Garden Insanity and how are you handling it ?

Happy Friday the 13th ! hehehehehe
My friend Marguerite over at Canoe Corner in PEI (for you Americans that is one of our Atlantic provinces)
Has a great type of post called "Triumphs and Tragedies"
She is so NOT afraid to show us her problem plants or how she feels about them.
She is a very open honest gardener : )
I on the other hand have a wee bit of a problem showing my garden "with my plants down" and boy,with the weather we have been having? heat, humidity and NO rain in so long?
Some of my plants are DOWN ;-(

I have hose burns from dragging the hose around watering, we don't have to go "there" right ?
I do have to say a huge thank you to hubby for not only doing some of the watering for me.
But also one morning, when I was out in the back garden almost on the said edge of "garden insanity" due to both watering attachments (water wand and water nozzle head) had crapped out ( don't ask,it wasn't a pretty picture or moment in my life) in any case, even before he had a proper cup of coffee and time to wake up. Off he went to our local Canadian Tire store, without a word, and brought me two new attachments.
I felt like weeping in relief, but behaved like a brave gardener and carried on with my missions!
So .. some of these pictures are not pretty .. they may seem to be not so bad, but you literally would have to be in my shoes walking on a lawn that feels like crumbled cement underneath and seeing brown areas that were grass, looking like they went through a deep fat fryer .. trust me.
How worms survive earth that is rock hard ???  I have no idea !!
Digging in areas I thought were soaked by the hose and finding out they were dry as dust underneath STILL!

Now for the not so great and not so bad pictures !

My beautiful Stag Horn Sumac was twice this VOLUME !
BUT  this was the first time I let it go to see what would happen.
DUH ?  Cone production went in the toilet, except for some big scary ones that I am sure are giving me the "finger" pose.m I see it daily so take my word for it .. it is giving me the FINGER !
So this severe cut back had to be done and now we will see if more cones will be produced ?

Well what can I say about this demon vine Bittersweet ?
See all of its arms wiggling away to capture what ever poor thing comes close enough ?
It has attached itself to my Sutherland Gold elderberry shrub next to it, plus our BIG maple tree.
 "OFF with it's grabby arms!!" .. for which the battery operated hedge trimmer is very good at!!

Now for one of my more embarrassing moments in my garden history .. but you get the short version.
I had an amazing Indian Pinks plant last year from Chris of Canning Perennials.
It produced flowers like mad .. and I was so looking forward to it coming up this past Spring.
My Chinese cotoneaster shrub throws babies that look very much like and Indian Pink trying to come up  in the Spring .. and at a very late time, leading me to think it was "dead".
I was mired in the sad confusion of  thinking my IP was gone and a cotoneaster seedling took over its spot.
Well, you can see the end result.
Another lesson yet learned by what was considered a seasoned gardener? We KEEP learning!
E-mail to Chris at Canning was done up as an apology for a whining session I went to her with early this year.
Still red faced about that one !

Better pictures of garden plants to keep me going ?

I hate to say this in case I hex it .. but my Casa Blanca lily is looking great so far .. fingers crossed !!

My mixed planting over the bulb circle is not too bad .. so far ..
Rozanne geranium is slowly coming about. Joe Zary clematis (very near the same colour as the geranium flowers), just planted this year will be slow but worth it!
Provence lavender is the outer ring, which eventually will look, and smell fantastic I hope !
Lamium of mixed kinds is looking good and will eventually cover most of the circle.
Dusty Miller, bi-coloured petunias in black and pale yellow.
Plus I will always love the annual euphorbia for the white, light airy feel it gives a planting !

Finally a snap shot of what is to come.
Karly Rose, pennisetum fountain grass .. later summer, hand in hand, bringing Autumn as it fills out. (stop screaming people !) almost just 100 days before Halloween !
PS .. technical question .. Blogger is highlighting some sentences in white, all on it's own .. I am not doing this .. how do I stop this ??