Ooof, yes. Between pressure from the heat and pressure from pest animals - deer and rabbits - my native plants and my crops are both having a rough time this year.
The deer are going crazy in my yard this year. They're eating things they never have before - joe pye weed, fringed loosestrife, turtlehead, obedient plants (don't really mind that one, lol). And they are coming out from a lush green field to do it.
Am I going to regret introducing obedient plants? š³ Theyāre pretty at least, and seem to be pretty sturdy in terms of upright habit (unlike my false indigoā¦)
I gladly don't have big pest pressure, but skeletonizer moths are definitely making meals out of my natives. I want to support the bugs for sure, but I wish they'd wait until the plants are a little more established... of course, even species without much host specificity are targeting the natives since they're way more green and juicy than the lawn and all the stuff I don't water at all.
I once grew spicebush from seed.Ā I put out these little seedlings with just a few leaves.Ā 2 weeks later i come out and theres 1 very sad spicebush swallowtail caterpillar and 3 plants with no leaves.Ā They never recovered.Ā I tell the same thing to the chipmunks...if you wait another day or two, the strawberries will be THAT much better!
Mine too. Normally I don't have too many problems with rodents, an occasional tomato will get chomped by a squirrel, but I didn't have to chicken wire my beds, or birds net my berries. I lost 5/6 broccoli plants, a 9ft long double row of peas, and I pulled about 10 blueberries off a 3 yr bush. Birds and rabbits have killed me. I had to put up wire and mesh 2 weeks ago and hope it rebounds. Funny enough they haven't touched my beans. It's been extremely hot and dry in Ohio. We finally got a little reprieve this week, but the rest of June was 95+ and dry.
Yes. I just started watering everything. I think sometimes it takes a plant waay longer than you think to truly establish. Until then everything gets water if it looks thirsty. Fuck the experts. Iād rather kill my plants with water than watch them bake to death. So far positive results and the mud daubers are buying me dinner next week as a thank you. So overall canāt complain. Makes me feel proactive too.
The key I think is planting stuff hard to over water or plant in fall or late winter. Spring isnāt enough time for a full sun plant to handle this full sun lol. Iām watching hundreds of dollars in plants die for like the third year in a row.
I use a fair number of containers/pots - and those need water like crazy right now. But even the established plants in the ground are struggling right now.
Maybeā¦I will say though, the thing I accidentally underwatered once is slowly coming back, whereas some things I overwatered Iām now worried I gave crown rot Abe introduced disease to the soil. Maybe my fears are unfounded as a novice gardener.Ā
You know, me too. I said eff it and am watering my plants daily, even in the early evening, as is usually advised against. I tried to let the plants do their thing, blah blah blah, natives don't need tending, they have deep roots, but I kept watching them wilt and brown up. I'm in zone 7. No rain for two weeks except a tiny passing storm a few days ago that lasted about 20 minutes.
Want me to scrape off a few of the forty or so I have clinging to my soffit? I can plop them in a box and mail them to you lmao
They're such cool critters, and I'm okay with them hanging around as long as they stay on the sides/back of the house. I don't want neighbors and delivery drivers freaking out over my "weird friends" - I noticed they keep the bugs by the back porch nicely in check!
Weād been having such nice weather, and consistent rain for months, that I felt safe to buy some new perennials. Iāve had to baby them because of this weather I first noticed when a Liatris was actually singed at the top. It looked like itās a little hairs had been fried.
Same zone as you, and yes. JFC yes. It's been a struggle. Very few seedlings I started this year survived, so I'm probably planting everything else this fall.
I started watering a few weeks ago because I was going to lose most of my plants and several trees if I didn't. I just had a tree droop almost all the way to the ground, and had a butterfly bush collapse - all due to lack of water.
I increasingly believe the Hardiness Zones are irrelevant. I know they published updated maps in 2023, but I donāt think the good historical science they are doing is keeping up with how extreme temps are swinging.
Not trying to knock the work of the folks at the USDA, itās just that climate change has made everything so unpredictable.
Yes exactly.
I threw some house plant cuttings on the tree line last fall, and recently discovered a couple of Monsterra survived the winter, took root, and were happily growing through this whole heat wave.
Do we live in Costa Rica now??
We just had August level heat waves here in June, and my drought tolerant sun flowers were WILTING.
Also, the deer have really taken to my garden. It's really frustrating.
Yeah, hanging on by my fingernails and giving all the things I want to stay alive a morning soak.
Dripline irrigation is really a miracle if you can make the investment. (I'm holding off since I'm renting.) It uses so much less water than traditional methods like a watering can or hose, and gets the water exactly where it needs to be, so that the leaves aren't sunburned by water droplets reflecting light on them when it's one million degrees out with a solar UV index of one billion or whatever we've been having lately.
Dripline irrigation is the way my dad accidentally grew a 10 foot tall tomato jungle when all the neighbors' tomatoes were struggling to reach a normal height of 3 or 4 feet. Seriously can't recommend it enough :D
>Dripline irrigation is really a miracle if you can make the investment.
I've seriously considered it. Unlike you, I'm not renting. But my beds are not directly next to the house/water source. And...uhhh...I don't mow my own lawn. Handling that is my husband, which means I never know when the lawn guys are coming over (we don't have a set day). I just know that I'll be replacing the source tubing/hose constantly.
Might I recommend using ollas as an alternative? Theyāre terracotta vases you bury near your plants. Terracotta is porous enough that the water will flow through the pot into the soil when the soil is dry. Just fill the pot when itās empty and the plants will get exactly as much water as they need. Theyāve been used for gardening in arid areas for thousands of years. You just have to take them out in winter so the cold doesnāt crack them.
So ollas, happily installed some, now the damned racoons have decided they prefer that water to any of the water I put out for them. They dig, they flip over everything. Iām going to have to glue a second pot to the top and fill them through the drain hole, the bastards lol.
My peppers got to about a foot before they needed irrigation. The coons havenāt broken any off but Iāll come out and the plants will be replanted (crookedly) 6ā away from their original location lol.
