What's Been Going On Here?

I finally got some things planted. The stack n grow is different this year. That's the beauty of little spots in your garden and containers....you can have a different look every year.  I leave a little room in amongst the perennials for an annual or two. I need to take some pictures again today...because things are changing overnight...Some things only bloom for a short time, and pictures make them last longer.
If you think that this is all I did....well, as my Mom would have said, "You got another think coming." I spent most of yesterday back in the wooded area. With me ignoring it...the under brush from the woods has simple popped up and taken over. It looked like such a mess. After all the hard work that I put into this place in the past few years...I just hated to see it all just get ruined. I have some religious statues there and it was getting so that you could hardly see them. I decided to use the weed whacker a couple of times during the growing season. I knew if I did it now....when it gets really hot...the weeds will stop growing. I armed myself with the weed whacker, water bottle, telephone, bandanna, a few fig newtons, and various other tools. I said that I was going to do just a little at a time. Famous last words. Once I got started, it really wasn't so bad, with frequent stops for resting. I decided to just get the weeds around the statues and all the flowering shrubs etc. The rest can just be let go. I have 3 bluebird houses on stakes with a cage around them. That's where I've had honeysuckle growing for years. It's so scraggly looking, so I brought an old chair and sat with the hand clippers and cut it all down to the main stems. They are like small tree branches. I plan to paint the birdhouses....the same color, my favorite shade of light aqua blue in the garden. I stepped back to look at what I had done. It isn't perfect, but it will have to do since I am on my own back there. The birds were calling as I worked...I know that they like it wild and woolly....and will be disappointed to find some of their favorite spots tidied up.
The chickadee flew back and forth, trying to scold me....she wanted back in her birdhouse and I wasn't budging. The wrens were making a racket too. Orioles high above...I wonder where their nest is hanging? Earlier, as I was walking through with the whacker.....little critters were scampering out of my way. I felt like the hunter in Bambi.....with all the little animals cowering in their hidey holes.
Joe was busy out front, supervising the installation of our new service door on the garage.   :) One of my little critter friends had chewed a hole in the bottom of the door....and now we had to replace it. :) Out at the entrance of the driveway there were things going on too. We have a gully across the front of the yard that goes under the drive. We have installed some paving stones and then we planted some evergreens there. No matter how we tried, grass kept growing up in that area. So, we had it all torn apart and have mulch and two big containers of geraniums instead. Now, when grass grows, we can use round up to kill it. I don't like to use round up, but sometimes we just have to. Neither of us can get down on our knees to weed comfortably.
The front porch got a lot of use yesterday. In between jobs we rested there and naps were taken in the middle of the afternoon. Later that evening, when the aches and pains started, I was glad that we got it all finished. Everything looks as good as it will and we are both happy with the results.
This morning, I ordered two bridal wreath type shrubs and three giant chartreuse hostas for the woods border. If I get shrubs all across the front....it will hide what's behind....and the little woodland pals will have their homes back.
I'll take more pictures today and tomorrow to show what we did at the driveway. When the geraniums fill in....I think it will be pretty.
Today, I just did inside things and took a little rest this afternoon. I love summer afternoons, when we can read, watch TV, sit on the porch, visit with neighbor kids, and maybe have an ice cream cone :)
Balisha