End of July.

7-30-07 VERMONT: I finished the work on the new BBP, except for some planting, and I’m waiting for the sale to start at Brown’s Nursery on August 1. I finished pulling out all the turf, regrading, doing rock border, mulching, moving the fence posts and moving hostas to the new site. The hostas all came from places in the garden where they were being overgrown by taller or more vigorous stuff. As you can imagine, they don’t look great now, but wait until next year. I did plant some creeping thyme along the border and in the walkway gaps and some common thyme, Thymus vulgaris, near the cotoneaster.

We got 0.35 inches of rain a couple days ago.

New blooms: red yarrow, black hollyhock, soapwort.


Water Lily.

Sultry Summer.

7-26-07 VERMONT: Yesterday I took down the littlest elm, which had clearly died, presumably from the attack of the killer moles who ate the roots. The adjacent elm still looks tired but will, hopefully, survive. I also pruned the honeysuckle, again, mowed grass by the north chimney, watered the veggies, watered the new plantings and I can’t remember what else.

The weather has been great. Warm with a nice breeze, the definition of sultry, but we’ll need rain in a few days.

We had a dinner party last night. Judy was on her game, every course was perfect, even the salmon that I managed not to burn. We had four couples: Hannons, Adlers, Hileys and Gundys, all classmates from long, long ago. The weather and bugs were so accommodating we stayed outside all evening. We got ten people around the picnic table with a couple extra chairs. There were a lot of empty wine bottles.

New Blooms: more phlox, lingularia, Joe Pye weed, milkweed, shasta daisy, monkshood, more sedum.


Asiatic Lily.

Daisy.

Camp Visiting Weekend.

7-23-07 VERMONT: Things have been busy. We had a home invasion, I mean visit, from Alison’s and Valerie’s families for camp weekend. Lily and Lucy finished their sessions and were collected by their parents, but Maggie is doing the whole summer. We saw the big show at Hive. A redo of The Ugly Duckling. Not too bad. Simultaneous with all that was the opening day of Deathly Hallows which we were all reading.

Today I got back to work on BBP and finished the grass removal, regrading, rock border and re-placement of the stone fence posts. It is difficult to get the grass out of the border with least damage to the flowers. We had 1.9 inches of rain last week which gets us up to date and had the pond full for a day of so.

New Blooms: potentilla, more day lily, asiatic lily, helenium, black-eyed susan, more hostas and hollyhocks.


Delphiniums with good color.

Two Tone Day Lily, maybe this is my favorite.

New Bed.

7-17-07 VERMONT: I’ve decided the grass out front by the Bed Below Pines [BBP] is a scruffy mess. The bed inhabitants keep trying to escape and invade the grass area. I‘ve thrown in with the bed friends and started pulling out all the grass yesterday. I rescued about six hostas from oblivion under the honeysuckle trees and replanted them in the newly de-grassed area, added a few pavers to the walkway and moved the rock border of BBP forward to the edge of the walkway.

Today I pulled ten burning bush volunteers out from under that same stand of honeysuckle and moved them to the south end of the yard at the wall bordering the woods. Then I pruned the Mohican viburnum that the robins had appropriated for their nest now that the chicks have all left. They grow up so fast nowadays. Then I rescued a hosta from underneath that viburnum and some others, five in total, and extended the new BBP.

New blooms: pale yellow day lily—these might be my favorite day lilies.

Here it is, finally. It took three days to get this one picture up.

Birthday Girl.

7-15-07 VERMONT: Happy Birthday, Judy. We did dinner at the Canoe Club last night to celebrate the occasion.

This morning we got another 0.7 inches of rain which saved me the trouble of watering today. More chores.

New blooms: nepeta, more hosta.

Day Lilies.

Canoe Day.

7-13-07 VERMONT: We had a faux storm today, thunder and lightening, gusty winds, flickering lights, but no rain. I have been doing lots of small chores and errands, too much trouble to list them all. Yesterday Judy and I took the canoe out on the Ompompanousic and Connecticut Rivers. We saw a few ducks and red-wing blackbirds. We were more pleased to see them than they were to see us. I tried using a kayak paddle instead of canoe paddle. It is much more efficient, but water gets in the canoe. Judy prefers the regular paddle.

New blooms: hydrangea, have I mentioned astilbe? They have been out for a while, bee balm, bind weed, filipendula.


She doesn't look canoe-ish.

Quick Update.

7-12-07 VERMONT: Rain: before I left for NJ, there was 0.35 inches in the gauge. When I got back yesterday, there was 0.55 inches and this am 0.6 inches. The pond is almost full, the grass is greening up again and we’re all caught up.

New blooms: delphinium, hosta.