Meet the Prickly Gardener

I am sick, on several different levels.

First of all, I've been struggling with a cold/flu for the past week which has turned horrendous over these last three days. Spending the weekend curled up with a box of tissues is not my idea of fun. None of the OTC drugs is helping me sleep, and when you don't sleep, you don't get better.

Second, I am totally sick of this triple-digit heat. You can't spend any amount of time doing stuff outside, even in the early morning. It's despicable.

Third, and related to #2 above, I am sick over the plants I've lost over the last month. Stuff that shouldn't be dying, is. Apart from our once-a-week allowed automatic irrigation, I hand-water everything once or twice. I don't know what's happening, except to blame the heat.

A silver lavender that I nursed back to robust health a couple of years ago is suddenly turning brown from the ground up. That great-looking ligularia I was bragging on from Garden Crossings? I think it's dead, despite the fact I poured water on it every other day (and it shouldn't get root rot from such treatment; it's a bog plant, for pity's sake).

Heucheras and tiarellas have turned to crisps. Even several of my young echinaceas have died. Satsuma mandarin? Dead. Dragons blood Sedum? Dead. A small stevia and an artemesia I recently bought shrivelled and died within a week of being brought home.

Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on???