’s always a November freeze to end it all!
Summer can be hard. I downsized quite a bit, but plan to have a big fall garden again.
Argh. That was my backup plan last year, but the fall rains stalled as well and nothing did well then either… but hope springs eternal!
Yes, it does!
Noooooo!!!
Hopefully I can post some nicer pictures later this week!
If your MIL can spray herbicide, why can’t she water while you’re gone? Oh, I bet she went with you. I don’t care if the lawn turns brown, but those hellebores and phlox are painful to look at. Maybe Christine is right.
Believe it or not the MIL stayed behind and did water a few things. The tomatoes look decent but in the dry heat spider mites are infesting the eggplant. That’s all I asked her to water though since last year her dramatic rendition of ‘all the things she had to water’ was a little too annoying for me to live through again.
I thought she would have noticed the dying phlox though….
Oh dear, is all that brown stuff your lawn? Still, nice lilies.
I like to think of the brown stuff as my “no-mow ecofriendly” lawn. At least it’s low maintenance… although in spite of the drought the weeds still grow and now stand out even more due to their inappropriately green color.
Oh Frank, wish you could have had half of our rainfall this spring and summer. You really need someone to water for you when you go away next time! There must be a youngster in the neighbourhood who would do it for a bit of pocket money…? Hope you manage to save some stuff!
Actually I think we did get half your rain back in May. I remember it rotting the tulips just as they were recovering from a freak blast of cold which came on the heels of an unusually warm spell. It’s been a frustrating year to say the least!
My MIL was in charge of the watering, but I might have to promote the nephew for next year. I’m sure he would do an excellent job but I shudder to think of what the water bill would look like. At least my MIL realizes there’s a click click click of money leaving my wallet every time the water tap is flowing!
Maybe in the long run the saved dollars from not watering have earned me a trip to the nursery. I’m sure at least $50 worth of water was not used and it only makes sense that I should move this money over into the new plant budget!
Now that is one way of looking at it. Positive thinking! 😉
Bummer to come home to that top view. Glad there were some bright spots for you to enjoy.
Yes it was pretty depressing, especially after seeing several ‘scattered thunderstorms’ predictions on the weather forecast and thinking that would be enough to carry things through.
Now I remember why we rarely go on vacation. We just had 6 and a half inches of rain in about 48 hours. Four days later and we are still cleaning up storm debris. It’s always something with a garden and much of it negative.
Oh no! I really didn’t think the storm was that bad, I thought a downed branch and a few bent lilies was about all the damage you got. I guess when you start getting into the cleanup more and more things begin to show.
With all this year’s ups and downs weather wise I’ve go to wonder what’s next. Surprisingly enough there are no grasshopper hordes yet, it’s just spidermites galore and a few Japanese beetles. Saying that was probably not a good idea, who knows what will come now.
Oh my, what a sad welcome home! I drove down to Wilkes Barre just the other day. Had I known how dire the situation was, I would have stopped to water for you! I second Cathy’s suggestion of hiring a teenager to water for you. One of my friends hires my kids to water her stuff when she’s gone for as few as three days. The boxwoods look nice, though, and the phlox and hellebores will live to see another year.
Yes I think most of it will recover, and I was stupid to think primroses had any chance here anyway…
I suppose I could hire the nephew, I just hate the idea of such a needy garden. There’s got to be some bounce to it from all these little weather disasters… I feel like steady watering is the same as giving in. Is that a guy thing? Plus I’m too cheap to commit to a whole summer of running the sprinkler, even though my standing-around-with-hose method is showing up on the water bill anyway. I guess I have to find a compromise since this dead yard look just isn’t winning me over.
I feel like a regular schedule of deep watering uses less water in the long run, but maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part!
Your Verbena are looking nice and your onions!
We started going through the vegetable remains yesterday and there were plenty of onions (although a few went missing while we were gone…) and a nice little crop of potatoes. I guess there were a few things doing well 🙂
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