Who Moved Ohio To The Mojave?

I'm telling you what, this is the hottest June I remember since ... I can't remember when. In fact, for years I've complained that June isn't 'summer' anymore because it's routinely cold - to me. I'm pretty cold blooded, and am not really happy unless it's in at least the high 70s. Often June around here is only in the 60s.

Not this year. It's been in the 90s every day for almost a week. Makes gardening challenging. Of course, mornings are good times for me, since I don't have to be at work till 10:00 a.m., and I get up around 7:00, I have a lot of nice cool morning time to play. Although this week even the mornings have been muggy and hot too.

But I did get a few things done today. I moved the fern. This is before (the fern's hiding back in the corner by the gnome) ...



... and this is after.


It looks a little wonky right now, in part because I didn't plant it exactly the same way it was growing. How it was growing was a natural form, but it got tweaked around a little in the move and looks kind of lopsided now. I trust it will straighten itself out over time.

That big bare spot behind it also looks strange to me, but I'm not sure I want to do anything with it. It is a mother bear to get back there to do anything (I hurt my hand and almost fell head first into the pond today trying to dig up the fern, and then dig up a spot to replant it, which is mostly why it didn't get positioned as nicely as it might have). I think I would do just as well to leave it alone, and hope that the fern eventually grows large enough to fill up and mask the space. As I trim the lilac, it too should 'shrub up' and fill its space a little better. If not, maybe I'll just find a big-ass rock to drop back there. Yeah. That'd do it.

I hadn't taken a before picture of this, but right next to the pond is my gas meter. It's an eyesore, and to make it worse the area underneath it, between the air conditioner and the pond bed, had become a catch-all for junk. It rarely got mowed, so it was mostly filled with weeds, a pile of unused and half-buried rocks and bricks, and lately an empty compost bag of yard waste, among other things. I cleaned that out today, raked it up a bit, and put down a bunch of grass seed. I'm hoping to get something to grow there yet this year.


But ... I have a new gardening adventure to try - building something! Here's the teaser ...


... 1x12s, spray paint, sanding sponges, and hinges. Hopefully tomorrow you'll get to see what it's destined to become. (Hopefully it will actually be what it's destined to become).

No knitting today - bummer. But I was taking advantage of the good weather, and my hands hurt way too much for that now.