Now is the perfect time to walk through your garden and make notes of what&8217;s still pretty and healthy looking. Chances are, most of the plants you see have endured the drought conditions well. These are the plants that you should consider planting again next year.

The dry weather has taken its toll on several shrubs in my yard. All of my hydrangeas are withered and battered looking. Even the native varieties appear to be sickly. They&8217;ll bounce back next year though, as well as my crape myrtles. The leaves are droopy and the blossoms weren&8217;t as showy this year.

The flowers that have done well are the Linarius zinnias, Echinacea, Knockout roses and my beautiful Encore azaleas.

The zinnias are perky and bright. They haven&8217;t shown any sign of stress.

The Echinacea is still blooming. I have to compete with the American Goldfinches for the seeds for next year. These showy little birds have almost pecked the seed pods clean!

The Knockout roses have shown no sign of heat stress. After the Japanese beetles left, they started performing like I&8217;ve never seen before. I expect they&8217;ll continue to bloom until we have a killing frost, sometime in December.

My favorite of all of the flowers in my yard are the Encore azaleas. They bloomed in the early spring, and then quickly started their summer show of color. The Encores were a little stressed because they bloomed a little bit all summer long. Now they are budded and ready for their fall blooming cycle. It&8217;s nice to be able to enjoy azaleas all the time instead of only in the spring.

Check and see what is performing well and keep a garden journal of what the weather is like and then you&8217;ll know what to plant next year!

Happy gardening.

For more on these and other gardening tips listen to Home Grown Tomatoes every Saturday morning from 6 till 8 on 101.1 FM, The Source and log on to http://HGTradio.net