It has been very hot here in California and you can see this in my yard.

My roses are not looking so good. The blooms are drying out very quickly.

The petals are withering in the high heat.

My St. Patrick roses are not fully developing and the edges of the petals are damaged while they are still buds.

My little side yard is turning brown. There are two reasons.

First, the sprinklers don’t pop up high enough as the ground level has risen from all the clippings that have been left through the years.

Second, the neighboring yard has been converted to hard scape, but still has a tree in the middle. The only source of water for the tree is through roots that extend into my yard.

The yard on the other side of me is no longer watered and is mostly dead. This is also extending a bit into my yard, even though I continue to water. Again, two large trees in the neighboring yard have only my yard as a source of water.

The 100+ degree weather has not been too kind to my yard and roses, but they will eventually recover as the temperatures drop and fall approaches.

You may notice that the dried out portions of the yard appear orange in color. This is because of all the smoke in the air. I can really feel the smoke in the air as it really effects my eyes, even though I am inside.

Hopefully the forecast will change again and it will start to cool. Currently, with the exception of Friday the forecast calls for 100 degree days for more than a week.

Steven