We had the large oaks pruned on Friday.  It is amazing that during an extreme drought, the trees grow as much as they do.  Some branches  touched the house and the roof. However, we have watered within the restrictions all summer long, so they have not stressed. More sunlight will reach the lawn and various parts of the garden.  Early Saturday morning before grading and babysitting, I quickly counted 30 species blooming (roses, cranesbills and other geraniums, etc. are all counted as one species).

Our fall has been cool and dampish.  We have not received much rain but a lot of drizzle.  Perhaps it only seems cool in contrast to the Hades-like heat of the summer.

After the rains last week, the vegetation is emerald green and standing tall.  The beauty berries are purple and the puce fall lilies have added to their show, but the predominant color is a soft periwinkle blue, even though fall asters have not  begun to bloom.

This may be the perfect day.  Uh, oh!  The guilt has seized me by the throat as the clock flashed 9:23:57.  I must hurry to school, but I will remember– and hear the breeze, feel the sun’s warmth, and smell the garden’s fragrance as they bring me repose throughout the day.

Over Labor Day weekend, we traveled to New Mexico to once again escape the relentless Texas heat.  The sun shone brightly, but the temperatures during the day were cool.  I wore a light cardigan the entire time.  The experimental Little Garden planted by the front steps had not only survived but thrived in the intervening two months. With apologies to William Shakespeare, Alas, poor, Hollyhock! I knew him,  a fellow of most infinite stamina, of most excellent fancy, the mule deer have not allowed you to grow.  We struggled with the return to Austin.

Ruidoso garden two months after planting

We did have hope for Another Garden, our neighbor called us in NM to report that it had rained almost two inches in the country.  It seems that the weather pattern is changing due to El Nino’s influence.  All of Central Texas had rain over the span of several days.  Some areas received almost four inches while the Garden received only tenths and temperatures remained in the high nineties.  However, cloudy skies helped retain soil moisture from the limiting Stage 2 Water Restrictions.  The Garden looks good.

It appears that, as of right now, it will not go down in the record books as the hottest summer ever in Austin.  We have had 68 days of temperatures above 100 degrees.  We need 69 days to tie and 70 to win.  Rains came this past week, and temperatures stayed in the eighties or below.  It was dreamy to awaken in the middle of the night and hear the tap, tap, tap of raindrops on the roof.  Unfortunately, the dream turned nightmarish Saturday morning when we awoke to discover four roof leaks.  A new roof is in our future.  We shopped Saturday, and every establishment had buckets sitting about catching drips from leaky roofs.  The drought was hard on things other than trees, lawns and gardens.  Our neighbors had a major water line break beneath the front sidewalk that was attributed to dry and shifting soil.

THE RAINS CAME!  The Garden received about two inches at the end of the week, while some areas to the north and southwest received more than five resulting in flash flooding and road closures.  A weather low stalled over Central Texas and provided the slow, soaking rains and ameliorated the temperatures.  The fifteen day forecast predicts nothing over ninety and several days with temperatures in the low eighties.  I am conflicted though.  After suffering all summer with high temperatures, why shouldn’t we set the record for the hottest summer ever?  At least we would have bragging rights; now we’re just second best!

Smart phones justly deserve their accolades.  David and I intently watch weather radar on ours whenever storms arise.  We have eight hungry mouths to feed at Another Garden.  Grass is our chief crop there, and it hasn’t grown this summer.  David has been weekly feeding an expensive bale of hay to the longhorns and donkey all summer long.   What an extra expense!  We monitor closely for rain there no matter where we are.  Because for several days green and yellow have predominated on the radar map, we drove out Saturday evening. Since David’s last visit two weeks ago, we had received almost four inches of rain.   The creek flowed, and the tanks contained some water.  The temperature of 67 degrees allowed us to sleep with the windows open–a gift that we don’t receive usually until the middle of October.  We both slept soundly.

