Opening the door to go into the garden, at the moment, feels very much like when you open the door of the oven when you’re baking bread!!! very hot indeed. Our forecast tells me that this week we have cyclones arriving from Africa and that temperatures in my part of Italy will most likely be in the range of 41-43°C. This is hotter than I have ever known since we arrived in late August 2003 (which had itself been a record breaking year for high temperatures. For this reason I should have photographed my view early this morning; instead I ventured out at 5 pm. Where my toes touched the gravel through my sandals they felt as if they were being burnt.
Tuesday View 1st August 2017
I have a new camera and it is making everything look much greener than it really is; maybe I should just look through its lens
Pennisetum ‘Karley’
Changing the angle slightly and moving into the ‘view’ Pennisetum are flowering well, seemingly oblivious to the heat
Not in the view but I wanted to record that the Lagostomeria that has barely ever flowered in past years IS flowering after being watered every couple of days over the last month
When I came home after a few days away I saw that the thermometer in the greenhouse had registered 46°C – it is a no go area at the moment.
I’m joining with Cathy at Words and Herbs who hosts this interesting and informative meme, do visit to see other views.
Christina missed you. Sorry for the heat wave and the very high temperatures you have to endure. Cypress and Rosemary remain green as ever. The Pennisetum bloom. There is no choice but to withstand the heat. I am already in my country house with my parents and it is also hotter than last year. In Madrid before we came we were a few days at 42º and 43º. Take care of the heat and have the best of it. Greetings from Margarita.
I shouldn’t complain about the heat when many others have even tougher conditions to withstand. Is it at least a little cooler at your county house?
Yes Christina in the cottage temperatures are much lower. The maximums we have had were 34º centigrade. The normal is 28º or 30º for the day. At night temperatures drop to 12º or 14º and you have to sleep with the windows closed and a blanket. From 19:00 hours, even on hot days, fresh air rises and is very well. I wish you had our temperature. Greetings from Margarita.
I wish I did too.
I can feel the heat radiating from those photos Christina! It does look amazingly green though, and the Pennisetum is pretty. Those temperatures sound awful. Stay cool! 🙂
The Cypress and Rosemary are stalwarts in the garden, staying green regardless of the temperatures.
I love your grasses! I did the Celsius conversion and was shocked at how hot it is there. Stay cool!
That is ridiculously HOT! You must be melting, Christina. I hope you have air conditioning?
Thanks for venturing out to show us your view, which seems to be taking the heat quite well. You’ve done a good job choosing tough plants!
No, no air conditioning but the house is old with very thick walls and shutters on the windows, with diligence I can keep the house relatively cool.
Love your Pennisetum, such a graceful grass. Hope your temperatures drop soon to something more manageable, we are just having sunshine and showers day after day, the plants like the rain so I mustn’t grumble.
We did have a bug storm last week with a lot of rain but it doesn’t stay long enough in my soil, however hard I keep trying to add more organic material.
My sympathy, any flirting with forty temperature is bitterly hard to endure.
For now – your garden is still looking delightful.
I think on this occasion the images rather flattered reality.
Ugh! Those are Death Valley (California) temperatures! No wonder you’ve taken refuge inside. The hottest temperature I can remember in my current area (which occurred on the first day of summer last year) was 106F/41C but that level wasn’t sustained over a prolonged period as it appears your high temps have been. However, the inland valley in which I grew up (and where my brother still lives) regularly sees temps of 110F+, which is a big change over the period of my childhood. Part of the problem there is that all the ranches and citrus groves that dominated the area when I was a kid have been replaced with houses and concrete but global warming would appear to be a larger factor in your area.
The only saving factor at the moment is that the nights are relatively cooler. I remember that a couple of years ago the night temperatures didn’t drop below 30 degrees C and that made it impossible to sleep. These are exceptionally high temperatures for this area. I will have to irrigate many plants that don’t usually need it.
The pennisetum looks good, glowing in the border. I cant imagine hot weather at the moment, its cold and wet here, with strong winds. Take care in that heat.
I’m trying hard to remember what it felt like to be cool Linda! Pennisetum are great for catching the light; P. villosum has been very slow to grow this year, it would obviously like just a bit more moisture.
This sounds hideously hot, Christina. It’s intersting to see that your Pennisetum is coping so well, this particular cultivar of P. orientale flops all over the place in my garden and not in a pretty way either. Shame, because it has such lovely rose tinted inflorescences.
Mine has flopped when there’s been more water (not very often)
You’ve obviously a knack for choosing appropriate plants for the conditions, although these conditions seem dangerous. “Drops of ice water on the wrists, ” was my late mother-in-law’s advice.
My mother used to say to put my wrists under a cold running tap.
Oggi ancora peggio… 30 gradi alle 7 del mattino!!! non ricordo mai certe temperature da noi neanche nelle estati più calde! speriamo che non cuocia anche a noi! 😦
Poveri noi!!
Hope you are surviving these high temperatures, I see your weather is scheduled to get even hotter at the weekend. I was recently in south east France and the temperature reached 39 degrees in the afternoon which made it difficult to do anything.
Today it was 30 degrees at 7 am and this afternoon about 39 or 40. You can be sure that I am unable to do anything at all!
We have been having a respite from the excessive heat recently but still insufficient rain. It is strange how the unprecedented heat changes one’s routine and makes planning difficult. Your garden is being subjected to an ordeal of heat this year. Amelia
It is so hot now that I plan to do as little as possible. I hate the heat and try to keep as cool as possible. Luckily the house has very thick walls and keeps relatively cool but I don’t know for how much longer.
some of my neighbors have been seen soaking themselves in the 1850s washhouse – one way to stay cool. Like you I am closed indoors venturing out on foot (hotter in the car) to purchase a bit of food.
I like ‘Karley’. Your weather sounds brutal but your garden does not look like it is suffering.
The evergreens you can are ok but the rest of the garden is in a very sad state even with water which in other years I haven’t given.
Oh your grasses do look lovely Christina, whether it is a trick of the camera or not – and I am glad you are able to keep cooler inside even if it s painful to go out in the garden
Each day is hotter than the last. It’s 11 at night and I’m at a Notte Bianca in Bolsena (music and food available all night) and it is still more than 30 degrees.
I find it hard to contemplate what it must be like living with such heat – are native Italians any better at coping than more northern European expats?
It is so exceptionally hot this year that everyone seems to be suffering. Italians included
😐
I love your photos, your garden continues to look amazing, I can almost feel the heat, reminds me of when I lived in the middle east, at least there we had air conditioning, so could escape the heat.
It is certainly as hot as the Middle East this year.
41-43c heat seems too much, and your images portray that well. Pennisetum – unfazed by any heat, it seems. Actually, your scenes look like what I picture a Mediterranean-type climate becoming in summer from interior California. Hoping for cooler relief for you soon!
Pennisetum villosum is also growing but has been much slower in this hot year
I have to say the garden looks remarkably lush for this time of year and for the temperatures. Much nicer than some of the other Augusts. Still when you can’t get out there to enjoy it…
What a difference some extra water makes for the crape myrtle, it’s so nice to see something that embraces the heat!
My aunt had an old house this heavy tile and stone floors. What a difference it made on a hot day coming inside and feeling the cool floor under your feet. Sounds like your stone walls do the same.
If I show you other parts of the garden you’ll see how bad things really are!
I have a Crape Myrtle that has been in the ground for 13 years and is just now looking like it will bloom for the first time. I hope the flowers will not be bubble gum pink but the tree earns its keep with blazing Fall color.
Mine usually lose their leaves before turning a good colour.