August = Blah

Usually August isn't so bad.  Oh! Don't get me wrong - it's hot, miserable, and the plants and cats hate it (okay, the one cat loves it, but she'd live in the oven if I let her).  BUT!  There's an end in sight - the sun starts to go down a little earlier, it doesn't quite feel like it's trying to kill everything at 6:30 at night.


And I suppose it's not that bad this time around either, but it just seems worse since I've actually had tomato plants give up the ghost (first time I can remember that plants have actually died - sure they wouldn't look good, but they didn't die).  And the tomato plants get watered every day!  Some plants do better than others - the Rose Bed gets by with almost no water at all and looks great, while the Hell Strip area can look a little weedy if the plants aren't blooming.  I'm most impressed by my little Caldwell Pink Rose - it's in a small 1-gallon pot, it gets full sun, and while it does get watered every day, it's actually thriving - my pepper plants in pots aren't doing nearly as well.  The Firespike and Philippine Violet both use more water than I'd like (the violet more so this year than in the past because I moved it to a location that gets more sun), and the passionvine and Turk's Cap need more water than I'm willing to give if they're ever going to bloom consistently, but otherwise most of the ornamentals are keeping on, keeping on.

But seriously, maybe the garden would look better if I pulled out all the dead plants...


Also, as a head's up - I know blogging has been a little light around these here parts, and it's mostly been because we've been trying to go for a jog every night after work.  And now it's probably going to get even more sparse because my Dad had to be taken to the hospital on Thursday with heart problems.  He's doing better now, but does have to have a heart valve replaced on Monday - so any thoughts and prayers you can spare would be greatly appreciated.