quitters never win man

Didn't you make this same post last year? :~)

Steve

What?! Explain how quitting when the going gets tough is a good thing! Your garden can't go inside and cool off, it is depending upon you. Now get up off your duff, go outside and turn on the water for them! You should feel sorry for them not yourself.
Geesh! Here's hoping you're just kidding...
Cj

Sorry,but it's impossible to water the garden. It's too far away from my water source,and no Steve,I didn't say this last year. You can't beat nature,and it has the upper hand;just ask the farmers! Phil

No, that was the year before. I think you had a nice summer last year, didn't you? Anyway, I'm about sick and tired of seeing everyone around us get rain and we get diddly squat. I'm tired of watering. I'll keep up on most of the hostas, but I think the daylilies will just have to go dormant. I can't keep up and it doesn't seem to do much good anyway. The water barely penetrates the ground and what little has soaked in is dried up by the end of the next day.

But I'll be out there with the hose again this evening. I would water in the morning but I have a day job that's always in the way.

Karen

Steve he did say something close to it last year but with a second year of no rain I thought he kept it kinda on the low side. I am one of the lucky one as it is raining on me right now, a good rain which will soak me.

Phil maybe a PVC run might help you to get the water where you need it. Stay cool and watch the Olympics.

I have had a very cool summer almost like the north usually has. I will have a very cold winter this year. Have a great grow day and Go USA! Paula

I am in the same boat. We finally had rain for the first time yesterday after in not raining for weeks. I has probably rained a total of 8 times since beginning of April. I am using a method ( taking my water bottles, cutting off base and placing them deeply next to each hosta. I then water through bottle to get water to roots)that I recently learned of that is salvaging my remaining hostas. I have several that have just went away and I am not sure if they are coming back next year. My DL's are just there going dormant. I read on DL site that hostas would probably die before DL's so focus on watering hostas.

I'm sorry Phil. So discouraging to be powerless over nature. I'm thankful to be able to water but feel more or less at the mercy of slugs, cutworms, falling stick and branches and so on. The other night we had a horrendous storm that dropped everything and broke and damaged leaves. Just when things were looking their best - oh well. I think not watering would be the worst. I'd probably be carrying water by the spoonful. Read Connie's post. At least you can walk. Myrle

I"m so sorry Phil. As Myrle mentioned ..to be powerless over nature. She is lucky and has water everywhere and with us we have a well and small creek that gets low if we have had no rain. It has been fine for the last two years but we purchased a tank for our pick up and hauled water for my plants so I didn't deplete the house of water. The lawns looked like heck but my flowers did okay until it finally rained and the water table went up. In short could you possibly haul water somehow? I feel so bad for you but tomorrow is a new day and it will get better soon.
Maybe we all should send out pictures of our sickest hosta to make you feel better
Faye

Yeah last year it was hail here, and this year its heat, thankfully the plants are pretty tough.. I am fairly new to it, and have yet to see a banner year ....
My Moms friend with gigantic gardens must be sick of the current year, but there is always next year..
Just think how the poor CUBS fans feel ;) not that i follow that kind of thing, but they are due a break sometime !

Phil, I forgot if your house is on a well. But if you get city water, then with a pump and pipes you could create an engineering master piece, the 'Water Works'. Sorry about your misfortune, wish you a lot of fall rains!
Bernd

Oh, how is your Sagae doing? It's in the shade, right?
Keep a stiff upper lip, friend. You'll have a garden to deal with even if it breaks your heart.

Peace be with you.

Phil...relax. You know your hostas will go into summer dormancy (probably a survival mechanism) and return beautiful and green next Spring, when you will once more walk me thru your fantastic woodland scene. It wasn't that long ago when you were lamenting that yours were all mature and nobody wanted to see them. And Surprise! All the people here were enthralled with your photos. Go stick your feet up and go with the flow...well, maybe, except for those new ones you got this year. Those need a little love. Aren't you glad that rabbits didn't eat them all this spring?

