One of the best things about August is it makes me pine for winter. Snow! Ice! Sweaters! Meanwhile, we sweat it out until September brings a bit of respite to the heat and humidity.
One onerous chore my SO and I have been having to do, despite the weather, is deal with the privet at the back of my lot. Ordinarily, I try to trim my side of the neighbor's hedge every two years or so, to keep it from draping over the telephone and cable wires during ice storms and to leave me some room for mowing behind the fence. I think it has been at least three years, though, and I let my SO have his way with the thing. He pruned it much more severely than I ever have, resulting in a HUGE pile to get rid of. A bit daunted by the mass, I called a tree service to see what they would charge to make that problem disappear. I was willing to pay as much as $50, but they wanted $250. Gah! Fortunately, the Best Neighbor Ever (not the hedge owner) lets me borrow his pickup truck. SO and I hauled two loads to the bio-solids site Friday, and plan to take one more Monday; total cost (besides filling up the gas tank) will be $3. Our time, effort, and sweat are worth something.
More sweat is going into eliminating the jungle-like appearance of my backyard. The front of the house sports a fair amount of castle block (which I installed all my myself in my younger days, swearing I would never do THAT again). There is some left over from that project, so I circled one of the Redbud trees with it. The idea is, next spring, to move the nearby 'Betty Corning' Clematis to the base of the tree, to let it climb. (The Clematis in question is growing across the lawn next to this tree, as its trellis broke.)
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| Photo by me |
There are two more Redbud trees and two more Clematis vines, another 'Betty Corning' and one whose name I can't locate right now. I have enough castle block to do one more circle. Then I will have to buy more, despite the promise I made to myself.
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| Photo by Nora |
An experiment in the vegetable garden this year is going vertical. This trellis is in a bed of squash and pumpkin, some of which is supposed to be bushlike, some of which is climbing the trellis. I got carried away and overcrowded the plants, so I doubt the yields will be anything special, and I have to gently encourage the vining ones to climb, but so far, I think this idea works well for those with limited garden space.
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| Photo by me |
Plans for this structure may be found in the final issue of
Organic Gardening magazine; OG is now
Organic Life and I'm not finding a useful link for you. Sorry.
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| Photo by Nora |
It is too bad this 'Limelight' Hydrangea is tucked into a corner where no one ever sees it, as it blooms spectacularly every year, despite my amateurish pruning. It is probably just as well it is hidden, as it is always surrounded by weeds.
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| Photo by me |
The plan for next year is to replace the weeds with Bishop's Weed, which I will be content to let take over that area as not much of anything else thrives there.
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| Photo by Nora |
My g'daughter, who is not quite five, now has the coordination to operate a digital camera, so I let her use an old one of mine. The photos in this post that she took are unedited.
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| Photo by Nora |
Her short stature give her a different perspective on the world than a grownup's.
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| Photo by me |
Maybe I'll let her be my blog photographer.
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| Photo by me |
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