Drought Is Over.

9-10-22 SHORT HILLS: Wow, almost two weeks without a post. Sorry about that, but some of the readers are probably saying go for three weeks. 

Here in NJ the result of the drought, and it was a drought, for us is several dead shrubs. The ash trees, already stressed by the ash borers, look awful. We will likely have to take down several more. The dead shrubs are mostly spice bushes which are basically weeds. I suspect that they will re-grow from the ground in the spring. We also lost some burning bushes, but they volunteer all over the yard. Some viburnums were also lost. 

Of the bushes that I planted, two rhododendrons look dead and others partially dead. I’ll see what they do in the spring. A small leucothoe looks dead also.

I cut down all the dead stuff in front of the house and hauled a carload of stuff to the town dump. 

The reason things got so bad was that the sprinkler system failed. Mr. Gomez, our gardener, called me in VT in August to tell me that the sprinklers were not working. He told me that the week before things had been OK. I got the garage opened up for him by a neighbor with a key, and it was clear that the sprinklers were dead. 

I called the sprinkler company and got the house opened up and the alarm turned off for the repairman. He was there for almost the whole day. A water-line valve was broken. He thought it would take a plumber to replace it, but he was able to do the repair after he bought the new parts. He really went all out to do the job. He also set the sprinklers to run every day instead or every other. 

When we got back here, I increased the time for each of the seven sprinkler zones. I found and repaired a blocked sprinkler head in one zone. Now we have had rain and a lot of watering, things are stabilized. I still have more stuff to cut down. 

The red oak that I planted in the spring looks fine, but the Itoh peony is leafless with green stalks.

We had dinner with Lynn and Bill a few night ago, and I also had lunch with Bill. Tomorrow we will go to NYC for brunch with Roger. Judy and I have been catching up on all our med appointments and have more to go next week. Judy has started doing her pet therapy visits.

New blooms: rose-of-Sharon, lamium, clematis, St. Johns wort, caryopteris.  

St. Johns wort has been blooming since June. This is one of two varieties we have.

Rose-of-Sharon is a late bloomer that has volunteered all over the yard. It's actually a hibiscus, not a rose.

Another Rose-of-Sharon, different flavor.

Caryopteris is another late bloomer. The blue will keep happening for weeks.

This clematis is thriving. Unfortunately, it's smothering every thing underneath it and will need to be cut way back.