-Babka

We have had no rain to amount to anything since April, on the heels of a drought that actually began last summer. Weeks of 100+ temps, up to 115. Most of the garden is dead or dormant. There are days I feel like yanking up the whole dry, dead mess and composting the whole thing.

Between the drought, the cutworms and the pillbugs, plus raids by the groundhogs, it has been a tough year on hostas, not to mention the rest of the garden. I can't count how many young hostas I've lost. And that has never happened before, not in the twenty years of this garden, or any garden I've had before. At least the deer aren't bothering with me this year.

I am out there with the hose every day, soaking root zones of hostas, dogwoods, hydrangeas, azaleas, Japanese maples, etc, trying to keep the most valuable of the plants alive until fall rains come, if they do. Plus we have so many trees that they soak up the water, leaving the poor hostas with very little so they have to be watered again the next morning.

I hear you, Phil, about 3 pm every afternoon I feel the same way,

But I am stubborn, and I refuse to give up. When I watch the hundreds of birds in the sprinklers and puddles, and the turtles soaking up the water, that couldn't survive without the watering, it makes it all worth it.

Sandy

Hi Phil.

Hey, don't give up. Just do what you can, a little at a time. I've been lugging 4 watering cans in a wheel barrow because what brief rain we have gotten has just rolled off the leaf canopy and hasn't gotten to the roots.

Since your hostas are on a hill, have you considered Valtorrez's method?

Sorry about the rant. It's that I get so frustrated to see the plants drooping down,and yellow leaves. Some,including Sagae still look good,but the smaller ones are looking like fall already. Some good news;it rained yesterday evening,and then again about 3AM this morning,and more is expected today. Even with that news,some hostas have lost so many leaves that it's too late to recover this year,because unlike you all up nort',hostas down here don't reflush when leaves disappear in the summer. My hostas put on the first flush in March and April,and a second set in April,then they just maintain those same leaves the rest of the year,until fall,when they go down for the season. We're talking apples and oranges when it comes to growing hostas up north,and down in the south. It just isn't the same,even though I have the same plants you all have. Soil is different,and other conditions,but you get the idea? I really am through planting any new hostas,because the weather is just too bad this year. Oh yeah,it was a terrific spring,until the late freeze which zapped some hostas which aren't even up when most freezes occur. Then came the hailstorm in late April,and that made a real mess of some hostas. The early rising hostas,(fragrant ones,and montana A.) are almost disappeared already. Sorry this is so long. I think I explained why I can't water them. There is a huge concrete driveway between the house and the garden,and there's no way to get a hose over there. When I water in a new hosta,I carry water all the way over there in a sprinkling can,and I water until they are established,and then rain takes care of the rest. Anyway,I'm sorry to rant and rave here,but sometimes I get mad. Phil

A little rain makes you feel all better, doesn't it? Cloudy and overcast here today, and only 91. Still early in the day but I feel a glimmering of hope. Time for the rain spell and dance.

Sandy

Here in N IL we are in a severe drought!

Our grass is GONE, the creek is dried up, 1st time in 31 yrs. The recent storms took out 5 large trees, and 3 med trees. So our shade gardens went from dense shade to full sun, and I'm still cutting up trees!

I'm reduced to hand watering only those plants of $$$ that we purchased and planted this yr!

If this wasn't bad enough, we are on a well and the aquifer that we are in is being sucked dry by all the folks with pools, sprinkler systems etc.

We've given up watering any of our Hosta, and have been trying to provide some moisture to our big oak trees, as we don't need to loose them to!

Have given up praying for rain as I'm convinced we are not going to see rain anytime soon! So I'm looking for fall, and all the snow Mother Nature can drop on us, as soon as she can!

Bummed out in N IL - AL

105 degrees here in Kansas today. It's been over 100 almost every day all summer. The few times the temps went below 100, it was all the way down to 98 degrees--big deal!

Nearly all my hostas have "sunburned" edges. Just no way to keep up with the watering.

Yes, it is discouraging.

Kate