We are in a very bad drought now!

Three or four days of irrigation brought our new clover lawn back from the brink of death. Clover and fescue is drought proof, kinda, once established. This lawn is only seven months old... it’s not self-sufficient yet. I just started my 45th year here at the nursery, and I can’t remember one year where May/June have been so dry lawns are dying already. HINT: STOP mowing your lawn. The longer blades shade the soil and the crowns of the grass plants. This prevents the desertification of the soil at the base of the turf. Repeat: stop mowing your lawn, or set the blades at the highest setting.

Nothing said about this in the news- all we hear is that it’s “beautiful weather.” ITS NOT. Plants and grasses are dying across the state. Don’t wait to water- sometimes it’s too late to save plants by the time you notice .

No rain of significance in the past few weeks. Nothing coming for the foreseeable future. Full sun and hot wind dry everything out and starts killing little by little.

Thin soil under turf shows stress first. Grass turns dark green then yellowish then broomstick brown. As it nears death, it becomes apparent that there’s absolutely nada that one can do about it.

​Planting trees to shade the lawn isn’t a bad idea for so many reasons.

Lawns that are less than a year old do this during droughts- you gotta do it all over again.

Hummingbird magnet “black and blue salvia” shining yesterday in the afternoon light.

Obscene 5’ tall hollyhocks delight me each time I walk past them. Never have I ever enjoyed this plant before. Incredible blossoms remind me of wedding flowers (not mine).

Emperor 1 Japanese maple glowing yesterday on a cloudless sky.

View of my back yard one morning last week. The scene reminded me of a civil war battlefield before the bloodletting started all those years ago. The ginkgo tree to the right was planted by me and my son the afternoon of the murder of all the Newtown kids a few years back in the fall of 2012. My son was the same age as the murdered little ones, so that act seared special emotions on my heart forever.

Our form of government is ineffective, hate to say it. New Zealand had a mass shooting, and so did Canada. Within a year, both countries outlawed assault weapons for civilians. Was our first mass school shooting Columbine? I forget. When was that event? Twenty years ago? Thirty? When is our government going to do SOMETHING about taking those weapons out of our hands? If not that, then some other fix?

I think these thoughts each time that ginkgo tree catches my eye, which is almost every time I walk past it.

Finally, Connecticut is very strange now. We have gone from few cars and trucks on the road to many more. We have gone from quiet to noisy again. I liked it quiet. I guess the assault on our climate issues, and the various ecosystem decline can proceed now that people are on the go again. It’s too bad in a way. We all saw how quickly Mother Nature rebounded once we humans took a step back from our polluting ways, something to keep in mind if we ever decide to attack the global warming catastrophe.

​Whenever that happens... probably never.

I had to go to the nursery last night to turn off the irrigation, and saw this new moon- you have to squint to see the sliver. When the intense summer sun goes to bed, everyone with no air conditioning rejoices. The birds seem to chirp happier and louder, fans seem to be more effective, light in the sky illuminates without burning. Last night on my trip I saw the summer’s first bats and lightning bugs. As I drove I thought to myself how damn good life is.