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The cooler temps last week had me itching to get into the garden and dig in the dirt. I made the rounds to 5 different local nurseries and almost checked everything off my list.

My goal: to fill in gaps in the garden where I have lost plants or where I have had ongoing difficulties, like the part sun, part shade area off the driveway and the woods where there isn’t enough sun to make the Lantana happy and the ferns that I planted last year didn’t even bother to show up again this Spring.

And I was bound and determined to shift my focus to more xeric plants, so I went in search of agaves, grasses and sedges.
Here you see one of several new Variegated Flax Lilies – Dianella sp. var. Flax Lily
This is a beautiful Squid Agave, Agave bracterosa, with a Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Pony’
Some chives to join the thyme in an herb pot.
Agave victoriae-reginae
A beautiful Mangave ‘Mucho Macho,’ passed along to me by Pam, of Digging. I thought he was so handsome that he needed a pretty pot in which to show off.
Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’
An Artichoke agave — Agave parryi v. ‘Truncata.’
Firecracker bush, or Bouvardia ternifolia with it’s tiny red blooms.
An Agave americana I didn’t quite know where to put, so into a pot it went.
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gold Bar’
Some Mexican Oregano spilling out of the pot.
A Pyramid Bush
I tried to get some morning glories going in here, but to no avail. So I broke down and bought a Mandavilla.
Some little Mexican feather grasses. They always look good, no matter how hot it gets.
This is a Crape Myrtle that I’ve been lusting after for years. It’s a ‘Dynamite’ with deep burgundy blooms and it doesn’t get very tall.
Next to the Crape Myrtle is a new Knock Out Rose ‘Radrazz.’ We’ll see how truly deer resistant they are…
And a Pentas and Helenium ‘Dakota Gold’— in a pot for some color.

We’re still under Stage 2 water restrictions — sprinklers only 1 day a week. Hand watering any time. And it was 95 today — feels much better than 105, but for the plants, it’s still darn hot without water. So, I will be spending hours outside about every other day trying to keep things alive with very strategic and efficient hand watering.

Even though it’s still pretty hot, mornings are just a tad cooler and the days are a little more tolerable…fall will find us, we just have to be patient!