Drought.....

 While Kentucky is have killing floods we are having drought.  The grass in the yards are dormant. Our visit to southern Iowa show a part of the state in worse condition than us. 

We visited the family cemetery after attending a first cousins reunion in Creston, Iowa.  The cemetery grass was not existing.  I dug a couple of iris at my Uncle and Aunts graves and I could barely dig it as the clay-like soil of southern Iowa was concrete hard.  The soil around the base of the foundations of the stones was withdrawn a good three inches with huge cracks everywhere.   The iris was one of my Uncle Leo's favorite and he brought it back from Oregon to Chicago. His daughter offered to help lake care of him as he was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. His daughter kept the iris going and it now grows over his grave. It was growing abundantly around the stones there and beyond. 

With great disappointment the cemetery caretakers of my parents graves decided to remove the iris that  I  had planted on my parents graves.  They did dig up the fernleaf peony and move it between the stones of my parents and my brother but the iris was completely gone. I had planned on getting sampling of the two iris that were planted there.  They must have done that selectively as there people that still have iris groups on their graves.  I took a sample of an old antique iris next to my Uncles grave just to see what kind of bloom that it is.

I found this plant on the net. It is swamp milkweed.  The previous owner planted it and it just shows up in the spring after I have broken off its dead stems in the fall. I only see white butterflies so far this whole summer.  I did see a goldfinch yesterday on my coneflowers in the front yard yesterday. The bees are numerous this year. 

This morning I dug up a hosta next to the fence line that was being crowded out by a Japanese Iris. The ground was so dry that I didn't think I was going to get it done.  I moved the main plant to a new area in that garden spot and moved two different new starts from it to other places in the back and front yard.  I really do like free plants.  I soaked everything with lots of water after transplanting as the soil is hard and dry. I don't see how roots will grow in that kind of soil.  I did add some commercial soil in the hole to give them some fertilized soil.

I haven't grown the Mammoth sunflowers for a couple of years, so I am treating this one as very special.  It gets treated to water from a soaker hose that also is next to the tomatoes.  I will be taking a lot of shots of this one and the two smaller ones that do eventually bloom. 

It is hot.  I have a bucket of white  iris rhizomes dug but I am not going to plant them now.  I got to hot and they can sit in a bucket in the shade for another day.  I can't believe that this high temperature day won't result in storms.  I guess we will wait and see.  We do need it to rain.  Resting from the heat inside now and will close this down for today.  Thanks for checking in.......