HERE WE GO AGAIN!

As we pull into the neighborhood I have butterflies in my tummy and trepidation in my heart. The two Vitex agnus-castus trees at the end of the driveway have shriveled, burnt to a crisp leaves.

This gardener has been absent from her garden for over 6 weeks. The garden has been on its own at the mercy of a somewhat inadequate drip watering system and with a bit of luck some rain from heaven. It doesn't look like the latter happened.

Here's a good plant to describe what I see as I enter into the front courtyard. The Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, Torch( growing alongside the sunken garden) Nothing in here is blooming, Blackfoot daisies, four nerve daisies, skullcaps all dried up but still, I am pleased to say I think I see a little life. My neighbor tells me that some areas close by did get nearly an inch of rain, during our absence, but in our neighborhood not a drop. Most of the front courtyard has no irrigation, relying on a little rain from time to time. Even those areas with drip lines looked little better.

The sunken garden fared a little better although the blooms look stunted. The large sandstone pavers protect the roots of the plants somewhat. Even so, the narrow leaf zinnias and skullcaps, so prevalent between the stones, are withered.

I won't even share pictures of the vegetable garden before I began the morning. The weeds there were beyond belief. Some the size of trashcan lids. Some as high as as the plants they have infested. I began my onslaught by removing 2 trash cans of weeds.

By lunchtime I am starting to feel a little better. I can see the pathways again and there are some narrow leaf zinnias to brighten the, now empty, beds. Notice the lemon grass plant. I grew a plant like this once before and after it 'ate' all the soil it had to be removed with a chain saw. This is looking like deja vu.

This was a 4" plant in May. I need to get out the Thai recipes.

'Senorita' I'm impressed. One plant to test this year and who knows how many next year! You're a winner.

Gomphrena will always have a place in the summer garden.

Along the back raised bed in the veg garden the drips have done a better job keeping the zinnias and gomphrenas alive. Who cares about colors that clash!

What the garden needs now is a serious infusion of water. I think it will save this Mangave.

But maybe not this lamb's ears.

It's all in a gardener's day.