With the advent of a few cooler days–read that as high 80s and 90s–I am anxious to get out in my garden. June 1st through August 31st tallied 53 days with temperatures over 100 degrees, with a not quite record breaking run of 30 consecutive days between July 6th and August 4th. I am not sure why I am compelled to cite these statistics–Fresno’s summer weather is largely unchanged from when my family first moved here more than 50 years ago. I am going to have to go with my ability to get through the hot and dry days on my hands and knees as the wild card; I am still going to blame that on Mother Nature, just a different department…oh! did I mention no rain since March?

The new front garden west bed which replaced a failing area of turf weathered the summer pretty well. The pic below which I shared in an April post was taken in March after the bed was partially planted with a Heinz 57 selection of waterwise woody and tender perennials, daylilies, iris divisions and anything else I ran across that looked good to try.

At this point I was still considering a wide stone path from the street (near the eventual home of my in-progress Little Free Library) to the walk leading to my front porch and was visually defining the space with the brick.

After my first planting wave I went ahead and mulched the bed down closely following the last good spring rain and in anticipation of the dry days to come. Notice the Salvia ‘Mesa Azure’ which was part of the original small half circle bed at the base of the crape myrtle tree has come on strong after a late winter cut back. The stone path is still under consideration.

The bed filled in nicely as May turned to June…

Even though this bed is south facing all but the very front has periods of dappled shade throughout the day. I abandoned the idea of the stone path and simply mulched everything down. The area had 2 sprinkler lines-one for the original bed perimeter and another for the turf. We were able to eliminate a number of heads immediately and have flagged the rest to watch through the summer. Although little in this area is thirsty, even drought tolerant plant material needs adequate water to get established.

Both the new and old plantings performed very well.

I got good bloom periods from the daylilies, a variety of perennial dianthus, the new stand of lavender and a few of new semi-woody salvias. Only the Euphorbia ‘Blackbird’ which I was coveting for its burgundy foliage has been almost a total failure. I lost 2 of the original 3 planted. Replaced those and lost them again! In the very first pic of this post you can barely see them newly planted in the lower left corner. I am on the lookout for additional replacements and hopefully can get them in the ground soon enough to allow the roots to get well established through the winter.

Most of the plant material tolerated our dry heat really well for being in the ground less than 4 months as summer peaked. I did a little bucket watering here and there and believe that the bed will hold up next year on its own with only occasional irrigation.

This is how the bed looked a few days ago. Yes–I finally got my Little Free Library in the ground! Even as much of the rest of the garden is looking a little draggy this area is still looking pretty good with plenty of healthy foliage.

The area around this small rock has proven difficult for a group of iris divisions and may end up sporting another large rock. In my efforts to avoid having sprinkler risers along the sidewalk I inadvertently created a few bone dry areas which just don’t get any coverage from the bed’s interior irrigation.

Three of my new woody salvias (top to bottom): Salvia ‘Dara’s Choice’, Salvia ‘Wild Bill’ and Salvia ‘Bon Bon’ all grew from scant quart container specimens to nicely behaved mounds of interesting foliage but, as yet, have not bloomed. These hardy growers were all purchased last fall at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden’s fall plant sale and overwintered in their containers before being planted in their current locations early this spring. I hope to make it to that sale again this year!

A couple of my other first year selections have not been so shy…

Salvia repens x namensis ‘Savannah Blue’ is a hybrid of two South African sages and although its sky blue flowers are small, they are plentiful. The foliage is reminiscent of that of small leafed scented geraniums.

Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Lynn’s Legacy’ bloomed heavily for 6 weeks mid summer after having a light show of flowers in early spring. This is purported to be quite a large plant at maturity and I have given it a lot of open space. Can you imagine this show on a shrub 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall?

With our spirits buoyed by the success of this turf free landscape and that of last year’s driveway circle lawn replacement project AND the strong back (loving heart) of my newly retired husband I just had the remainder of our front lawn treated for removal. I’ll have several weeks to narrow down my vision for this large wide open area. I’ve fallen all right–just not sure into what!