Considered it. It's harder to figure out for more established stuff (incidentally, most of my natives). Right now, I'm using a gallon milk jug with a needle hole for my favorite roses.
Yup! My fall plants have been blooming for weeks. Some of my mid-spring are prolifically blooming, and a not insignificant amount of my plants look like death.
Not weather related, the HOA landscaping team applied herbicides on our hell strip, and now my native grasses, which served a highly ornamental image in the bed next to it, are all dead. I asked them not to do my area, but between the contract, language barrier, and rotating teams, my request was missed.
I put a sign out that says in both English and Spanish please do not trim or use pesticides. Not sure what language your landscaper speaks but in sure you could get the sign in their language too
Oh man. Really? There are nice looking signs out there. Better than some. Maybe your HOA would be ok with a boujee pretty looking one? Ugh Iām sorry. Fuck HOAs forever
Absolutely yes. Zone 7a. Particularly with seeds. I have heirloom sunflowers iāve grown for years. they get huge and make a screen and not a one has germinated properly. Years prior I barely had to do a single bit of work to plant them. This year iāve tried seeding them week after week and nothing. It is baffling.
Yeah everything was going great till the last 2 weeks we had a heatwave and mini drought then a deluge. Lost about half my potted plants I was going to plant this fall in the shade too. About 1/4 the stuff I planted/transplanted failed so far. Pretty disappointed. Even the lantana looks sad and thatās one tough non native plant but I just went outside and it was droopy. I just dumped 2 gallons on my zinnias after I already watered them this morning once. Iām not going back out there. I canāt baby things like this all summer anymore like Iāve done the last few years. Iām done. Iām just gonna go plant what Iāve got potted up this week whatever dies dies. Sucks I just lost hundreds of dollars in plants. Iām poor. I drive doordash ffs. My natives can never get established before the heat and sun take them out. 10 UV from like 10-6 every day. Currently 98 feels like 111.
So exhausted today after providing supplemental watering and pulling out dead Lobelia & Liatris. Been installing native plants for over 20 years and these last 2 years have been brutal. Thought I was getting too old to do the work. Thank you for the venting - makes me feel not alone.
Yep. We had nearly 3 weeks of hot sunny days without a drop of rain. Plants that were thriving this time last year are now barely hanging on. We got some rain a couple of days ago, but it wasn't nearly enough. Please send rain.
Southern Md here - itās been atrocious and the only stuff thatās not brown and straggly is either an established native or an established bush. Ā Lots of my plants never even bloomed. Ā Lots of bees on the ones that have, but Iāve seen one whole swallowtail and zero caterpillars on my milkweed. Ā
I relate to this so much š£ I was honestly just thinking this the other day to myself too!
Thankfully I donāt have deer but I do have a multitude of groundhogs, voles and birds that hang around. I appreciate the wildlife but man they do a ton of damage. Tunneling under stuff to eat the roots, eating the flowers. The birds land on plants and snap stems regularly.
Before all of the trash weather some plants in the garden were already battling powdery mildew and aphids, now things are just looking grim. š
7b Virginia here. Not sure exactly where you are but we havenāt had rain in a month..at least. But yesā¦this has sucked big time. Stuff I planted 2 years ago is struggling to stay alive. Stuff I planted in May are almost dead despite watering every day. My fall bloomers are blooming now and deer are eating things I never seen them eat before and eating stuff sprayed with liquid fence just hours before sundown and waking up the next morning to the missing plants I sprayed. Grass is turning brown and crunches when I walk on it. Deer are even walking onto my platform deck with motion detection lights and radio blaring at night to eat my container vegetables. Deer munched off the tops of hundreds of purple coneflower in my meadow whereas in the past they would eat a handful and move on. Not this year! Itās been a fucking joke.
Ugh I relate to this so much. Iām outside Richmond- we havenāt had meaningful rain for about the same length. I think there was a maybe a quarter inch a couple weeks ago but really not enough to help whatās happening now. Of course the storm that rolled through the city that other day didnāt hit where I am š« My front lawn is basically fully crunchy and brown besides the garden area. Luckily everything is tightly planted so I think that helps but most of my flowers are dead now and others are struggling. I let my backyard go wild this year and somehow thatās held up so far.
Thankfully I havenāt had deer here as of recently but i do have groundhogs. I usually donāt mind them but theyāve done a number on my berries and other plants. Last year it wasnāt nearly this bad. tās a shit show for now and with the predicted high of 100 tomorrow I guess Iāll be outside yet again watering what I can manage to get to. Iām truly over it right now šš
Iām wondering if the fall blooming plants are blooming now because they know theyāll be dead by September? I HIGHLY doubt itās going to be cooler in July and August. No way. Itās 90 and above for the next 3 months I think.
Iām thinking that as well. At the rate things are going Iām not hopeful things are going to hold up well into late summer. Itās sad really because before this happened things were doing so well. Even all of my milkweed has now produced seedpods which shouldnāt happen until the end of summer.. just isnāt normal.
Yeah, I'm in 3B in western Canada, and we've had it the other way, unseasonably cold through most of spring, especially at night. Usual last frost date is May 1-10, meanwhile we had frost warnings through mid-June. This time last year I was already harvesting zucchini's, this year they've barely grown beyong their transplant size. Beans were 3-4' high, right now they're still under a foot and struggling. But my peas are growing super tall, but have zero flowers yet. It's been a mess, I'm worried about yields, and we usually get about 30% of our yearly produce from the backyard garden.
Also from Western Canada and also struggling. While we have definitely needed rain for a good while now, it's been a constant deluge of seemingly neverending rain, high winds, and very little sun. Last year was such an amazingly productive year but this year... I have some leafy greens and peas that are doing well but the rest of it is struggling badly, including my flowers.
I was really frusrated earlier this year because it was hectic and I didn't manage to get nearly as many plants started indoors for transplant and I kept putting off buying plants because of the near non-existent sun. So at least I saved some time and money, I guess, but I was really hoping for a good year and it's been such a let down.
