August Refreshes

The "dog days of summer" has always meant August to me. Growing up in the east, late summer was hot and uncomfortable and lazy. And humid. Gardens waned in the heat. Lawns browned out. A real sense of the  impending end of the season settled over everything.

Here August is the month that refreshes -- mornings are delightfully cool and brisk, afternoons get hot in the sun but are pleasant. It's monsoon season, and humidity rises to 25 or 30 percent. Even if it doesn't rain, it's nice. 

It's June that torments with the apocalyptic harshness of a desert; it's August when it gets lovely and plants start to look good. 

Flowering starts up in late July after the hiatus in June when everything halts. Japanese forest grass and Blue Ice amsonias are not big yet, but looking fuller. Perennials seem happy. Everything just looks better by August.

The 'Oklahoma' redbud is still small, but sturdy looking with fresh, glossy leaves.

The creeping thyme below it, which is supposed to spread out over the metal edging band and into the gray gravel to bridge the transition, is instead spreading back into the red volcanic rocks. 

Wrong direction! Head the other way! Like other Mediterranean plants here, thyme wants lots of water or else it just clumps in place. To get it to spread I have to irrigate it often.

It's clear after three seasons here that June is simply the worst. No rain, no humidity, no plant growth, and typically I have just planted or moved new things the month before and they simply shrivel until August comes. But when August arrives, instead of the dog days of summer, we get renewal and refreshment.

I need to keep this pattern in mind when I despair each summer early on.