It Rained here! yippee! South central Kansas just never gets rain in July, and my yard got 3" of rain today, and 2" in the last week. What a relief.
Yesterday I pulled all the weeds out of 5 different beds that are 75' x 8', and dug out the daylilies and iris that I need to divide or give away. Since I was in the mode to scale down the gardens, I cast a critical eye on the roses. Those that did not bloom this year will go away, and any with blackspot will go. Three more will go because they have RRD, and most likely, the roses near them will leave in the near future.
I'm working on installing dripline to some of the beds. So much for sustainable gardening. ..
Plant here just have to have supplemental water. This is the 4th summer for many of the beds, and I thought by now I would win the war on weeds, but this year, there's a new crop of weeds that I've never seen before. The drought has killed off much of the groundcover and many of my perennials. Even if I get water to the plants, I am afraid I'm going to need chemicals to keep the weeds out, to keep from tearing up my hands and back.
July and August are always tough around here. Many of my friends garden only in the spring and fall. The Knock Outs and Austin roses are in bloom still, and the crepe myrtles are fully in bloom, but that's about it. The annuals have suffered from 13 days over 100 degrees and hot winds. Not much I can do about that! Wish I knew where to cut back, how to keep it all looking better.
