the grass withers and the flowers fade...

can it get any hotter? all plant life is wilting and suffering (not to mention- i am too). my lawn woes seem never ending. after fertilizing in june and a few weeks later in july applying a granular insecticide --by the end of july my lawn was in distress. it went from lush & green after fertilizing (which only lasted a few weeks) to sparse & light green after my sod web worm episode and slow recovery. i keep reminding myself it is this difficult every summer due to the unpredictable rain patterns and drastic heat. but that doesn't make it any easier to stay on top of the problems.

now i realize there are bigger issues going on in the world but this is a garden blog so please pardon my trivial pursuits.

i've been trying to determine what i could do to help the situation. i knew i couldn't use a typical fertilizer because it is too hot and it could burn the grass. saturday after the usual weekly tidying up i got the idea to spread 4 bags of milorganite on the lawn in an attempt to give it a midsummer boost. it's a first time experiment. i used to use milorganite all the time - not on the lawn but as a general shrub & plant fertilizer. somehow i hadn't used it in years. the great thing about it is that it won't burn the lawn and it doesn't have to be watered in immediately - but the rain does activate it.

we got our first really good rain in seven days tonight. these are the small things in life that make me very thankful. i'll be looking for greener grass in a few days.

here are some other random photos i took this weekend:

crepe myrtle still blooming

coleus getting tall and leggy- i staked up several of these and also made cuttings and put some in the ground. if they get enough water they will root and make new plants.

just for fun--i lay on the ground to take this photo of some of my tree cover