Well Pardon this Gardener as I have been slacking again on keeping up with the blog.

It was a hot, dry, drought filled Summer here in the Southwestern Suburbs of Chicago.  We spent more time over 100 degrees than I can ever remember in my life. 

My Gardener's garden made it through the heat & drought.  The lawn took a beating from the heat & the grubs this year.  Last year's warmer than usual Winter led to a bumper crop of insects in the garden this year.

We are still in a drought having gotten less than 2" of rain in September.   The temperatures are cooler than normal right now & the trees are losing their leaves quickly.  I am hoping we get some meaningful rain through November & that we get enough snowfall this Winter make up for our brutal Summer.

I am going to try to remember to post here at least once a week.

Keep on gardening!

Pardon My Garden for being so happy.  We got some more rain this morning & the garden is quite happy. 

By my count we've gotten about 3.5" of rain in the last week.  We certainly have needed it.  My water bill needed a break too.  Though I still maintain to Mr. My Gardener that it is cheaper to water than to replace plant material or turf if we let it die during this drought & heat wave.

This hasn't been a good Summer for garden projects because of the heat & drought.  This is the first time...maybe ever that I haven't divided & moved plants around almost daily.  It's been more of a try to keep it alive holding pattern this year.  All in all My Gardener's garden has come through the worst of it pretty well & keeping the garden watered & happy has been a full time job in and of itself.  I will have to plot & plan My Gardener's plant shuffle for next year.  I have a lot of plants that need dividing & moving as the trees have grown & the amount of sun in different parts of the garden has changed.  It will give me something to do this Winter I guess.

Happy gardening!!!!

Well Pardon My Garden, but my plants are cross breeding all on their own.

It's always a fun surprise to find something new in your garden & this year My Gardener's garden is creating some funky Tradescantias( Spiderworts).  I have several different varieties in My Gardens.  Tradescantia 'Zwanenburg Blue', 'Red Cloud', 'Concorde Grape', 'Osprey', 'Snowcap'.  I 've had them all for many years now & they've never crossed before but this year they did and now they're making their own varieties.  The one pictured here I fancy calling 'Cotton Candy' because it reminds me of the cotton candy you get at the fair.

Happy Gardening!

Well Pardon My Gardener for being content despite the drought.
The garden is in a good holding pattern & I can't complain given how crazy this year's weather has been.  

I had high hopes of moving some plants & dividing perennials this year but I am glad I didn't with the extreme heat & drought.

I guess there's always next year.

Good Morning!  My Gardener's garden is a buzz with activity.  The bees are everywhere in my garden enjoying the flowers.

I've had a bumper crop of bees in the garden this year.  A neighbor raises Italian honey bees & they are always in the garden.

I have mason bees, honey bees, bumble bees or all sorts. 

Believe it or not I have never been stung by a bee despite my many, many years of gardening.  Wasps, yellow jackets & hornets, sure.  Bees, never.  I wade into the flowers pruning with reckless abandon & they never bother me.  I like to think we have a mutual appreciation for each others job in the garden.

And that's today's garden buzz.  Happy gardening!

Good Morning!  Pardon My Garden for being so out of control despite the drought.  We have water restrictions here & I I follow them.  Even with the water restrictions I have managed to keep My Gardener's gardens alive & looking good.  During the worst part of the heat wave I took great pains to water each of my plants with the hose( I took the nozzle off) and let them soak in deep drinks.  Getting deep watering to the roots is what helped them survive the extreme heat ( almost 4 weeks at 95-105 degrees) & the lack of rain. 

My water bill went up a bit but I figure it's less expensive than replacing all my gardens & my lawn.  As you know if you follow my blog,we finally got almost 3" of rain the other day.  The ozone from the lightening & good rain perked all my plants up that much more.   It's a beautiful morning out so I'm going to go do some fussing & weeding in my gardens.  Have a great day & happy gardening!

Well we finally got some much needed rain last night.  We were 6" behind on rainfall for the year & got 2.5" in one fell swoop!   I know my gardens were happy.  There is no substitution for rain & the ozone from the lightening always gives the plants a boost.

My Gardener's garden is much happier today after the rain!  Happy Gardening!

Well Pardon this Gardener for being a posting slacker but I went on a family vacation to the Western Slope of Colorado to see some family.  While we were there we took a day trip into Utah to Arches National Monument.  This picture is from a hike we took.  It was my first trip to the Western Slope, Utah & Arches.  The scenery was simply breathtakingly beautiful.

