It has been just spectacular here so far, much like last summer. We've been lucky to have no blistering days and I've been feeling Fall in the air for the last couple of weeks. You can feel it, smell it, see it. I just hope we're fortunate enough to have it stay this way through October. I thought last summer was great...ditto for the winter and this summer also. Oh, lucky us...to live in California!

Ditto with gypsy (we live in the same area). We have had a stellar summer. No blistering days. Had the air on a total of 4 days, and that's because I hate hot temps (translated, I'm a wimp). And I agree with gypsy - I can feel the drier Fall air coming in already. We're in for a bit of a rise in temps to the high 70's low 80's for a couple of days, then back to the mid-70's again. I am crossing my fingers for another lovely fall like we had last year!

Patty S.

Perfect gardening weather. I got more done this summer than the past six combined. We enjoyed the entire second flush of roses! Irises have been in continuous bloom since March. Today my flower garden looks as good as it does most years in June, and I am way below my water allotment this year. I wish it would never end.

Weather wise it has been great. Enough heat to ripen the tomatoes, but not enough to turn on the AC. Every night the temp falls to mid 50s and the house cools to the mid 60s. Al

Cooler than usual, making for a very nice summer here in the Sonoma Valley. Tomatoes very slow, but will soon be cropping a lot. Echinacea has really been late -- just now starting to open a half dozen or so flowers. Most plants have bloomed and are done for this year. Golden Delicious apple tree is loaded (as usual) -- too many! Pear and Nectarine bare roots this winter have taken hold nicely, 2-3 feet on the little pear and 6-8 inches on the dwarf nectarine. I dread the thought of fall, only because winter follows. Winters here are long and dismal.
Cherokee tomato has produced faster than Early Girl as it has done the past two years. If any of you have never grown Cherokee you must try it. I have grown dozens of tomato varieties over the years, and to my taste nothing compares to Cherokee, though not a big producer compared to Early Girl. Naked Ladies are coming up. It' always a pleasure to see this completely dependable, fool-proof plant pop up when you have completely forgotten about it. Storm Cloud agapanthus is very late (in full bloom now), but the cool weather has seemed to brighten the vividness of these already fantastically vivid blooms. It is something to see the deep blue-purple flowers growing against a backdrop of magenta blooming oleander.

Lemon verbena is declining after three or four years. I don't know what it is lacking, but I have taken cuttings to start a new plant. My wife loves the tea.

RB

RB, how does your wife make the tea? I love lemon verbena, but I just walk by and smell it and rub in on my hands. I would love to try the tea.
Renee

Renee,
Just take a small handfull of leaves and steep them in hot water. Add a little sugar if you like. Very tasty. You can dry the leaves too, and make tea in the winter. Some recipes use Lemon Verbena for flavoring.
RB

When I lived in Watsonville, on the coast, my neighbor had an old lemon verbena that was grown as a tree 15 feet tall. I took cuttings which I planted here 20 years ago. Every year it frosts back so it never gets over 5 feet tall. Al

I'm going to try it. Thanks.

Very nice summer. Cooler than average means good. We got a great crop of oranges and blueberries and the first figs from the new tree. Yummy delious. The only failure was the strawberries. Lots of flowers and lush shrub growth due to the rainy winter. It's been a really good summer. Just hoping hoping hoping for at least an average rainfall winter coming up. Please please no drought.

Very mild around here in Camarillo. It hasn't felt noticeably cooler apart from a distinct lack of any heat waves (we still haven't broken 90 degrees which we typically do once or twice over the course of a typical summer - no heat waves on the horizon according to long term forecasts either).

Ryan

Nice summer here, cooler than normal with the temps reaching upper 90s for only a day or so, otherwise temps are either low 90s or in the 80s. I can remember past summers with highs in the mid-100s for week ---- thank goodness that's not the rule here!

wow,how homogenized the coast has been-north and south. My wifes Roses have done their best since planted 3-4 years ago too. We had 90's..but it was weeks ago. I cant even remember being close since then-80,82f has been it.
And AL-Sunset has a photo in one old book I have of a standards lemon Verbuena. Now,you make me really want one.
Picked quite a few T-matos yesterday of various sizes..so no washout at all compared to last year.