My garden is a hot mess.

I’m pleased to say that the reason I’ve been neglecting it is because I’ve been working on a book with my horticultural hero, Paul Bonine of Xera Plants. The book is tentatively called The Homeowner’s Guide to Gardening in the Pacific Northwest, and it will be released next year by Timber Press.

However, the garden. Summer is when the rains come to a screeching halt in Portland. This year we got less than two and a half inches of rain for all of June, July, and August. Temperature-wise, it was mild, though we did have a couple of hot spells, with a few 100-degree days.

And all I did for the garden was to water it enough to keep (most) things alive. It turned out to be a great experiment. After all, I’m getting ready to plant the front garden and I want tough, ultra-drought-tolerant stuff out there that I don’t have to baby. Here’s what I learned. I give you the winners and losers of Summer Drought 2016: