This, That and The Other

The last few days have been relatively busy for me so I haven't done much online. Here's a few highlights of my days:

I shook things up a little bit by going to the 9:30 p.m. showing of "The Ugly Truth" with some gal friends. It was a blast! The movie is FULL of foul language (thus the rating) and I could have done without most of it. However, I enjoyed the plot and the skill of the actors/acresses.

I painted the front door deep purple. Yep. I still need to put on another coat, and paint the Adirondack chairs to match, but I think it's going to look perfect. I don't know if the purple was an act of defiance against my husband (he hates change) or in honor of my deceased mother-in-law, or just a touch of HGTV getting to me.

Today I went to my parent's house and trimmed the holly, yews, and spirea. I brought back many boxes of landscape waste to add to my compost pile (the big stuff went in the burn pile, though.)

The daylilies are starting to peter out, unfortunately. Luckily the rains have kept the other perennials and annuals looking healthy so the gardens, although they are weedy, look great. My hosta is really filling out nicely, and the fallopia japonica is stunning. My roses are showing off, too. Part of my success with them this year is due to the lack of Japanese beetles. I've been very fortunate.

I am going to take my hedge trimmers and give all of my mums and asters one more good trim. The blooms will be great toward the end of October, when I want them to really shine. This will be the third or fourth time that I've trimmed them back so they should be nice and bushy.

The vegetable garden is, well, just sitting there. This fall I'll have to till in a lot of the compost. I hope to actually do a raised bed next year. Either way, the surrounding trees are going to have to have a good haircut. There's too much shade in my yard!

I hope you're all enjoying your gardens during this mild July.

shel