It's been a really hot and dry in S. Cal this past summer. No rain at all. Plants have been stressed. Though I have a lot of native plants, they've done fine with the drought. I live in Long Beach so we have mandatory water rationing. I have really sandy soil (river sand) and water runs right through. I have to add a lot of compost or peat to hold moisture in the soil. But even that, plants dry out quickly. Roses did well since it's been so dry, and no humidity, the roses haven't had any mildew. Still, gotta water them. (I water very early in the morning). Same for everything. Can't water during mid-day.

Carol- yes, I've had complete washout years. Hope seems to return with spring, or (more likely) I'm just too dumb to give up. Practically speaking, I had to downshift and get back to basics: 1. Start with the most foolproof tough-as-nails plants (like pomegranates, figs, mulberries, loquats,etc.) and don't move on till they succeed. 2. Downsize but make sure soil, light, water etc. are PERFECT for what you do plant. 3. Failure in any endeavor indicates one should decrease the amount of risk and increase the quality of risk .

Toyo, thank you for the advice regarding watering; I shouldn't have gone "off" my drip system this year, but when I watered it was early morning with soaker hoses.

Fruitback, whatever business you're in, I want to buy stock. Sensible advice. I DO think soil is going to be my emphasis in the spring when I start up again, to the point where I may be removing truckloads of the old before carefully selecting the new (and not from bags bought at Home Depot).

Yesterday was that new day of hope for me. After a few hours of fall clean-up grunt work, I planted fava beans, sweet peas and lettuce (seeds) and some nursery sets of pok choy. Even though the asters and mums aren't blooming, the beds are tidy and the patio is swept. The light this time of year is a gorgeous golden yellow. Thank you both for encouraging advice.
C

Oh! Don't remove what you have, just make it better by amending...digging in lots of compost/organic material.

Check your drainage by digging a hole about a foot deep. Fill with water, let it drain, and fill again. It it drains within 1/2 hour, you have decent drainage. Anything less is too well draining and anything more is not too good.

Then check the nutrient values to see if it's lacking or has too much of any basic nutrients.

As gardeners we are also slaves to the weather. I had terrible spider mites this year because of the heat and dry spring-summer-fall. Some years are always better than others. But as a gardener, I always know there is a "next year", so don't be discouraged.

wanda

I agree with Wanda, don't remove, just add! I have a bed that had very hard, barren soil. For years I've added compost, but it still seemed unproductive. This year I spaded in a couple of bags of El-Cheapo steer manure, and the results have been quite amazing. My funky little cannas, which I thought I had removed, came back to life and grew more than 6 ft. tall, flowering again and again. Try some steer manure, it can't hurt, and it's cheap.

Also, your descriptions of your plants make them sound water-stressed. Plants like being on a schedule. Give them the same amount of water on a regular schedule at the same time every week. Go back to the timers, you plants will thank you.

It's good to hear you have begun your fall planting, that's the best medecine, just keep moving forward. Good luck to you.

My front native area had 2 bad soggy days in early spring and then I suffered a terrible outbreak of crown rot and splitting sterms all through my lupines, sages, echiums, and so many of the seedlings I had germinated myself after transplanting. I hated watching some yards flourish in May while I was ripping out dead plant left and right. But it stabilized and I slowly rebuilt through summer. I focused on annual veggies instead of perennials and had some bumper crops, so it wasn't a total loss.

Now I'm re-engineering the runoff of the yard and I'm hating my clay all over.