As I make our morning coffee, even before dawn, I cannot help notice the hardy hibiscus in full bloom. The dark red blooms are now 8 to 10 inches wide – plant descriptions talking about dinner-plate sized blooms are right on target. Though each bloom lasts only a day, the plant is covered in dozens of flowers at a time. Standing five feet tall and almost as wide, you just cannot miss it! It will bloom all summer, all the way until frost and is in full sun all day long. It does not skip a beat. After frost, just cut it back to the ground. As soon as it warms up next season, it will return to its rightful place towering over other perennials in the garden.

I have it planted amongst some Lindheimer’s muhly – I love the combination, especially on breezy days.

A quick road trip this past weekend to Kerrville, San Antonio and Port Aransas to visit relatives reminded me again, how vast this state of ours is. And how much we need to pay attention to our water use. We chose the leisurely route – US 281.  Green fields quickly turned to brown as we headed south. The Kerrville-San Antonio area is in the middle of a historic drought. Temperatures have been brutally hot, with July temperatures being on track to set records. Average rainfall for Kerrville is 34 inches. Last year they had 13.66 and only 8 inches so far this year. In San Antonio, they can only water once a week between 3-8am or 8-10 pm and no watering on weekends.

Low-water use plants – native and well adapted – have become a necessity. Smart gardeners are replacing their large yards of turf with natural plantings. These yards look like they belong in this area. They are so much more pleasing to the eye.

It is also quite dry in the Port Aransas area. At least they can go enjoy the water on the beach.

It’s noon on a Sunday here in north Texas and the temperature has already hit 100 degrees! Crazy though it seems, I planted a couple of “fall” tomato plants this morning and will plant a couple more later this week.

What kept me going were the images that my cousin David had recently sent me from the Shetland Islands. Everything looked so lush and green. As I have mentioned before, he (and his wife, Fiona) have their own set of challenges, one of which is not heat!

Their growing season is quite short and they have very strong winds. To protect the garden, they have erected a 2-metre (about 6 ½ feet) tall fence. Just as they were beginning to have some success, the cabbage white butterflies descended in droves. Almost daily David and Fiona are out there physically removing the large quantity of eggs deposited on the brassica plants (we call them cole crops). Next year they have already decided to put some netting or row cover over these crops to keep the butterflies at bay.

I learned of another pest that I am not sure we have here in our part of the world (and I thought we had everything!). They had noticed several cabbages wilting despite regular watering. When they removed them from the ground, they discovered cabbage root fly larvae. So next year David is thinking he will put some plastic ground cover down and grow the brassicas through slits in it, in a different patch of the garden.

Welcome to organic gardening in the Shetland Islands!

Our first home in Texas had an arbor over the patio to shade us from the hot afternoon sun. We had many hanging baskets, each watered by a drip irrigation system twice a day. Over to the side of the yard was a clothesline. Every summer we hung several hummingbird feeders under the arbor. We were entertained by the hour by as many as a dozen or more hummingbirds. Each picked its own spot – either one of the baskets or a line on the clothesline. Each defended its own territory to the hilt. What a show they put on.

We do not have a spot in our backyard to hang any feeders in our current home. However, we have lots of plants for them to feed on – flame acanthus, cigar plant and salvia greggii being their favorites by far. The hummingbird wars have already started; two have definitely set up home base in separate sections of the olive tree. I was so pleased yesterday watching one of them chase a sparrow out of the tree. Maybe they will help in saving me at least one olive this year to eat!