Summer Ideas

Today I will continue to "do battle" with weeds and grass in my perennial beds. Yesterday I dug everything I could manage by myself out of the garden next to the south side of the house. Ajuga. Grass. Plants with no identity. Now I have bare, brown dirt, a few worms and a lopsided grouping of false indigo, in bloom. I will be planting five single hollyhocks which are supposed to grow to 6 feet (and peek into the kitchen by the bay window) and one Nikko hydrangea which, at some point in it's lifespan, is supposed to be 6 feet wide and 6 feet high. While I wait, the space will be filled with the dahlias I have stored in the bulkhead every winter.

The bed across the grass path is finished and the deer have eaten all the rose blossoms off the new rose. I have peonies ready to bloom, cheddar pinks, astilbe, yarrow, one surviving Lady's Mantle (all the others got dug up and dumped), cranesbill Brookside in bloom, and species yellow foxglove coming on. That bed has it's chopped leaf mulch in place.

Still to do, the front garden bed. G painted the shed door with my selected (years ago) house shutter paint. Gorgeous green. I had forgotten what a pretty color I had chosen. It makes the house color look so much nicer and less pedestrian. So I should take the hint and get the shutters painted after all these years and back onto the house. I probably should take the second hint -- he painted some of the shed trim in linen white instead of the bright white I had the painters use. Looks creamy and not so "strident". I had the painters cover all the house trim detail in the body house color to make the trim disappear. Not my best idea. The house needs it's decorative trim detail like a dress needs a collar and buttons.

For an artist, painter and quilt maker to make these errors in color is just pitiful. I have disliked the look of the house since the moment the painters drove away four years ago. And it's because the shutters aren't up in their gorgeous green and because I blanked out the trim. I wanted a simpler look but that could be achieved with softer colors not by painting everything one uniform shortbread tan. And the front door needs new paint.

Good thing my temporary full time status at work is coming to an end. Instead of being "laid off" for the next few months, I have been offered 2 or 3 short days a week for the months of July and August which suits me just fine. No weekend work. I have things to paint, books to read, gardens to weed and water, puppy to walk and summer to enjoy.