It has been 110+ since Tuesday. Two more days, then a cool spell of 100. My roses look horrible. Gopher/vole/mole damage, dehydrated, parts of the plants dying. Grasshoppers are plentious. I do nothing but water, up by 6-6:30, in by 9:30-10:00. It is so bad, the desert plants are wilting.
The shade cloth doesn't really seem to be helping.

111 today, crazy heat.

We reached the 100 mark several times in May and many of my roses are already cooked. Time after time, the rains have passed us by. Extreme drought continues. I look around and evaluate the situation with decisions to be made. Do I want to spend 2 whole days a week hand watering every rose, tromping down mole runs so the water won't bypass the root systems? Wasting precious water on roses, many of which will marginally survive, if that? Guess this tough Texan is just wearing out.
And it is breaking my heart to see what this drought is doing to our land and those that struggle to survive here.

History is repeating itself. The heat is cranking up, just a month earlier than last year. 97 Tuesday, 101 yesterday, then 103 for the next three days. It is May, not July, right? My garden just might not make it through what we are fixing to experience here. And the drought continues.