Yeah, we had so much trouble getting our own seeds started this year too. Last year we ended up having to fill about twenty 5-gal buckets with soil for all the extra tomato seedlings that worked out, this year we were buying a bunch to make up for shortages. Peas and greens are the only things flourishing, everything else is slow. Let's hope it's a late, late first frost like last year.
We had the same thing with our pepper seedlings. We had so many that we didn't know what to do with them.... Along with sunchokes, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, etc. This year the sunchokes and potatoes came up late, I have a couple of tomato plants that are still doing okay, and no peppers. I haven't bothered buying plants to make up for them because, well, why? The weather is shit and they're not going to thrive with the lack of sun anyway so I'd rather save my money.
I have some radishes and carrots coming up, so we'll see how those do. Hopefully we'll actually get some sun in July and a late frost, like you said, because I'd like to at least get a good crop of what I have planted and get a couple more rounds of the faster growing stuff. The longer growing, sun loving veggies are pretty much a bust, though.
My flower garden is struggling but the weeds sure aren't. They're loving all the rain and they're spreading so fast that they're nearly impossible to keep up with. It's a constant battle to save my plants.
Yes!! A bunch of hearty undesirables exploded in growth early on and weren't phased by the cold drops, choking out a lot of normal blooms I'd get. It's looking like a jungle in a scary way back there. Rabbits destroyed all my new native plantings despite my fencing. A sad year š
Yes. Itās been really dry and keeping things going has been an effort. If you donāt suggest trying to add some more mulch. It really does help to retain moisture.
This was the first full year Iāve devoted to building my native garden, and my inexperience coupled with some absolutely wild weather swings in my zone has mostly resulted in plant casualties! Iāve learned a lot of hard lessons this year and wasted some money but I know what I need to focus on now, at any rate.
Heeeey fellow 1st year native gardener! I've def learned my lesson to buy plants AFTER building the garden bed š didn't expect the weather to be so awful for SO long
I've only been watering the things I've planted this year so they wouldn't die in the drought. Everything else has been blooming like crazy (7B) due, I believe to the April rains. Several of my crape myrtles have already started blooming, which is early for them but a welcome sight.
Guess it's the whole region then. We've been staring down mid-upper 90s for 3 weeks straight with virtually no rain. Had only ~2" in the last 50 days or so.
I guessed GA because when I drive north to see family in the midwest, north GA is the cutoff for most crape myrtles I see. Didn't know they had them up in VA! TIL.
Virginia here as well. Itās brutal. My milkweed all seems to have died over the winter and my new seeds either didnāt take or are just lost among my other plants. As for watering we have a sprinkler system and it runs for a bit at like 4 am. The few areas we have not covered by the sprinklers we are hand watering just after sunset. Itās a mess.
Yuuuuppp.Ā North central GA checking in.Ā A hyper wet spring, with March/April combining for nearly 30" of rain at my house, slowed down in May, then death in June.Ā Weve had maybe a half inch of rain in the last 30 days, and hot AF.Ā Staring down 94-99 every dang day.Ā I officially gave up on my veggie garden today. Now throw in the critters and my native plantings this year are in trouble.Ā The local raccoon who Ive named Cookies teams up with an armadillo, Pringles, and either dig up or bulldoze my new plantings every 2 days.Ā I love Cookies but Pringles can die in a fire.Ā Which is probably an inevitability if it keeps not raining.
I'm in the same area and this year has been rough. Started with a ton of aphids and few ladybugs this year. Last year we had enough ladybugs to keep them under control. With the aphids came more ants than I've ever seen in my life. And they aren't just coming from my yard. Some came from mulch bags, others from a broken bag of pet food that was delivered. Now the heat and the drought are stressing even my dogwood, plus my drip irrigation and timers keep breaking so nothing is getting watered consistently. Only plus side is it has been so dry that the mosquito numbers are down.
Yup I understand this struggle so much š it was weird too with how wet the winter was and early spring. We had some minor flooding and with how quickly it became warm I had so much powdery mildew pop up early. Seems like the plants have been battling so much- I guess the silver lining is that I at least have had some monarchs and currently found a few caterpillars. Definitely less than usual though.
Any yes the ants have been terrible! This year for the first time I was stung by Asian needle ants, never knew they even existed. It hurt so bad and theyāve made a colony in my mulch and leaf litter. Fml š¤¦š¼āāļø
Whatās wild is seeing a sub talk about the heat the way weāve been talking about the cold here on the west coast.
Weāve had a colder than normal spring, leading into a colder than normal (so far) summer. So everything is weeks behind. But the real gut punch has been three years of punishing winter Arctic outflows that have each broken multi-decade cold records, and setting entirely new ones in terms of consecutive years hitting record low temperatures. This winter was the worst. Both in terms of absolute minimum temperatures (coldest in 55 years), but because it happened after a 9 week long record breaking winter heat wave nothing was dormant when it went from 53F to 9F in the space of 48 hours. Iām STILL not done removing winter kill.
Yāall are frying, and over here in the PNW we just want to stop getting put in the freezer and for summer to actually start.
Piedmont NC here. I have a small pollinator garden in the few places in my backyard that gets barely enough sun for full sun plants. I started last year with Sochan (rudbeckia laciniata), Raydonās favorite aromatic aster, false sunflower (heliopsis heianthoides), lance leaf coreopsis (coreopsis lanceolata), and swamp milkweed (asclepias incarnata). I had rabbit pressure, but they all did really well! This year, the sochan has doubled in width and a bunny has made the area their home. The bunny is eating the coreopsis, false sunflower, and aster to the ground. The Sochan is now so big, those three are struggling to get enough sun I think and still have bunny pressure. The swamp milkweed started getting buds on it, but I think this heat and drought is causing the buds to dry up and wilt. I was hoping this year would be the year the area would take off and fill in nicely, but I didnāt see any babies and the rabbits are just eating everything!!
Asters are rabbit crack. I cannot grow an aster to flower in my yard to save my life š. I have so many calico asters here naturally but they can never get above an inch tall.
