Dog Days

I've just gotten out to water in hopes of saving some of the plants that were seriously wilted in the hot bed.  Hope they perk up.  The others will get a good watering in the dusk hours.  It was so hot here today that the heat came off the pavement in waves. They're predicting a few more days of this, so I will do my best to keep anyone in the garden from flagging.

I've really gotten into sedum of late.  I've used succulents other than cactus in the garden.  They don't mind the watering and survive the summer in great shape.  Sedum is another kind of succulent I'm very excited about.

This one is one of my favorites.  Besides being variegated, you can barely see the pink showing on it's branches.  And it is really growing in the heat. 

 

This one is also interesting, more in gray tones with leaves that look stickery, but are so soft to the touch.  Sedums are also really easy to root. I want to start making gifts for friends from the sedums and other succulents, arranged in small pots.  They're so easy to take care of.  This is one of my first tries.  I put a small statue in it that scares away bad spirits, as do the gargoyles on gothic churches.  I'll try some other such pots for friends.

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One other very interesting development for sedum is that they are being developed into what are called sedum mats to replace parts or all of the lawn.  LA Times has a nice blog about it with photos.  In our water-hungry land new ideas for saving water are au courant.