it has been raining for practically three weeks straight in my yard and it was about 65 degrees today, all my beautiful tall flowers and grasses are laying down and needless to say the lawn has not been mowed in all this time and my big lush tomato plants have 2 or 3 marble sized green ones on them, but it's not snowing so.... I'm good.

Sent by andrea | 2:22 AM ET | 08-08-2008

Oh, I forgot one of my pet peeves on gardening posts is when people don't mention where their gardens are oops I'm in Maine

Sent by andrea | 2:28 AM ET | 08-08-2008

Of course the real tragedy, Andrea, is that you're not SWIMMING. What's a summer in New England without a dive in the lake? Condolences.

Sent by Ketzel Levine | 2:48 AM ET | 08-08-2008

Come to Denver where we just smashed the record for days above 90. many peaking over 100. 20 some odd days. It's over now and much appreciated rain has followed.

Sent by Dirt Nerd | 1:00 PM ET | 08-08-2008

Thanks for the shout out. Yes, we are pretty miserable in Austin right now. We have officially moved into third place with the number of 100 degree days. Tropical Storm Edouard (which was predicted to bring 3 to 6 inches of rain) passed us by. We are hot and dry and waiting for fall. That's when Austin gardening really takes off.

Sent by Melissa Sinclair Stevens | 3:50 PM ET | 08-08-2008

In now my 3rd summer in NE Oklahoma, having moved from the beautiful, temperate, put-a-stick-in-the-ground-and-it-will-grow PNW. Still shell shocked from the heat & what multiple days of 100+ (and the heat index!) will do to people & plants. But the tomatoes rock!

Sent by Penelope | 6:49 PM ET | 08-08-2008

Good lord Penelope, that's harsh! I'm not sure anything could get me to move out of the PNW, I'm ruined...

Sent by Ketzel Levine | 8:32 PM ET | 08-08-2008

I've met Melissa and been to Zanthan Gardens. It was so full and lush in the spring and she is a wonderful gardener. It's heart-breaking, no doubt, to try to keep up in a drought. I experienced it a bit last summer, when our area had a 'moderate drought', but it was not nearly as bad as Austin is this year! I hope they have a wonderful fall, with plenty of rain.

Sent by Carol, May Dreams Gardens | 11:25 PM ET | 08-08-2008

It's been hot here in Metro Atlanta, but not THAT hot . . . what it has been is dry. Having moved here from a much drier clime (Boise), I've always found the abandon with which water was used here hard to understand. The real misery isn't that we're on strict watering restrictions (because I've always tried to use very little water and lots of native plants). It's that few things here are well adapted to this long, long period of dry. After several years of well below normal rainfall, things are dying . . . and no real relief in sight. I sure wish some of you who are getting way more rain than you want could share!

Sent by Julie | 9:41 PM ET | 08-09-2008

Apologies and commiserations to the Great Baked State of Tejas from Santa Rosa, CA. As a transplant from the Rio Grande Valley with stops in DFW, Austin and the Hill County, I will send my best wishes to those in the broiler down there. My experiences with that heat make me a hundred times more appreciative of the consistently fine weather out here in NorCal and I just shake my head when it occasionally hits 95+ during the summer and the locals get the vapors. Don't fight it Texans. It's why God invented iced tea, ice cold beer and swimming pools. And Mesquite trees and cactus. Hang in there. A couple more months and things will be looking better. I sure thought ya'll were going to get some rain out of Edouard. That must have been a real disappointment. It's all a hurricane/tropical storm is good for down there.

Sent by burro | 5:33 PM ET | 08-10-2008

Hello,
I moved back to Northeastern Vermont about ten years ago to minimise the amount of summer heat I'd have to deal with gardening, etc. Although I must deal with pure sand and 95% woods on my 6 acres along with several streams going through this mountain land, it is private and mine. This year I started off strong. Sometime in June, I think it started to pour and it is now August 12th and it is still pouring. Everything is so wet that leaves are falling off my potted tomatoes, flowers are rotting in the ground. I quess we all have a price to pay, where ever we may be.

Sent by Dianne Laplante | 2:33 PM ET | 08-12-2008

Garden schmarden - in Phoenix Arizona we have more 100 degree days than anyone in the country - not to mention zero rainfall except when it's a monsoon flood. This is winter for us - we stay inside and only venture out in the wee hours to mow the bermuda grass that everyone else uses weedkiller on. Talk to me in October.

Sent by M. Taylor | 4:15 PM ET | 08-12-2008

Oh, dear, I'm definitely feeling like Julie from Atlanta -- here in the Southeast, we're in a historic (think 100 years) drought, so normally drought-tolerant plants need water and we're seeing remarkable death in mature trees in forest habitats. The heat was bad in July, but has moderated in August, but still no rain in sight.

I grew up in Austin, so I'm totally sympathetic to the dreadful heat and dry weather that they're experiencing (not what I experienced, to be sure).

I'm harvesting tomatoes and peppers, thanks to hand watering, but the latest water bill (just arrived), including the larger sewer charge, is about $110 --not dreadful, certainly, but reflective of my vegetable garden and recently planted (eventually drought-tolerant) plants.

But this year (and last year) have been truly off the charts in terms of lack of rainfall, so I commend Melissa for being so water-sparing.

Sent by Lisa Wagner | 12:18 AM ET | 08-16-2008