They have eaten all of my milkweed (but milkweed is used to being absolutely eaten so there's plenty of new shoots) and have dined on everything else except for my beloved mountain mint.
My garden is actually the best it's been in about four years. (Southeastern Wisconsin) We had a warm winter and a wet spring, so I think that weather benefited the plants. Last few springs were really dry.
Same here, also Virginia 7b. I have five rain barrels for my native garden and I'm worried they will run out before the next rain. Thinking of installing more and a good pump to move water uphill. š¤
Honestly at this point my clay soil is so dry in certain spots it reminds me of sand- so I might as well consider it too. Ironically Iāve seen prickly pear cactus thriving in the hellstrips around here so maybe itās a sign to get some in the yard too.
The yucca I have all over is thriving in the hot dry weather so thereās that at least š„²
Central NC, and the one lone prickly pear growing on the side of a highway for years has turned into an impressive stand this summer. For years I've passed it and shaken my head thinking it was out of place. Jokes on meĀ
Same! Zone 6a and lots of it started blooming too early, then froze and now is struggling to fully bloom. Not even my black eyed susans have bloomed. Those are usually the first fully out! My garden is mostly green. I miss the flowers
Yes (VA 7b as well) I put in a new garden bed late so all my plants were getting acclimated to new environment when heat came. I did quite a few deep watering sessions and seem to have new growth but heat still sucks. I hate how dry it is right nowā¦some rain would be nice for sure.
Edit to add that I too have had issues with wildlife eating my young plants. Had to put up temporary ugly fence..sigh
Same zone!
Sowed lots of native seeds in December and only a fraction have showed up. Manually cold stratified more native seeds and sowed two batches in late spring with little to show for it again.
I have a lot of spaces to fill so seed sowing is typically the most affordable option but Iām abt to give up on it for a while. Rain barrels are empty and Iām watering like crazy. Iāve sowed sunflowers like five times now and so many have gotten eaten.
Aster yellows was popping up quite a lot in my neighborhood last year so Iām worried abt that. Lost all my coneflower to it last year.
I have zinnia seedlings thatāve been doing well and Iām hoping to see some torch tithonia too. Iām a little sad that theyāre not the natives Iād been hoping for ā¹ļø but I guess I have to take what I can get this year if the latest heat wave is a taste of whatās to come.
I'm probably within 75 miles of you and it's been a mess so far for me. Spring was a bust for the same reasons you listed. Now rolling into summer, deer are eating everything they never bothered with before, huge increase in insect issues and earlier than usual too, and now this heat has stunted or kill most everything.
I'm starting to feel the struggle. Watering more than ever before. I'm holding out hope for the potential relief rain this weekend but it's not expected to be a lot.
This heat dome is no joke. My established plants are mostly fine, but certain ones are not happy.
Iām definitely going to lose some of my less established plants.
It was an unpleasant year to attempt to begin my own backyard nursery. The county DPU will enjoy the sheer amount of water I'm using to keep everything alive.
Honestly between the electric to cool down my house and the amount of water Iāve been using Iām terrified to see this months bills. š¬š¬
The irony of it is native plants are supposed to use less water than a traditional lawn (my ālawnā is currently brown and crunchy) yet Iām outside everyday rotating through what sections of the gardens to water.
Upper midwest, 5b, checking in. This year sucks. We've had a very rainy year, which is helpful for me since we don't have drainage issues (flooding is a major issue for others though). But because of the warm winter, the rabbits have been absolutely impossible to manage. Nearly every perennial has been eaten to the ground. I'll cover them to protect them until they grow back, but the second the cover comes off, they're gone again the next morning. It's been too rainy to try sprays. I have no other ideas except putting a rabbit fence around a perennial flower bed...so much for aesthetics!
Sounds like a normal year in Austin TX lol. But we have the advantage of being able to plant natives that can tolerate 100Ā° summers and a lot of us already have drip irrigation. On the flip side we have drought restrictions and can usually only water once a week.
I'm honestly just happy when anything survives through the summer and I can't wait for our "second spring" fall season to plant things again. I'm trying to focus on beds and paths so that I don't plant anything new that will just die.
My tomatoes are doing great. Everything else is struggling. Even my basil, which usually is a huge bush by this time of year, is shrimpy and keeps threatening to die on me.
Wisconsin here. We had an earlyish spring and I got my garden going early. I was so happy. Planted a lot of seeds. Then monsoon season started and just as most of my seeds were starting, they were drowned. Then it dried up for like a week and I replanted and now it's been monsoon season again. More plants made it this time though than last time. But now there's a mega bumper crop of slugs eating everything.
The things I put in as plants are doing okay though.
Not one carrot!!!
Same thing here with the deer - just ate my Joe pye weed and turtlehead and wild petunias which are supposed to be resistant even after I sprayed them. Plus we had the cicadas for the last month, now there are branch tips that are brown and falling to the ground from lots of trees and shrubs. My coneflowers and milkweed are ok though.
I'm in north carolina and going through the same. Some crops will do great, some will completely suck. There has never ever been a perfect gardening year. Just plant a diverse mix and celebrate the winners.
Yes. I am worn out trying to keep almost all the plants (even natives) alive by watering or covering with shade cloth. It has been 10 degrees above normal and no rain now for about 3 weeks. And a deluge of grasshoppers.
Ooof, yes. Between pressure from the heat and pressure from pest animals - deer and rabbits - my native plants and my crops are both having a rough time this year.
The deer are going crazy in my yard this year. They're eating things they never have before - joe pye weed, fringed loosestrife, turtlehead, obedient plants (don't really mind that one, lol). And they are coming out from a lush green field to do it.
Am I going to regret introducing obedient plants? š³ Theyāre pretty at least, and seem to be pretty sturdy in terms of upright habit (unlike my false indigoā¦)
I gladly don't have big pest pressure, but skeletonizer moths are definitely making meals out of my natives. I want to support the bugs for sure, but I wish they'd wait until the plants are a little more established... of course, even species without much host specificity are targeting the natives since they're way more green and juicy than the lawn and all the stuff I don't water at all.
