the green, green grass of home....

ok, so the summer is almost at an end...which means that the c-dub obsession with keeping the grass green and the perennial beds flowering until labor day is winding down.....we host an annual running and biking event the last saturday of summer.....and despite our efforts we have shamefully allowed out guests to stand on a moonscape of dead grass and gaze upon the sun-dried remaining of planting beds.....i thought we had this issue licked this year, what with twice a day watering and the use of actual fertilizer...but this morning as i held the hose in one hand and coffee in the other, i was shocked to see patches of dying grass......and rose bushes that dropped their browning leaves overnight......how is this possible? i freely admit that the yard still looks better than most years, but i expected a bigger bang for my better efforts....