With the kids heading back to school, it's time to see what has survived amongst all the dry and crunchy plants in my yard. This summer was so hot and humid that I didn't accomplish a whole lot outside. My goal was to pull a 5-gallon bucket of weeds each day to stay on top of the weeding. I didn't make my goal, but was overall successful enough that the weeds are fairly well controlled in the planting beds.

My antics to amuse the neighbors were pretty much limited to moving the sprinkler around without completely soaking myself in the process. As the weather cools off a bit, I can resume my ongoing game of musical plants, which is always entertaining for the neighbors. There are quite a few plants still sitting in their pots that need to get in the ground, and I need to make my plan of attack for renovating the lawn, which is looking abused and is being invaded by crabgrass.

My tithonia (Mexican sunflowers) I grew from seed are now blooming. I need to remember to post a photo, so remind me if that doesn't get done in the next day or two.

How are your gardens doing?

Well, the news on the rose front is grim.

My orange 'Oso Easy' rose can now be referred to as 'Easy Come, Easy Go'. I had to shovel prune it today after finding it had contracted Rose Rosette Disease. While I was researching RRD to be sure of what I had, I found an excellent e-book by Ann Peck, who lives in East Tennessee. RRD is definitely alive and well here in Tennessee. It would be good for everybody growing roses to learn the symptoms. Early action can prevent the spread of the disease in your gardens.

Yeah, I think some of the wild Rugosas in my fence row have it.... witches brooms, right?

Today it felt like fall began - the sun was just as hot, still in the high 80's, but the breeze was cooler than it's been in months and the light is beginning to change.

My rose had all the symptoms, but it was all on the lower canes, so I didn't notice until one long cane popped out the side. Wonder how long it was like that. I've got 2 other roses nearby, so I'm watching carefully to see if they're infected, too. One of them is a rambler that I've been painstakingly training along a low fence for a couple years. I'm seeing possible warning signs on it, but I'm trying to come to terms with having to rip that one out. As they say, denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

You're probably right about the Rugosas. Check out some of the pictures of RRD to be sure, but you may want to start thinking about removing them. I know, I know, easier said than done. This rose was only a couple feet tall, but wrestling it into the trash bag left me covered with scratches and I have thorns imbedded in my fingers. Sheez, the things we do for our plants!

You're right about the light changing and the feeling of fall. It's very welcome, indeed.

Here's a bad photo of my Mexican sunflowers.

Oh, they're so cool!

When I lived in Tucson I had a neighbor whose entire front yard (they were really pretty small) was planted with a dozen different types of sunflowers - nothing else, not grass or anything. And he had the Tithonia just kind of lax in front of them all - it was very cool looking. Too bad I never got a pic of it.

The one I'm growing is Tithonia 'Torch', which is about 5' tall now. That's an awful lot of coarse-looking foliage before you finally get to some flowers. Until it bloomed, the neighbors must have thought it was a giant weed! Your Tuscon neighbor's yard probably looked overgrown at first, and then gorgeous thereafter, especially when it attracts tons of butterflies. That's the kind of display that people will look forward to each year.

I'm working on using the flowers as cut flowers. The hollow stems kind of collapse and flop over after a day or two, so I think they need to have a skewer or something inside for support. The deep orange color really pops in an arrangement, though.

Arrangements for your personal use or retail?

Yeah, there's nothing like orange and yellow to really stand out.

It's just for personal use and gifts.

The weather this morning was beautiful. I got three hours work done at a client site and then came home and got my own mowing done.

Impressive! It's not *quite* that cool here yet, lol.....

Well it was still pretty warm, but upper 80's is so much better than upper 90's. I way overdid it today, and am paying the price now, but it sure was satisfying to get some things done.

I'm noticing a lot of juicy new growth on plants from all the rain we had last week. My sweet potato vines are going nuts!

LOL, isn't it great?

On the flip side, we don't have any rain forecasted for this next week - looks like watering for me. I got caught out in the last dry streak, kept on putting watering off and it looks like I've lost a few plants because of it. Drag.

Another beautiful work day, although the work was kind of frustrating.

Bermuda grass and liriope will both run amok given just half a chance, but put them together and watch out! You don't fully appreciate their willingness to fight to the death until you are tasked with weeding out all the Bermuda grass from a stand of liriope, all while trying to balance on a hillside. As you can imagine, I'm tired again tonight.

OMG - I hate hate hate Bermuda Grass. I'm not much fonder of Liriope, but at least it take a couple years to totally spread out, as opposed to the Bermuda, which only takes a half hour or so.....

sheryl said:OMG - ... as opposed to the Bermuda, which only takes a half hour or so.....

Isn't that the truth? Another really fun activity is pulling Bermuda out of weed block fabric.

That's too funny - that's exactly the situation I have. Liriope and bermuda in weed fabric that I'm trying to tear out. What a freakin' mess.

An all-organic approach is nice in theory, and I really do try to limit the need for a lot of chemicals, but in this case ---

may I suggest napalm?

LOL - yeah, that sounds like a plan!!! Actually, we had our foundation excavated in May, so the backhoe really helped a lot .... is that organic?

Absolutely!

Yikes, what was the problem with the foundation? What happened to all your foundation plantings?

Most of the plantings got trashed, unfortunately - and I'm still trying to figure what I'm going to replace them with - I go back and forth between viburnum and hydrangea and, and.... I am pretty sure I want to something deciduous - it's a western facing area that gets some heat gain (brick house) in the winter that I want to keep.

Leaky basement - almost did the trick, but not completely, grrrr.....