Guys, it’s back. The extreme humidity and climbing temps. Ugh. So Much Ugh.

But, yesterday stayed fairly pleasant. Upper 80s, but the wind was blowing nicely so it didn’t feel too bad.

I made some progress on my loop bump in the morning:

Mr. Ink was at work, so I also did a bunch of house chores. We are throwing a party for his mom on Friday so I’ll be forced to keep up on those chores throughout the week. Should be slightly easier with the nasty heat index, I’ll be wanting to stay indoors.

Not too much progress in the garden either, despite being out there for a long period of time. I had a little bit of a snag in my veggie garden edging plan. I picked up 3 more edgers, only to find out they are MUCH shorter than the edgers I already put in. Trouble is, no one actually sells ones as large as we have. Mr. Ink said “I guess matching 30 year old edgers is rather tough.” So, I am going to have to find a way to be ok with what we’ve got. Didn’t I say that it’s utilitarian rather than beauty for my veggie garden? I guess I’ve got to accept my own statement.

We did have our way with the burning bush though, it’s quite a bit smaller than it had been. I told Mr. Ink I couldn’t finish the edgers without a good trim, and once he got started, he really cut it back from underneath. It’s still tall, but it isn’t hitting the house, isn’t causing a ton of shade and hiding weeds, and he also took out the extra suckers that were showing up. At 3:30 in the afternoon I said “Well, looks like it’ll take ’till 4 to clean up this mess, and then I’ll have a 3 hour window for another project.” (We’d decided to give ourselves a deadline for once, rather than gardening ’till it is dark and then being grumpy and hungry.) It, naturally, took until 5 to clean that project up.

Nevertheless, I got started on the rudbeckia garden.

Here’s the overgrown mess that I started with. Can you see that huge lily on the right hand side? Step one, remove rudbeckia, and then move lilies.

Here’s my current progress. I am removing. The lilies are exposed. In the front are phlox I want to keep, so I think today’s job will be cutting out some sod on the right hand side, as it’ll be garden anyhow, and then moving the lilies and the phlox. Then, I plan to save some rudbeckia, just a small bit, and some of the other thing that is in there which I can’t remember what it is. And then I’ll do what Mr. Ink did with the rose of sharon garden. I’ll dig, turn the dirt, sift through for weeds, and ask for help when I get to a big root system. I can then put the rudbeckia in the BACK of the garden (FOR THE LOVE!) and we can edge it in with our pretty stones. PROGRESS. Progress is being made.

I did also pick up a load of stones yesterday morning since Mr. Ink would like to get the viburnum in the ground soon, but that requires some proper edging. I am eager to get rid of ALL of the wooden edgers at this point, so we can then take a load to the dump.

Mr. Ink got down to business too, he put in a tree. It’s a weird one! It’s a contorted beech tree. Kind of rare, but apparently pretty easy to grow, and not too pricey either. The leaves are fascinating, they look like silk leaves on silk flowers.

And look at that square cut in the sod! That’s for me. For mowing. I am on strike from mowing circles.

AND….Mr. Ink just headed out the door hollering “I AM READY TO WORK!” so I think I better get my butt out there too. I think finishing one project would be good, so I think I am starting with the veggie garden edgers. Off we go!