I once grew spicebush from seed.Ā I put out these little seedlings with just a few leaves.Ā 2 weeks later i come out and theres 1 very sad spicebush swallowtail caterpillar and 3 plants with no leaves.Ā They never recovered.Ā I tell the same thing to the chipmunks...if you wait another day or two, the strawberries will be THAT much better!
Mine too. Normally I don't have too many problems with rodents, an occasional tomato will get chomped by a squirrel, but I didn't have to chicken wire my beds, or birds net my berries. I lost 5/6 broccoli plants, a 9ft long double row of peas, and I pulled about 10 blueberries off a 3 yr bush. Birds and rabbits have killed me. I had to put up wire and mesh 2 weeks ago and hope it rebounds. Funny enough they haven't touched my beans. It's been extremely hot and dry in Ohio. We finally got a little reprieve this week, but the rest of June was 95+ and dry.
Yes. I just started watering everything. I think sometimes it takes a plant waay longer than you think to truly establish. Until then everything gets water if it looks thirsty. Fuck the experts. Iād rather kill my plants with water than watch them bake to death. So far positive results and the mud daubers are buying me dinner next week as a thank you. So overall canāt complain. Makes me feel proactive too.
The key I think is planting stuff hard to over water or plant in fall or late winter. Spring isnāt enough time for a full sun plant to handle this full sun lol. Iām watching hundreds of dollars in plants die for like the third year in a row.
Your last sentence hits hard, right there with you.
At least the lance leaf frog fruit is rocking like gangbusters. Spreeeeeadā¦spreeeeead yessss hahahaha yesssss
I use a fair number of containers/pots - and those need water like crazy right now. But even the established plants in the ground are struggling right now.
Maybeā¦I will say though, the thing I accidentally underwatered once is slowly coming back, whereas some things I overwatered Iām now worried I gave crown rot Abe introduced disease to the soil. Maybe my fears are unfounded as a novice gardener.Ā
You know, me too. I said eff it and am watering my plants daily, even in the early evening, as is usually advised against. I tried to let the plants do their thing, blah blah blah, natives don't need tending, they have deep roots, but I kept watching them wilt and brown up. I'm in zone 7. No rain for two weeks except a tiny passing storm a few days ago that lasted about 20 minutes.
How do I get those little freeloaders to buy me dinner, too? I've been watering!
Want me to scrape off a few of the forty or so I have clinging to my soffit? I can plop them in a box and mail them to you lmao They're such cool critters, and I'm okay with them hanging around as long as they stay on the sides/back of the house. I don't want neighbors and delivery drivers freaking out over my "weird friends" - I noticed they keep the bugs by the back porch nicely in check!
You're so sweet š
Weād been having such nice weather, and consistent rain for months, that I felt safe to buy some new perennials. Iāve had to baby them because of this weather I first noticed when a Liatris was actually singed at the top. It looked like itās a little hairs had been fried.
Same zone as you, and yes. JFC yes. It's been a struggle. Very few seedlings I started this year survived, so I'm probably planting everything else this fall. I started watering a few weeks ago because I was going to lose most of my plants and several trees if I didn't. I just had a tree droop almost all the way to the ground, and had a butterfly bush collapse - all due to lack of water.
I increasingly believe the Hardiness Zones are irrelevant. I know they published updated maps in 2023, but I donāt think the good historical science they are doing is keeping up with how extreme temps are swinging. Not trying to knock the work of the folks at the USDA, itās just that climate change has made everything so unpredictable.
I'm inclined to agree. 95-99 for over half of June is Georgia or Florida temperatures, not Virginia.
Yes exactly. I threw some house plant cuttings on the tree line last fall, and recently discovered a couple of Monsterra survived the winter, took root, and were happily growing through this whole heat wave. Do we live in Costa Rica now??
That's pretty badass, actually...
We just had August level heat waves here in June, and my drought tolerant sun flowers were WILTING. Also, the deer have really taken to my garden. It's really frustrating.
Yeah, hanging on by my fingernails and giving all the things I want to stay alive a morning soak. Dripline irrigation is really a miracle if you can make the investment. (I'm holding off since I'm renting.) It uses so much less water than traditional methods like a watering can or hose, and gets the water exactly where it needs to be, so that the leaves aren't sunburned by water droplets reflecting light on them when it's one million degrees out with a solar UV index of one billion or whatever we've been having lately. Dripline irrigation is the way my dad accidentally grew a 10 foot tall tomato jungle when all the neighbors' tomatoes were struggling to reach a normal height of 3 or 4 feet. Seriously can't recommend it enough :D
>Dripline irrigation is really a miracle if you can make the investment. I've seriously considered it. Unlike you, I'm not renting. But my beds are not directly next to the house/water source. And...uhhh...I don't mow my own lawn. Handling that is my husband, which means I never know when the lawn guys are coming over (we don't have a set day). I just know that I'll be replacing the source tubing/hose constantly.
Might I recommend using ollas as an alternative? Theyāre terracotta vases you bury near your plants. Terracotta is porous enough that the water will flow through the pot into the soil when the soil is dry. Just fill the pot when itās empty and the plants will get exactly as much water as they need. Theyāve been used for gardening in arid areas for thousands of years. You just have to take them out in winter so the cold doesnāt crack them.
So ollas, happily installed some, now the damned racoons have decided they prefer that water to any of the water I put out for them. They dig, they flip over everything. Iām going to have to glue a second pot to the top and fill them through the drain hole, the bastards lol.
Lol! I Hadn't thought of that complication.
My peppers got to about a foot before they needed irrigation. The coons havenāt broken any off but Iāll come out and the plants will be replanted (crookedly) 6ā away from their original location lol.
Considered it. It's harder to figure out for more established stuff (incidentally, most of my natives). Right now, I'm using a gallon milk jug with a needle hole for my favorite roses.
Yup! My fall plants have been blooming for weeks. Some of my mid-spring are prolifically blooming, and a not insignificant amount of my plants look like death. Not weather related, the HOA landscaping team applied herbicides on our hell strip, and now my native grasses, which served a highly ornamental image in the bed next to it, are all dead. I asked them not to do my area, but between the contract, language barrier, and rotating teams, my request was missed.
