Normal Austin rainfall by end of June: 17 inches
Last year's rainfall by end of June: 27 inches
This year: 7 inches
Ouch.
In combination with more than 20 days of 100+ temperatures since May, this kind of climactic extremity is a crucible, burning through everything from leaves to my enthusiasm for gardening.
Drought is a great teacher. Some things keel over, others do okay.
So bravo to you: Turk's Cap, hypericum, liriope, plumbago, yucca, confederate jasmine, Mexican oregano, verbena, Russian sage, silver bush germander, flame acanthus, lantana, dwarf palmetto.
And yea, for the pink indigo. It's still blooming.
3 comments:
tag, you're it! check http://austinurbangardener.blogspot.com/ to play
Nice job on summarizing so well what this summer's heat wave and drought has been like, both for the garden and for the gardener's psyche. It's also instructive to hear which plants are the toughest survivors. They may not be the most glamorous plants, but grit counts for a lot in times like these.
Wow, those statistics are quite dramatic. And I swear I've gotten even less that 7" in my garden. I've been out there watering in the dead of night and in my pajamas in the morning before the sun comes up since I planted a new bed this spring that needs to be babied, and I'm getting pretty sick of it.
I'm right there with you on the list of awesome plants for this heat. For me, I'd add ruella, ice plant, santolina, artemesia, and the Knockout roses (they've been blooming nonstop since April!) to that list.
That lovely cool weather earlier this week was a much-needed break, but when I checked the forecast and saw that it's supposed to get back up to 101 by Saturday, I was ready to run for the hills. Or maybe Northern California. ;)
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