My garden is a mess! No rain for weeks, plus the high temperatures! We get thunder, wind, and even lightening, but no rain.

I was away for three days, and came back to LOTS of dead plants.

Sigh....

A cold front is coming and the temps should drop back to the 70s by Thursday. Hang on!

That may not be soon enough for me. I will have to do serious watering of plants this evening. No rain and the temperatures in the 90s or near that for the past week in SEPA. Maybe western PA will get some storms this evening.

Ha! Well that was pointless. For about 20 minutes the wind blew every which way, the power flickered on and off, and we got about a hundred drops of rain.

Now, utter stillness. Guess I'd better go get the hose out.

Again.

Rain is on it's way across the state now.. just hit the southwestern corner...hopefully makes it pass the mountains and continues for the remainder of the state...

Same here cleaned all flower bedsI have alot .Mulched thought I was done for awhile oh no wishful thinking looks like I didnt do anything.and poison,
ivy & oak everywhere, I think it was in the mulch.

so glad I have not found poison oak or ivy here in the yard. love this cooler weather, It's gonna be in the 50s at night before the week is out wooo hooo might have to go sleep on the porch

I can't remember a more difficult spring for getting things done and the weeds are winning this year. During those beautiful two weeks we had I sprayed for weeds at the ideal moment, but evidently the weedkiller had deteriorated and it didn't work. We haven't had a time without the threat of rain since then! But does it rain enough? Of course not. Notice the pulmonaria in the front has mildew, the PJM Olgas have scale all over them and the scarlet honeysuckle was attacked by aphids that nearly killed it in one day (and I never get aphids). I ordered 5 yds. of compost so I could add it to some of the beds that need it just in time for the heat wave. Not fun dragging a wheelbarrow uphill and up steps in 90 degree weather so I didn't get much done. Guess it's time for grubs and lawn fungus...and maybe a plague of locusts. Forgot. That was last year.

Awe such a nice day today not too hot not too cold all the storms missed the house. Too bad I wasn't home to get anything done in the yard.

Susan don't reming me about those dive bombing bugs. Was so bad everytime I went outside I'd have at least one zap into me.

Looks like a couple of nice days ahead here, maybe I can get caught up on the weeding. Nope not gonna happen... bass season opens this weekend.

This past weekend was blissfully free of obligations, so I was able to spend it in the garden.

I did lots of weeding... the soil is dry as dust. We haven't had a decent rain in at least two weeks, so I had a trickling hose on the new trees, with a timer set to remind me to move it to a new tree every twenty minutes. I sprinked the beds a bit, but am a stingy waterer.

The heat wave seems to have rushed many plants along... my climbing roses bloomed very suddenly and are fading already, and the monarda is showing color, which it doesn't usually do until July.

So far, though, the garden is having a very pretty year.

I'm loving the weather now. The spring was so difficult with the cold, all of our obligations, and my back strain (which I'm convinced now has something to do with either laundry or weed-whacking Garlic Mustard - both dastardly jobs). I have been out the past few days spraying for weeds and poison ivy (we had none for years, and all of the sudden this year there is an EXPLOSION of it on our property this year).

I've done tons of planting and a little bit of moving things around - only the most critical things, and I'm having a ball!