The Garden of Weedin’

Another day of excessive heat is over; I thought last night the weatherman promised us temperatures in the upper 70’s, not 87 degrees again. 

This morning I had to hurry up and get ready to head to the lawyer’s office to have him look over the power company’s easement request.  Our meeting went well and he didn’t see anything in the document that raised any red flags with him, so I guess we’ll be signing it.  My only two regrets are the time I lost this morning sitting around in the office and the money I will be paying out to hear there’s nothing to be worried about.  Ah, well, better safe than sorry.

I had Mom with me and from the lawyer’s office, we headed to the library where I picked up three books I had ordered written by Ruth Stout.  Yes, I am obsessed with this hay mulching notion; mostly because we have about ten tons of hay out back just sitting there and this seems like a win-win situation; use up the unsightly piles of hay and improve the garden all in one fell swoop.

Ms. Stout’s book titles sound so promising:  The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book , published in 1971 and Gardening Without Work---for the Aging, the Busy and the Indolent, copyrighted in 1961.  (Since I am all three:  aging, busy and above all, indolent, this sounds like the book was written for me!) 
Mom and I also headed up to Dad’s grave this morning to see what we need to do.  I think we have a good idea of what to plant and will probably go back to the cemetery tomorrow. 

When I arrived home, the first thing I did was drive Mom out to the Back Eight to watch the hay being chopped.  This new-fangled high-tech farming never fails to amaze either of us.  Seeing 40 acres of hay cut down in one day and the very next day being chopped for the silo (starting at 9AM!) is akin to magic.  The hay was beautiful this spring and they worked for over nine hours getting it all in.

Mom did come down here around 2PM and we weeded right up until 5:30 PM when a thunderstorm came up.  We didn’t get much rain out of it, barely enough to settle the dust, but it did put a stop to our work in the gardens for the evening.  The heat was nearly unbearable for a time and then the cold front swept in from the north.  I was so glad to feel that cooler breeze, though the humidity hadn’t dropped entirely yet.
We worked on the front garden beds:

The next step in this bed will be bringing up the hay from the back yard pile for mulch.  I sure hope this works; Carl is not sold on the idea at all.  I imagine I’m being a bit naive too, to think this could work, but we’ll see.

After supper I ran out and took a few pictures when the light changed just before sunset.  The water droplets on the plants makes everything look so refreshed.  Carl and Joel took some wonderful pictures tonight, too. 
With all of this hot weather, the garden is advancing a bit too fast for my taste; I’d like to see the cooler weather linger so we could savor the blooms longer.  (But, it’s not up to me.)  After dark I planted up some of the pots in the driveway until the mosquitoes drove me back inside.
Joel captured the following photos:

Can you find the yellow koi in this picture?







In the above picture, the raindrops contain pollen from the Pinus sylvestris (Scotch pine) tree that is planted above the hosta ‘Liberty’.



Pictured above is our horse chestnut tree.  Dave took some close-up pictures of the lovely blooms:







And with this, I bid you a good night.
Karen