I can’t believe it has been a month since I put something down on my gardening blog! It’s just been such a busy time! And the only reason you have me inside now because the excessive heat and I do not get along and I came inside today feeling woozy so that’s it until the heat wave breaks.

It has been really hot here. I’ve been trying not to water because we’re on a well but I have used a lot of the water out of our rain barrels because we haven’t had enough rain.

This is a weird summer. A lot of heat and so many Japanese beetles. We haven’t had so many Japanese beetles in a few years. And another issue for me for the first time is dear. They are going near parts of my garden that they have never ever touched before so I am spraying and putting deer stuff out all over the place.

My tomato plants are growing well. Because I don’t have space for raised beds, we grow them in pots and grow bags. I recently anchored them with tall stakes on either side of each pot and bag. That keeps them from tipping over. I have tomato cages inside each pot and grow bag but when they outgrow the cages I will be connecting the big stakes with twine so the vines have places to stretch.

I have been filling in with some other perennials in a couple of the sunnier beds. And I did have the great forsythia massacre of 2022, and managed to cut two piles taller than me! Fortunately I was able to get someone to haul away the cuttings along with the haircuts I gave the giant Chinese pussy willows. I have not gotten to the largest azaleas yet, I need help with those.

One thing I’m really glad I did was dig the skinny bed along the front walk and fill it with Oriental and Asiatic lilies and echinacea and monarda and crocosmia and more! It started with bulbs in the spring and has been a succession of blooming things. I am going to buy more lily bulbs in the fall. I want to add Martagon lilies to other beds in the fall.

I am also figuring out bulbs for spring to plant in the fall. My big project will be the front lawn. I am going to layer it with crocuses and other smaller early spring bulbs. I am also adding more daffodils and fritillaria and more to the flower beds in the front.

Because it’s so hot, my gardening is limited to short durations in the morning. I do a little bit of deadheading every day. I fed all the roses again last week. They get fed until mid-September. I have cut some of them back as I have deadheaded, because like many things this year, the roses are growing like gangbusters, especially the giant white rugosa rose.

I have discovered a couple of more casualties in the various flower beds. Maybe it is nature’s way of telling me to thin some stuff out, or try other plants.

Well that’s it for me. How does your garden grow ?

Happy gardening!