No rain for two weeks plus the removal of two trees leads to burned out Pachysandra and hostas. The hostas don’t surprise me, but I’ve never seen Pachysandra burn.  Lawn is brown too which is not unexpected midsummer. So I’ve begun my once or twice a year deep watering. Amazingly the hanging annuals didn’t burn while we were out-of-town for five days; but I did deeply soak them; so guess it worked. Our sump pump “fen” is also bone dry so our official marsh property is truly dry. Days like this I’m so glad I chose to have perennials for 99 percent of my garden; their deep roots keep them alive.

Even though the loss of two trees allows sunshine in my yard it’s still not the full sun that would be possible if we didn’t have forest directly on the west side of our property. When the sun gets westward in mid to late afternoon our yard is shade, even the open spaces.  The forest preserve also keeps temperatures 5 to 10 degrees cooler than one block away; which is a relief for both plants and this gardener!