This drought year as been tough. My garden looks like heck, and it's distressing to read about the drought's effect on commercial agriculture all around us. But sometimes, it's good to count your blessings, even when you are feeling that you'd be delighted to find the rain gauge even half empty.

   The thing about droughts is that they're just like years with heavy rain-all part of nature's cycle. As tough as it has been to keep my garden even moderately attractive, I've noticed that the moisture-loving creeping Charlie is almost now but gone. So are all the other weeds that thrive during wet years.

   I've had minimal fungal diseases, even on my roses and tomatoes. I can count the number of mosquito bites I've had this summer on one hand. Slug damage is minimal.

   It's all nature's way of keeping these problems in check. Next year we may have heavy rains. Or another drought.

   Me, I'm trying to keep the greater picture in mind and remind myself that this is one reason I garden: To watch nature's fascinating game up close and personal, to engage in her vagaries in a way I never could if I didn't venture out beyond glass of my windows in an air conditioned house, out into my wild and wonderful back yard.

   This technique also works well with blue annual 'Victoria' salvia. Also, this year, I did it with my glorious crambe cordifolia, a perennial that I love for its frothy white, explosive display in July.  

 My garden is overwhelmed with weeds right now, so I'm practicing weed triage--assessing my losses and focusing on what I can salvage. 

    Mainly, I am making sure I yank out any weed that is producing a flower. Flowers, like the ones shown here on a weed in my garden, turn into seeds, which turn into hundreds if not thousands of weed plants later on. 

    My second priority is perennial weeds, such as dandelions and small trees. They'll just come back bigger and badder next year. So I pull or dig them out, getting as much of the roots as I can.