After a week at the beach with the family, Garden Variety is back blogging!

As you can probably guess, I returned to gardens that were in serious distress from the heat. Only the weeds -- and the tomatoes -- seemed not to have minded the weather.

The hose was on for about 24 hours straight as I moved it from bed to bed, trying to revive the little darlings. A modest little irrigation system with a timer that I ordered from Gardener's Supply arrived, and I installed it -- but it would have been better for it to arrived two weeks ago.

I spent Sunday in the garden trying to clean up a bit, dead-head and weed. But I only lasted about two hours before my face was red and I was feeling weak in the knees.

Frankly, there isn't too much about July and August in the garden to recommend itself. Everything seems chewed up, or dried up.