Does anyone remember Disney’s Robin Hood with the animals? Robin Hood was a fox, and there were those palace-guard birds who marched back and forth announcing the time – “One o’clock and all’s well!” I feel like we do that with summer temperatures in Phoenix. Everyone on the phone asks: “How hot is it now?”
It’s 108 and all’s well.
Well… mostly well. Nothing unexpected, at least. The petunias are still thriving, but the calibrachoa is dying back – exactly on schedule. They’ve done their job as spring annuals.
The acanthus and eryngium are also fading (that’s generous – they’re out!), which I expected. I’m hoping they return in fall when the world is gentler.
I’m especially grateful for the containers on wheels. Snail vine handled 100 degrees just fine, but anything past that seems to be too much direct sun. Being able to roll them into morning sun only positions has probably saved them. The zinnias in the same planter won’t mind the shift. They’re struggling too. I’m attached to these snail vines because I grew them from seed this spring, and I’d really like to see them make it.
Humphrey continues to be my garden buddy, especially for early-morning watering. He treats it like a job. He drops his toys in the backyard the moment I head toward the Hygge Garden in the front – that’s “business” to him. His biggest responsibility (in his mind) is diving into the hose stream. The hair on his head is perpetually curly and plastered down because he gets it soaked so often.
I still have roses blooming, the orange tree has new growth, the olives and palms are holding steady, and the star jasmine is climbing. Princess Kate is struggling, but Jackie and Bubba are doing fine. Here’s the best panoramic shot I can get of the Hygge Garden right now.
June is technically the toughest gardening month in Phoenix – one of the hottest and driest. Monsoon season doesn’t really begin until July, and even then, the rainy days are few and far between. Either way, we’re in the heart of things now, and I’m just happy to have living plants when a few months ago, things looked like this:
Once more unto the breach,
🌿 Ruby