I love this Hyacinth Bean vine I bought when I visited Thomas Jefferson's Monticello garden.
September - so hot and dry. I joked that the chickens were laying boiled eggs. Most of the time they had their tongues hanging out and their wings fanning themselves. I put lots of ice cubes in their water. All four hens are now laying-some off and on but we are getting around 2 dozen eggs a week.
I expect to get a large water bill this month as we've had hardly any rain for the past two months -August and September. I take sections of the garden at a time beginning with those that need the water the most - new transplants . I don't like to complain about the lack of water when the poor people of Houston , Florida and Puerto Rico got way too much.
I spent days that were too hot to venture out in planning the renovation of a 20 year old garden. I had the homeowner rip out all the old , overgrown shrubs. She selected, upon my advice, a beautiful Full Moon Japanese Maple for a focal point in her front garden bed. Around it I planted a bright golden Illicium, some Lorepetalum and Recurved ligustrum. The color contrast was remarkable.
The last day of September brought a huge change to the heatwave we were having. It suddenly cooled off to a wonderful 72 degree day which is perfect for gardening .
Farewell dry, hot September and welcome cool and wonderful October !
