Now
that the peak heat of the summer is here I make a point to get up at dawn so
that I can get whatever yard or garden work completed. During
this time I can weed the gardens, deadhead the flowers, and water the
plants. However, I need to wait a few
hours to use any of my electric or gas-operated garden tools.
I
was going to use the electric grass trimmer to manicure around the flower gardens
but decided to hold off on this project until next week when the weather will be 20
degrees cooler. At 9:00 this morning, the temperature was 89 degrees and I thought
it was too hot.
Other
than that maintaining the garden, I find it is a full-time job to keep the container and specialty gardens hydrated. The plants get a good watering in the
am with a soaker hose but come noon the topsoil in containers and garden beds looks
like dust. So I am outdoors again in the
late afternoon to water the hosta, coleus, and fern plants because the heat of the summer is causing them to feel stress.