My family took Amtrak out to Colorado & that was quite an adventure.  We got to see all kinds of neat things from the train.  We saw tons of deer, a black bear, a coyote, Kingfishers, Great Blue & Little Blue Heron, Magpies, Hummingbirds and more.  It was quite the scenic trip.

We also got to see firsthand how crisp everything is from Illinois to Colorado.  There were some areas where the corn & soy crops looked to be doing well & others that we so brown & crisp that farmers were plowing the fields under already.

We went into the mountains to see some wildflowers but it was so dry that they weren't in bloom much to my great disappointment.  The trip to Ouray to the hot spings made up for it though.  My body has felt that good in 20 years.

While I was away the temperatures here at home in the Chicago burbs were in the upper 90's to 100 plus degrees.  I am very grateful to my neighbor that undertook the arduous( it takes over 3 hours to water my gardens) task of watering my garden for me.  I was happy to see that only a few plants withered a bit from the extreme temps while I was away.  My Convallaria majalis along the sides of the drive got a little crisp as did my Geranium macrorhizum but I am pushing both of their sun tolerances anyway so I wasn't really surprised to see them a little singed.

I hope your gardens are surviving this heat wave.  Water if you can & water deep.  I take the nozzle off the hose and water at the base of each plant until it puddles & then I come back & hit again.  Water if you can or you will most definitely lose plants in this heat.

Good luck & happy gardening!

Well I went home to Lake Bluff for the 4th of July.  It was the hottest 4th ever.  The temperature at 11 am was 100 degrees.  It got up to 104 yesterday. 

While I was home I took a tour of the gardens that My brother Matt & I have helped put in at the family homestead.  We've been working in those gardens for over 35 years now.  I was very happy to see that The Mighty Clem was still alive & in bloom despite the drought & heat wave.   The Mighty Clem is as old as I am. Which makes her a spry 42 yrs old.   I just wanted to share the a photo of her.  42 years old for any perennial is quite an accomplishment.  For one that was planted in the backyard of a home that raised 5 children & hosted as my Mom says, " a cast of thousands" over the years, that is no small feat.  So here's to you Mighty Clem.  I hope you and I both make it another 42 years or more!

Good Morning!  I really I am trying to remember to post her on my actual blog & not just facebook!

I have been up watering my garden in preparation for the end of the week heat wave.  We are suppose to hit mid 90's today & 100's going into the weekend.

I am the only person in my neighborhood watering & it shows.  My house looks like a an oasis in a sea of brown lawns & crisp gardens.   

Well Pardon this gardener for being such a blog slacker!  I really do keep forgetting I have a blog.  All the new media makes it hard to keep up.  First it was Facebook, then google +, then Pinterest & tumblr.   I can't keep up with it all.  I am going to ry to remember to post my blogs more frequently.  Try is the operative word in that sentence.

This year's VERY early Spring has the garden completely out of whack.  My mid Summer perennials are all blooming now or budding up & it's only June 25th.  My coneflowers, bee balm, globe thistle, verbena bonariensis( from seed) are all in bloom.  Normally they don't even bud up until the 4th of July!

We are also experiencing some drought.  Here in Chicago we were dry going into the Fall & then we had little to no snow over the Winter.  Spring started early in March & hot hitting temperatures in the upper 80's.  We have had very little rain yet.  Spring was dry & Summer is starting out dry.
 I of course water on my days to water, but we really need some rain.  The neighborhood is slowly turning brown one lawn & crisped garden at a time...and it's not even July.    Here's a picture of my back border.  I have added a phone booth to the bed.  This phone booth use to be in my parent's basement growing up, now it's in my garden.

I forgot I even had a blog

Ya know, I damn near forgot I had a blog.  I have retired from active garden duty and have been enjoying being a retired gardener & stay at home Mom.   I have been enjoying focusing on my own garden for the first time.  I put a lovely red phone booth in my  back perennial border last Summer just for fun.  I also let my daughter plant pumpkins in the back border last year.  Holy pumpkin attack.  The pumpkins were very happy in the back border.  The spread across 50 feet of the back garden went over the fence into all of my neighbor's gardens.  I am lucky my neighbor's enjoyed the bright orange blossoms because they were outta control!  I will look for some pictures of the pumpkins & phone booth to share.  Now that I am retired maybe I will remember to blog more!