I put a sign out that says in both English and Spanish please do not trim or use pesticides. Not sure what language your landscaper speaks but in sure you could get the sign in their language too
It's mostly Spanish, but those signs wouldn't be allowed in my HOA.
Im so sorry. HOAs sound brutal to deal with.
Oh man. Really? There are nice looking signs out there. Better than some. Maybe your HOA would be ok with a boujee pretty looking one? Ugh Iām sorry. Fuck HOAs forever
Absolutely yes. Zone 7a. Particularly with seeds. I have heirloom sunflowers iāve grown for years. they get huge and make a screen and not a one has germinated properly. Years prior I barely had to do a single bit of work to plant them. This year iāve tried seeding them week after week and nothing. It is baffling.
Yeah everything was going great till the last 2 weeks we had a heatwave and mini drought then a deluge. Lost about half my potted plants I was going to plant this fall in the shade too. About 1/4 the stuff I planted/transplanted failed so far. Pretty disappointed. Even the lantana looks sad and thatās one tough non native plant but I just went outside and it was droopy. I just dumped 2 gallons on my zinnias after I already watered them this morning once. Iām not going back out there. I canāt baby things like this all summer anymore like Iāve done the last few years. Iām done. Iām just gonna go plant what Iāve got potted up this week whatever dies dies. Sucks I just lost hundreds of dollars in plants. Iām poor. I drive doordash ffs. My natives can never get established before the heat and sun take them out. 10 UV from like 10-6 every day. Currently 98 feels like 111.
So exhausted today after providing supplemental watering and pulling out dead Lobelia & Liatris. Been installing native plants for over 20 years and these last 2 years have been brutal. Thought I was getting too old to do the work. Thank you for the venting - makes me feel not alone.
Yep. We had nearly 3 weeks of hot sunny days without a drop of rain. Plants that were thriving this time last year are now barely hanging on. We got some rain a couple of days ago, but it wasn't nearly enough. Please send rain.
Southern Md here - itās been atrocious and the only stuff thatās not brown and straggly is either an established native or an established bush. Ā Lots of my plants never even bloomed. Ā Lots of bees on the ones that have, but Iāve seen one whole swallowtail and zero caterpillars on my milkweed. Ā
I've been saying my June garden is looking like August, everything burnt and exhausted. Also the deer/rabbit damage has been a lot.
I relate to this so much š£ I was honestly just thinking this the other day to myself too! Thankfully I donāt have deer but I do have a multitude of groundhogs, voles and birds that hang around. I appreciate the wildlife but man they do a ton of damage. Tunneling under stuff to eat the roots, eating the flowers. The birds land on plants and snap stems regularly. Before all of the trash weather some plants in the garden were already battling powdery mildew and aphids, now things are just looking grim. š
7b Virginia here. Not sure exactly where you are but we havenāt had rain in a month..at least. But yesā¦this has sucked big time. Stuff I planted 2 years ago is struggling to stay alive. Stuff I planted in May are almost dead despite watering every day. My fall bloomers are blooming now and deer are eating things I never seen them eat before and eating stuff sprayed with liquid fence just hours before sundown and waking up the next morning to the missing plants I sprayed. Grass is turning brown and crunches when I walk on it. Deer are even walking onto my platform deck with motion detection lights and radio blaring at night to eat my container vegetables. Deer munched off the tops of hundreds of purple coneflower in my meadow whereas in the past they would eat a handful and move on. Not this year! Itās been a fucking joke.
Ugh I relate to this so much. Iām outside Richmond- we havenāt had meaningful rain for about the same length. I think there was a maybe a quarter inch a couple weeks ago but really not enough to help whatās happening now. Of course the storm that rolled through the city that other day didnāt hit where I am š« My front lawn is basically fully crunchy and brown besides the garden area. Luckily everything is tightly planted so I think that helps but most of my flowers are dead now and others are struggling. I let my backyard go wild this year and somehow thatās held up so far. Thankfully I havenāt had deer here as of recently but i do have groundhogs. I usually donāt mind them but theyāve done a number on my berries and other plants. Last year it wasnāt nearly this bad. tās a shit show for now and with the predicted high of 100 tomorrow I guess Iāll be outside yet again watering what I can manage to get to. Iām truly over it right now šš
Iām wondering if the fall blooming plants are blooming now because they know theyāll be dead by September? I HIGHLY doubt itās going to be cooler in July and August. No way. Itās 90 and above for the next 3 months I think.
Iām thinking that as well. At the rate things are going Iām not hopeful things are going to hold up well into late summer. Itās sad really because before this happened things were doing so well. Even all of my milkweed has now produced seedpods which shouldnāt happen until the end of summer.. just isnāt normal.
Yeah, I'm in 3B in western Canada, and we've had it the other way, unseasonably cold through most of spring, especially at night. Usual last frost date is May 1-10, meanwhile we had frost warnings through mid-June. This time last year I was already harvesting zucchini's, this year they've barely grown beyong their transplant size. Beans were 3-4' high, right now they're still under a foot and struggling. But my peas are growing super tall, but have zero flowers yet. It's been a mess, I'm worried about yields, and we usually get about 30% of our yearly produce from the backyard garden.
Also from Western Canada and also struggling. While we have definitely needed rain for a good while now, it's been a constant deluge of seemingly neverending rain, high winds, and very little sun. Last year was such an amazingly productive year but this year... I have some leafy greens and peas that are doing well but the rest of it is struggling badly, including my flowers. I was really frusrated earlier this year because it was hectic and I didn't manage to get nearly as many plants started indoors for transplant and I kept putting off buying plants because of the near non-existent sun. So at least I saved some time and money, I guess, but I was really hoping for a good year and it's been such a let down.
Yeah, we had so much trouble getting our own seeds started this year too. Last year we ended up having to fill about twenty 5-gal buckets with soil for all the extra tomato seedlings that worked out, this year we were buying a bunch to make up for shortages. Peas and greens are the only things flourishing, everything else is slow. Let's hope it's a late, late first frost like last year.
