Gardening for Wimps

I'll admit it. I'm a cool weather gardener. When it's hot and humid outside, like it has been all summer, the idea of getting outside and sweaty for no foreseeable reason just doesn't appeal. Only when the weather gets stormy do I want to get out and rummage in the dirt. 100F is just not gardening weather. I can't put much in the ground, so when it gets so hot, they start burning in the pot! That doesn't make for nice flowers. So far, I've lost a jasmine, thyme, six azaleas, two tomatoes and possibly one little olive tree. The roses are just barely hanging on. I haven't had a decent bloom for months.


The tentative plan is to repot everything that hasn't rooted into the ground. One of my roses did this, made a huge gorgeous green bush, survived the heat... and fell victim to something that ate every single leaf off in a day. (No, we don't have deer.) Then, whenever my local nursery starts stocking small plants again, putting some color out there again. It was nice this spring. I had loads of petunias out. I love petunias for their saturated color. The roses were heavenly. Then the triple digits hit and it was all over.


The temperatures are slowly beginning to fall. I'm hoping September will bring autumn quickly. Strangely, we've had fronts pushing through constantly, though those brought drier air, not necessarily cooler temps.