I hear ya. I lost track , but it seems like its been two weeks of 100F days and my plants and yard are taking a beating. I've moved most of my potted stuff to some kind of shade , but when I go out to water at night its just brutal. Its still 96F at 9:00PM. My pond loses about 2-4 " of water each day with this heat to evaporation. I have to fill it back up each night. I feel like I'm living on a farm as I do my chores each night. The heat is supposed to break today and be 94F for the next day or two.

oppalm: I love the mixture of your hardies and native trees and shrubs..(blended in)

Now thats something to look at now and in mid January...

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

Looks awesome. 😀

as Elvis would say, "thank you, thank you very much". He is the king, he should know.

here are some summer pics of some hardy palms etc..

palmettoman Z6-Ajaz, On

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2088381655

palmettoman, your hard work has created a masterpiece.
From the really neat mulch beds and sculptural gravel, to the excellent use of plant varieties, hope
you enter a garden contest. You'd win!
Really nice use of plants in your sideyard, well designed. The datura is at its prime, nice choices of plant combinations.
The banana variegation makes it really stand out.
And your palms! Wow, they're thriving...

Now the tough decision -- where will you plant the rest of your purchases? 😉

Your neighbours must be thrilled!
Barb

Thanks Barb..

Well I guess you can tell I'm a bit of a neat freak (only in the yard)...

There's always lots of room for those hardy palms etc.. (somewhere in the gravel)..

I'm already planning this fall..

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

Oppalm,your plants really look great,what are you feeding and how often?
Heat and the 40mph winds today is really taking toll on my plants,hoping for the rain coming in tonite and tomorrow.

Don

first off -palmettoman your landscaping looks great. I'm a bit of neat freek myself so I can appreciate your efforts. I'd love to come by your place and mess it up just so you can put it all back together, LOL. just kidding.

Don - (aka tropicman) - I am a huge Rolling Stones fan (you know Mick and the boys). I blast Stones music out to plants 24/7, they respond very positively to Mick singing or playing the harmonica, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on guitar and Charlie Watts on drums. lol.

Actually I took pictures at just the right time, because after that day we had like 2 weeks of 100F temps and winds and as you know everything gets beat up. I do stay on a regualr feeding schedule. I use Peters 20-20-20 fertilizer and fertilize once a month. My stuff in pots I ususally fertilize twice a month at 1/2 strength. Once a week I water everything with fish poo from my outdoor pond. Usually take about 10-15 5 gallon buckets of water out of the pond each weekend and water all my plants.

Your place looks great too. Hope the wind and heat don't damage your work.

Thanks for the info,the pond water must be the trick in the greening of the plants.
Wind did just about everything in last nite,leaves really tattered now.
Like you I use to be a neat frweak,but after rainforest gardening,I gave that all up,I just crowd everything together to get the lush green look!!!!LOL

I crowd alot of stuff together too. I figure if a palnt is growing there it won't be a weed. I mulch like crazy with grass so that helps keep weeds down and moisture in. Got a big old compost pile in the back yard that I work over all the time. I even grab bags of grass from my neighbors but I especailly like the leaves in the fall. Hope you got your mess cleaned up today. Too bad about the shredded leaves. Just when things look goos, mother nature has another lesson for us.

Thanks oppalm...

I've got a raccoon hangin around turning things upside down and such so maybe i could you some help after all...

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

Great pics and really nice garden.

What method do you use to protect everything?

Hi Wes,

Here in my Z6 hardy garden-I use massive amounts of pine mulch and have sat the hardy palms in raised beds and out of the winds...I tarped and plywooded off a few of the tender hardies and added heat and heat lamps (when needed)..

I am basically trying to create a Z7 climate through raised beds, heat etc... when needed..

This year I will protect my hardy palms with a new plexi material called "Suntuf" (Home Depot)...I will be making the enclosures nxt month...

The enclosures are hopefully going to be less work than the previous..

Some of my hardy's (Cordyline trees'-Oleander-Yucca Elephantis) that are permanently potted are garaged from early Dec to April...

Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On