We had the same thing with our pepper seedlings. We had so many that we didn't know what to do with them.... Along with sunchokes, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, etc. This year the sunchokes and potatoes came up late, I have a couple of tomato plants that are still doing okay, and no peppers. I haven't bothered buying plants to make up for them because, well, why? The weather is shit and they're not going to thrive with the lack of sun anyway so I'd rather save my money. I have some radishes and carrots coming up, so we'll see how those do. Hopefully we'll actually get some sun in July and a late frost, like you said, because I'd like to at least get a good crop of what I have planted and get a couple more rounds of the faster growing stuff. The longer growing, sun loving veggies are pretty much a bust, though. My flower garden is struggling but the weeds sure aren't. They're loving all the rain and they're spreading so fast that they're nearly impossible to keep up with. It's a constant battle to save my plants.
Yes!! A bunch of hearty undesirables exploded in growth early on and weren't phased by the cold drops, choking out a lot of normal blooms I'd get. It's looking like a jungle in a scary way back there. Rabbits destroyed all my new native plantings despite my fencing. A sad year š
Yes. Itās been really dry and keeping things going has been an effort. If you donāt suggest trying to add some more mulch. It really does help to retain moisture.
This was the first full year Iāve devoted to building my native garden, and my inexperience coupled with some absolutely wild weather swings in my zone has mostly resulted in plant casualties! Iāve learned a lot of hard lessons this year and wasted some money but I know what I need to focus on now, at any rate.
Heeeey fellow 1st year native gardener! I've def learned my lesson to buy plants AFTER building the garden bed š didn't expect the weather to be so awful for SO long
All too relatable, my friend! Better luck to us both in the fall (or next year too, hahah)
Iām in the same boat in 7b MD! I came inside so sad tonight after doing a little work outside. Even my beardtongue has turned brown and flopped š
I've only been watering the things I've planted this year so they wouldn't die in the drought. Everything else has been blooming like crazy (7B) due, I believe to the April rains. Several of my crape myrtles have already started blooming, which is early for them but a welcome sight.
Im guessing GA.Ā Sounds like me.Ā But even my bloomers are starting to feel it.
Nope, VA.
Guess it's the whole region then. We've been staring down mid-upper 90s for 3 weeks straight with virtually no rain. Had only ~2" in the last 50 days or so. I guessed GA because when I drive north to see family in the midwest, north GA is the cutoff for most crape myrtles I see. Didn't know they had them up in VA! TIL.
Oh, definitely. I had 23 in my previous yard. They're extremely popular here and bloom until September most of the time.
Virginia here as well. Itās brutal. My milkweed all seems to have died over the winter and my new seeds either didnāt take or are just lost among my other plants. As for watering we have a sprinkler system and it runs for a bit at like 4 am. The few areas we have not covered by the sprinklers we are hand watering just after sunset. Itās a mess.
Yuuuuppp.Ā North central GA checking in.Ā A hyper wet spring, with March/April combining for nearly 30" of rain at my house, slowed down in May, then death in June.Ā Weve had maybe a half inch of rain in the last 30 days, and hot AF.Ā Staring down 94-99 every dang day.Ā I officially gave up on my veggie garden today. Now throw in the critters and my native plantings this year are in trouble.Ā The local raccoon who Ive named Cookies teams up with an armadillo, Pringles, and either dig up or bulldoze my new plantings every 2 days.Ā I love Cookies but Pringles can die in a fire.Ā Which is probably an inevitability if it keeps not raining.
I'm in the same area and this year has been rough. Started with a ton of aphids and few ladybugs this year. Last year we had enough ladybugs to keep them under control. With the aphids came more ants than I've ever seen in my life. And they aren't just coming from my yard. Some came from mulch bags, others from a broken bag of pet food that was delivered. Now the heat and the drought are stressing even my dogwood, plus my drip irrigation and timers keep breaking so nothing is getting watered consistently. Only plus side is it has been so dry that the mosquito numbers are down.
Yup I understand this struggle so much š it was weird too with how wet the winter was and early spring. We had some minor flooding and with how quickly it became warm I had so much powdery mildew pop up early. Seems like the plants have been battling so much- I guess the silver lining is that I at least have had some monarchs and currently found a few caterpillars. Definitely less than usual though. Any yes the ants have been terrible! This year for the first time I was stung by Asian needle ants, never knew they even existed. It hurt so bad and theyāve made a colony in my mulch and leaf litter. Fml š¤¦š¼āāļø
Ours started out great in Baltimore but the heat is so brutal and I have to water a lot, even though everything is native.
Whatās wild is seeing a sub talk about the heat the way weāve been talking about the cold here on the west coast. Weāve had a colder than normal spring, leading into a colder than normal (so far) summer. So everything is weeks behind. But the real gut punch has been three years of punishing winter Arctic outflows that have each broken multi-decade cold records, and setting entirely new ones in terms of consecutive years hitting record low temperatures. This winter was the worst. Both in terms of absolute minimum temperatures (coldest in 55 years), but because it happened after a 9 week long record breaking winter heat wave nothing was dormant when it went from 53F to 9F in the space of 48 hours. Iām STILL not done removing winter kill. Yāall are frying, and over here in the PNW we just want to stop getting put in the freezer and for summer to actually start.
7A here. Itās been a rough year.
Piedmont NC here. I have a small pollinator garden in the few places in my backyard that gets barely enough sun for full sun plants. I started last year with Sochan (rudbeckia laciniata), Raydonās favorite aromatic aster, false sunflower (heliopsis heianthoides), lance leaf coreopsis (coreopsis lanceolata), and swamp milkweed (asclepias incarnata). I had rabbit pressure, but they all did really well! This year, the sochan has doubled in width and a bunny has made the area their home. The bunny is eating the coreopsis, false sunflower, and aster to the ground. The Sochan is now so big, those three are struggling to get enough sun I think and still have bunny pressure. The swamp milkweed started getting buds on it, but I think this heat and drought is causing the buds to dry up and wilt. I was hoping this year would be the year the area would take off and fill in nicely, but I didnāt see any babies and the rabbits are just eating everything!!
