Crispy, tender and slinky…

Well, the Death Star continues its relentless torture of people, pets and plants in Austin, Texas.

CRISPY
It hit 106 today and that’s 16 days out of the last 17 that we registered more than 100 degrees. Sheesh! And it’s still June. I guess we are in for a repeat of last year, so I’m gonna hang onto my hat and my sunscreen and put on my big-girl panties and deal with it. (don’t hold me to that!)
See my poor Toad Lilies — I was amazed that they even came up, but I think it’s just too much to hope that they will actually grow, or, heaven forbid, bloom. Many things in the garden are getting crispy. And I pulled out all of the snap dragons from the fall — they were all dead and gone.
This is sad, though — this is my first Heuchera, and I was hoping it got enough shade to protect it. I sure hope it wasn’t my fault, watering when it was too warm out and burning the leaves….
This Kangaroo Paw hails from Australia and was supposed to love drought conditions. Apparently not!
Patches of grass come an go in between watering. I’m trying to keep it to the bare minimum, but it’s not easy. We have irrigation, but I’ve taken to spot sprinkling a few bad places where there must be some huge slab of rock underneath.
Tender
Here is my sweet little friend of the season. Emmy and Lulu have moved on and this little girl has come calling almost daily. I have lots of fresh water out every day – 5 birdbaths and one giant deer water bowl — and I know she’s hungry. When I was worrying about her last week, my dear husband went and bought a protein block for deer at the local feed store. In this 3-year drought, I hate to see them starve to death.
Slinky
Sunday morning my DH took this picture of one of our smaller garden friends who thought he might like to read the papers in the driveway! My sweetie said, I’m going to take his picture for you to post on your blog!
What a great husband, huh? And today is our wedding anniversary. I’m such a lucky gal, he loves me and he loves my garden and my garden friends. What more could you ask for?