End of July

Clear blue sunny skies all day today and a warm breeze.  Comfortable, although a little too much sun and too hot to work in the garden.  But a great day for lounging!

Yesterday was spitting drizzle and gloomy, and very, very humid.  We moved Pam into her new condo in Glastonbury.  Forest Lane is no more.  She has a patio at the walkout basement level, partially covered by a deck overhead, and partially in the open.  She wants me to landscape it after she gets a new paver patio installed.

(Hmmm, shade plants.  It is shaded by the building itself, and by tall overhead pines, although it faces west.  I'll have to start thinking!  There is an old tall limbed up rhododenron already there and a few puny hostas.  It's a tiny space, but I'm thinking a small Japanese maple, climbing hydrangea to go up and over the deck, astilbe, hakonechloa, heuchera.... that should be enough to fill either side of the small patio!)

Peggy Stanwood came to visit my yard earlier in the week, and genuinely seemed to love everything I have done here!  She was impressed.

In all the terrible heat and dry stretch in mid July we lost patches of lawn.  There is a big brown patch smack in the middle of the front yard slope, and several around the gardens.  Nothing to worry about, with enough water and cooler temps it will recover, but it looks so awful that I don't even want to go out and fuss in the gardens.  It all just looks bad.

Jim got the sprinkler guy here and he fixed one broken and some misdirected heads.  It was a terrible time for water to be missing these lawn spots. . .  when the heat hit some areas weren't getting watered at all.