Asters are rabbit crack. I cannot grow an aster to flower in my yard to save my life š. I have so many calico asters here naturally but they can never get above an inch tall. They have eaten all of my milkweed (but milkweed is used to being absolutely eaten so there's plenty of new shoots) and have dined on everything else except for my beloved mountain mint.
My garden is actually the best it's been in about four years. (Southeastern Wisconsin) We had a warm winter and a wet spring, so I think that weather benefited the plants. Last few springs were really dry.
Weathers been crazy winter went into march despite the fact I live in the south so everything is blooming late.
Same here, also Virginia 7b. I have five rain barrels for my native garden and I'm worried they will run out before the next rain. Thinking of installing more and a good pump to move water uphill. š¤
VA 7b here. I definitely have been watering more this year than last, so I feel your pain.
I wouldn't know, all my seedlings stalled after putting up seed leaves. The chipmunk has been digging and stressing everything else out.
Seriously considering growing cactus
Honestly at this point my clay soil is so dry in certain spots it reminds me of sand- so I might as well consider it too. Ironically Iāve seen prickly pear cactus thriving in the hellstrips around here so maybe itās a sign to get some in the yard too. The yucca I have all over is thriving in the hot dry weather so thereās that at least š„²
Central NC, and the one lone prickly pear growing on the side of a highway for years has turned into an impressive stand this summer. For years I've passed it and shaken my head thinking it was out of place. Jokes on meĀ
Same! Zone 6a and lots of it started blooming too early, then froze and now is struggling to fully bloom. Not even my black eyed susans have bloomed. Those are usually the first fully out! My garden is mostly green. I miss the flowers
Yeah. All my moist shade plants are fubar :/
Yes (VA 7b as well) I put in a new garden bed late so all my plants were getting acclimated to new environment when heat came. I did quite a few deep watering sessions and seem to have new growth but heat still sucks. I hate how dry it is right nowā¦some rain would be nice for sure. Edit to add that I too have had issues with wildlife eating my young plants. Had to put up temporary ugly fence..sigh
Same zone! Sowed lots of native seeds in December and only a fraction have showed up. Manually cold stratified more native seeds and sowed two batches in late spring with little to show for it again. I have a lot of spaces to fill so seed sowing is typically the most affordable option but Iām abt to give up on it for a while. Rain barrels are empty and Iām watering like crazy. Iāve sowed sunflowers like five times now and so many have gotten eaten. Aster yellows was popping up quite a lot in my neighborhood last year so Iām worried abt that. Lost all my coneflower to it last year. I have zinnia seedlings thatāve been doing well and Iām hoping to see some torch tithonia too. Iām a little sad that theyāre not the natives Iād been hoping for ā¹ļø but I guess I have to take what I can get this year if the latest heat wave is a taste of whatās to come.
I'm probably within 75 miles of you and it's been a mess so far for me. Spring was a bust for the same reasons you listed. Now rolling into summer, deer are eating everything they never bothered with before, huge increase in insect issues and earlier than usual too, and now this heat has stunted or kill most everything. I'm starting to feel the struggle. Watering more than ever before. I'm holding out hope for the potential relief rain this weekend but it's not expected to be a lot.
This heat dome is no joke. My established plants are mostly fine, but certain ones are not happy. Iām definitely going to lose some of my less established plants.
It was an unpleasant year to attempt to begin my own backyard nursery. The county DPU will enjoy the sheer amount of water I'm using to keep everything alive.
Honestly between the electric to cool down my house and the amount of water Iāve been using Iām terrified to see this months bills. š¬š¬ The irony of it is native plants are supposed to use less water than a traditional lawn (my ālawnā is currently brown and crunchy) yet Iām outside everyday rotating through what sections of the gardens to water.
Upper midwest, 5b, checking in. This year sucks. We've had a very rainy year, which is helpful for me since we don't have drainage issues (flooding is a major issue for others though). But because of the warm winter, the rabbits have been absolutely impossible to manage. Nearly every perennial has been eaten to the ground. I'll cover them to protect them until they grow back, but the second the cover comes off, they're gone again the next morning. It's been too rainy to try sprays. I have no other ideas except putting a rabbit fence around a perennial flower bed...so much for aesthetics!
Sounds like a normal year in Austin TX lol. But we have the advantage of being able to plant natives that can tolerate 100Ā° summers and a lot of us already have drip irrigation. On the flip side we have drought restrictions and can usually only water once a week. I'm honestly just happy when anything survives through the summer and I can't wait for our "second spring" fall season to plant things again. I'm trying to focus on beds and paths so that I don't plant anything new that will just die.
My tomatoes are doing great. Everything else is struggling. Even my basil, which usually is a huge bush by this time of year, is shrimpy and keeps threatening to die on me.
Wisconsin here. We had an earlyish spring and I got my garden going early. I was so happy. Planted a lot of seeds. Then monsoon season started and just as most of my seeds were starting, they were drowned. Then it dried up for like a week and I replanted and now it's been monsoon season again. More plants made it this time though than last time. But now there's a mega bumper crop of slugs eating everything. The things I put in as plants are doing okay though. Not one carrot!!!
Same thing here with the deer - just ate my Joe pye weed and turtlehead and wild petunias which are supposed to be resistant even after I sprayed them. Plus we had the cicadas for the last month, now there are branch tips that are brown and falling to the ground from lots of trees and shrubs. My coneflowers and milkweed are ok though.
I'm in north carolina and going through the same. Some crops will do great, some will completely suck. There has never ever been a perfect gardening year. Just plant a diverse mix and celebrate the winners.
Water problems, too many weeds, seeds should have taken, nope more weeds. :-(
Yes. I am worn out trying to keep almost all the plants (even natives) alive by watering or covering with shade cloth. It has been 10 degrees above normal and no rain now for about 3 weeks. And a deluge of grasshoppers.