Mother Nature has been doing a first-rate job of watering this spring, so all that talk about the value of planting drought-tolerant natives in Maryland gardens seems almost out of place.
Unless, of course, you have a memory that can reach back to August of last year - August of any year, as a matter of fact - and then you know what a battle it is to keep the garden going in late summer.
With that in mind - preventive planting, I mean - I turned my attention to succulents, and asked Carrie Engel at Valley View Farms to help me create a container garden that can withstand the blowtorch heat of my deck.
"You are seeing them more in garden magazines," Engel said of succulents. "But they still haven't taken off in the nursery."
Succulents are distinguished by their thick, fleshy organs - leaves, stems or roots. That's where the plant stores water. Succulents do not live on the humidity in the air, but they don't take much water, either.
The tremendous adaptability of these plants also means tremendous variety: spikes, rosettes, paddle-shaped leaves, trailing columns, spiky cactus.
"They are so easy to do, and they provide fall and winter interest in the garden. They are deer-resistant, can sustain a drought and have a shallow enough root system that they are easy to divide and move," said Engel.
I remember succulents from my mother's rock garden. They are good on slopes, an excellent ground cover and don't take much attention.
But the world of succulents has opened up far beyond hens-and-chicks in a rock garden. Gardeners are planting them in old boots or shoes, in cracked birdbath basins. And the number of varieties has exploded as well.
You can plant a single enormous agave in a large pot, or 6 to 8 tiny succulents in a tabletop garden.
"It is as diverse as any kind of gardening," said Engel.
Here's some advice for planting a succulent container garden.
* You can plant in any masonry that has drainage or will allow you to drill holes for drainage with a masonry bit, but succulents like clay pots that don't hold water. They are susceptible to root rot.
* You can purchase bags of soil advertised for cactus gardens, or you can make your own by combining equal parts potting soil, sand and a product called Soil Perfector, a claylike gravel that will give the potting mixture the quick drainage it needs.
* You can also plant succulents in the sunny border of a perennial garden or as ground cover in a bald spot in the garden.
