This year things are all backwards, which I guess goes with a weather pattern that gave me spring in January! But only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the height of heat, but mad Midwestern women actually try to start their weeding campaign at this season. Count me in.
I managed to work in the driveway garden ( which was the easiest choice, it being the most recently made garden and well-mulched). I lasted through the afternoon. Yes, I weeded at high noon. crazy woman. I hedged down the ninebarks, because -shoot- you have make hay while the sun shines. What an unfortunate choice of a maxim. I had to strike while the iron was hot….. you know… work while I was actually out there with my gloves and tools and all that.
The ants love that area. You have to step lively when weeding in their spot, but I was prepared with all white clothing. The better to see those little avenging hordes as they attack. I cleverly move away…. only to return when they least suspect and are trying to salvage their colony from my last damaging inroad of weed-loosening shovel-trenching. Then I sack their little tunnels again. Pulling out weeds with fervor and dispatch.
The ground was surprisingly moist and still cloddy since I hadn’t cultivated there since last fall. Now I just have to remove the melee of wild grape vines that are taking over certain parts of the yard. Although working in the heat eventually exhausts me. Then I complain to my husband, ” I don’t know why I have no energy”.because you are out working in noonday sun and eighty-plus degree heat with 80-plus percent humidity you dolt….
so…. today I notice that my lilies are pretty much over. I don’t have the large stand of Orientals, which would be coming into bloom now. And the Asiatics that I wrote of only yesterday are over. The roses are pretty much over, since I have primarily rugosa’s. I have lots of feverfew blooming. And those hydrangea floozies.
I notice some of my Johnny jump ups came back this year. I am so glad. I had lost most of my pansy stands to mulch and the lack of cultivation. Their seeds require light to germinate and you have to have a cultivated spot for them to reappear without planting anew. But all that house renovation with workers digging trenches through my gardens for new plumbing lines and telephones lines and all the other garden carnage provided this little boon. You know the saying that Laura Ingalls Wilder liked to quote:There is no great loss without some small gain. And so it is, usually. The little pansy faces peering up among the weeds.
The grass has grown prolifically in this weather, but soon as the rains diminish that will slow down and in August it should be the usual khaki color of dormant grasses. Although I have lots of clovers to keep things more green.
Laugh if you must…. I take clover over all those lawn chemicals any day. Any day! see, I defy even you… the opinion of the masses
Well, this is the end of this post…it was a perfect day outdoors for me. Not too hot today ( supposed to rain tomorrow) I did almost nothing of note except write in this blog, and the sky was the loveliest opaque pale blue and white. Not the intense summer blues with stark cotton whites of June, but the hazy colors of stuccoed clouds on old blue walls of the firmament. The breeze blew softly all day, with the dog panting in his favorite shady place. The black winged dragon fly was even lazy and stayed on a step so I could observe him more closely. Just one of those slow days I don’t have often enough.
Technorati Tags: general gardening, July