 I have not been to Another Garden since June because it is painful to my soul to see the landscape and gardens suffer so.  After each of David’s trips, he repeated that it looked like another world.  On Sunday morning, I could imagine what it must have looked like.  The meadows and pasture quickly had turned to a desert like “Pink Sands” or perhaps looked like a supernatural force had scorched everything with a giant flame thrower.  We lost some trees, declining oaks; hackberries; and a few Texas persimmons.  Some native shrubs like white brush, yucca, and lantana are brown and appear to be dead.  Native fall wildflowers are nonexistent. Some of our plantings like the desert willow and yellow bells, and Turk’s cap, and purple sage, and vitex survived only because of David’s tenacious watering.  These are all recommended xeriscape plants.  When we are behind more than thirty inches in average annual precipitation over the past year and one-half, even “xero”scape plants can’t survive.  The pictures below certainly are not typical of those found on a garden blog, but they illustrate the severity of our summer.  Perhaps, the next posted pictures of Another Garden will provide a more pleasing picture.

No grass at Another Garden, September 2009

Yucca, a victim of the 2009 drought

Frost weed, a fall blooming native wildflower

Stressed and dying hackberry trees, September, 2009

 The sun is peeking from behind the clouds and rain is ending, but perhaps this is the beginning of a more normal weather pattern.  To all my gardening friends, please keep rain dancing and the collective consciousness thinking rain!

1. This has been the hottest summer on record.
2. We are within two days of setting a record for the most days (69) of temperatures hotter than 100 degrees.
3. Not one day during the months of June, July, or August was termed cloudy by the National Weather Service.
4. Since September, 2007, the Central Texas area has had less than one-half of its normal, average precipitation.
5. The only good news is that La Nina in the Pacific has given way to El Nino, and we usually have wetter than usual fall and winter months when El Nino is in place.

This morning was our watering time, so from midnight until dawn the irrigation system cycled through its program.  The garden looked good under the circumstances.  My roses had put on a good show this week, but the blossoms baked quickly in the hot sun.  The Tecoma stans ( native plant) and the Durantia (a tropical non-native) continue their yellow and purple riot of color.  A few daylilies, the Pavonia (rock roses), Ruellias (Mexican petunias), and a few other odds and ends are blooming.

I discovered some new things on my “tour” this morning.  The Beauty Berries have turned purple.

New bloomers: The Autumn Clematis that I planted last summer,  an unidentified fall lily, and the white plumbago.

Autumn Clematis

White Plumbago

Fall Lily

My dogs and garden must feel ignored as I gear up for another school year filled with the joys of teaching seventh grade English.  On August 24, a garden of fresh young faces will sprout in my classroom.  But, perhaps tomorrow morning, I can make time to tour the wilted garden at hand.

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Rebecca has a sweet new garden bordering her cottage.  She has included several kinds of daylilies, spider lilies, hostas, peonies, red bee balm, and black-eyed susans.  The peonies had bloomed earlier, but everything else was a riot of color.  Her mom’s garden border was begun about five years ago with similar plants.  I have never seen such large hostas and tall bee balm.  I did observe that because of a short growing season everything, including wildflowers, blooms at once.  Plants with central Texas cousins that may be early spring or late fall bloomers carpeted the roadsides with a tapestry of color all at once.

Pictures will follow as soon as I find the camera!

I “toured” my garden this morning as soon as dawn broke.  It looks great!  Two weeks ago Denise (Sprouts Garden Services) and I checked all of the plants in the garden for signs of stress.  We decided that the issues we saw were nutritional, and we applied a moderate dose of organic fertilizer to the entire garden.  In our absence, the irrigation system watered, and Emily and Caylin tended all of the container plants, and the fertilizer worked its magic.  The beauty berries’ fruit is turning purple, the crape myrtles have put on another flush of flowers after a light dead heading, the plumbago is blue with blossoms, and the Knockout roses are blooming again.  The rock roses or Pavonia are the best I have seen them in my garden.  The rosy pink flowers are large, and the powdery mildew appears under control after treatment with neem oil.  If the beginning of teacher in-service this week and preparation for classes next week doesn’t “kill” me, I’ll post pictures.