Dog Days of Summer..and next year

I am so ready for fall-are you? This has been such a hot dry summer. Hubby and I have to go out twice a day and water the little back yard that gets sun all day including the hot west sun in the afternoon. This weekend I was writing in my gardening journal noting some things that did well this summer, and changes I need to make next year. I thought I would share some of those thoughts with you.
A big YES plant again are the zinnias around the tree. Not all the seeds germinated, but the "cut and come again" have been amazing. I didn't get the red flowers I wanted, but thanks to a nice garden blogger, I have seeds for red zinnias to plant next year. Love the zinnias!

Another yes is, buy a purslane basket and put it by the pond. This area gets really hot, which purslane loves. I get these baskets for about $15.00 in early summer. I hope the garden center doesn't go out of business-I never see anyone there anymore.
The most interesting flower I had this year was the cleome. But now it's top heavy and I am wanting to cut it down. I have lots of seeds saved, so that may happen this weekend. I loved watching the flowers grow and change, but next year it needs to live in another spot.
I planted a purple fountain grass with lime and purple sweet potato vine in a shallow container and put it on the flagstone patio. Very pretty and love the contrasting colors...but..man did we have to water it every 2 minutes! I like the combination of colors, but way too much trouble. However, I do need something between these 2 chairs..any ideas??
The purple heart has been great, and will live there forever. I had to re-plant the window boxes as I lost the plants this past winter. Usually our winters are mild and I just cover the boxes, but it just got too cold this year. They look great right now, but please remind me NOT to buy petunias. I get so carried away in spring and planted quite a few in these boxes. The pretty flowers just cannot handle our summers!
Love ornamental grasses and need to find more of these next year. They seem to like hot and dry weather! The old wheel-

barrow is behind this grass, and I am not showing you a picture because it looks too bad. Oh my, what was I thinking last spring. I need a good plan for this special container. I will work on ideas for it all winter.

No, no, no--not ever again!! I simply cannot have morning glories in my yard. I have 2, one here.. ..and one at the other end of the yard. They are in containers, which is wrong, but I needed them up high to attach to the trellis. They could use water every 2 minutes along with the fountain grass and potato vine, and I refuse to do that again. I have learned my lesson-no more morning glories!!!
But I will always have blackfoot daisies and profusion zinnias. As a matter of fact, I made a note to buy more profusions next year for the back.. I only have this one plus 2 more. Funny thing, I always buy the cute little zinnias for the front, and used a few begonias in back for color. Now the back is full of sun, and the trees in front are shading the beds-so maybe I just need to switch. The blackfoots are so heat and drought tolerant. And when I walk outside on a hot afternoon, that sweet honey smell is divine. Ummm--YES to blackfoots and profusions!
The last thumbs up flower is angelonia, the summer snapdragon Without a doubt I will continue to have these. They bloom all summer, don't mind getting very little water, no deadheading required--what more could you ask for? Well, they are annuals where I live, so I could ask them to be perennials!
I have lots more "tweaking" that needs to be done in my yard, and quite a bit of thinking about what to do about next year. The weather people say our summers are going to be hot like this for a while (how do they know these things??). I know I have way too many annuals, but I love the color they add. I am going to try really hard to add perennials and use fewer annuals next year. But gee when spring hits, and the garden centers have all these pretty plants, and I am sick of a brown winter-it sure is hard to resist buying.

So here we are at the end of August. Here in Texas it will still be hot, but we can look forward to those September cold fronts coming our way, along with pumpkins and mums. So how about you-have you made notes for next year? Are you ready to end this summer and think about gardening next spring? I am!

"Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow."