Not Much Rain in July

My rain barrels are empty. I'm using water from the dehumidifier, and it's not enough. Whatever I want to survive, I use the hose to water.

The grass is dormant, hopefully not dead. Most of the neighborhood yards are filled with dry grass or sprinklers. (It feels like a waste to water grass when it naturally wants to go dormant to survive the heat.) The empty looking garden bed was filled with lettuce and greens, which haven't survived the heat and humidity. I'm regretting raised beds because I need to water the veggies every day if I want them to survive. And I do. Occasionally I'm watering flowers and more recently shrubs. They need a break from from the extreme heat. And so do the critters. And the humans. Including this human! Rain is forecasted for Thursday, and I'm hopeful. 

Nasturtium Sleight of Hand

Nasturtiums are a really cool plant. PubMed states that they are a sources of  "trace elements and bioactive compounds which can be easily absorbed by the human body." I planted "Moonlight," starting the seeds indoors until the plant was a couple of inches. I had problems with getting them started from seed in the past, perhaps because we have a lot of squirrels. 

I read online (not from a scientific source but I was getting desperate) that planting nasturtiums with squash confuses squash vine borers. I'm happy to report that I've been getting a steady supply of  zucchini. I have one pollinated pumpkin (so far). These photos are just before our extreme heat wave. But you can see how the flowers are similar in color. I don't know if the confusion works or if it's because I have a lot of plants. That was the extension educator's advice--plant more. Hope is an intravenous solution, flowing through me, keeping me motivated to garden another day. 

Goodbye, viburnum. Hello, dogwood!

Above is a photo of a nice, healthy dogwood shrub.

And this is a dying shrub. The cranberry bush viburnum have been spectacular bushes. And the wood boring beetle larva thought so, too. I snapped this branch off at the base. Below you might be able to see the sawdust they left behind.

Below you can see how much dead wood there is. The plants are really struggling.

And no wonder! The bark is chewed all the way through, all the way around. 

After we cut out the dead stuff, the photo below shows what was left. Not much. And we were able to dig it out pretty easily. I was pretty sad because I loved these bushes--flowers in spring, red fall leaves, and red berries in winter. But I decided to think of this as an opportunity. Time for something new...

My choice is Neon Burst dogwood, a hybrid. The chartreuse leaves will be a nice background to my native plants, and the leaves' color is supposed to be red, purple, and orange in the fall. I will protect them this winter so rabbits don't get to them as they establish themselves.