Oh, lovely summer.
There are so many things to be done when the weather changes. The mister and I seem to be picking the filthiest jobs first. Ones where we are covered in manure and chemicals. So far, I've gone through three pairs of contact lenses from all the spray paint I've been dispensing (protective eyewear - oh, right!) First on the list was rescuing the poor decrepit birthbath hiding deep in the garden. It was in so-so shape, needed some major cement patching, water sealing and a paint job. The paint is called Fossil. My new favorite spray paint color. Time until completion: 5 days.
Next on the list was to get my Tulip chairs and table ready to be sold. Lots of sanding and spraying and wiping and respraying and coating with gloss. They've come out with a paint called Antique White - which luckily happens to be a perfect match to the fiberglass tops. I mostly worked on the bases and backs of the fiberglass. The front/tops of the chairs, I simply wiped down and left them as records to the their 50 year old age. Pretty good shape. Time until completion: 3 days
The garden is an ongoing fight to keep the plants alive and weed free. We seem to be one up on the weeds, but our swiss chard has gone to the garden in the sky. We need to google "chard death" and see what comes up. We also failed with the carrots. What excitement built up to see tall 18" green leaves blossoming from the ground. What dissapointment to see a sad, sad mutant carrot come out. Luckily the bunny will eat anything.
The pole beans are going crazy and happily climbing the trellis the mister set up.
Meanwhile, the tropical garden is going in as well as the shade garden in the back under the camellia, rhody, and two other bushes I have no idea what they are. For the tropicals, we are planting two hibiscus, a ginger, and a ti plant. The ginger rhizomes we got from Cistus Nursery. They have a section called "Zonal Denial" which has all sorts of plants which might not, but we'll force anyway, to live out a temperate winter. The canna came back after being kept in the garage all winter so there is hope!
While all this is going on, the dear sweet mister has been scraping decades of flaking paint off the cement front steps for two weekends now. He's using a "green" cleaner (actually orange smelling and looking) which while is better for us and the environment, may not be the fastest thing to use. It's coming along though - with much elbow grease and some swearing. Eventually he will patch the holes and repaint. Time until completion: 3 weeks and counting.
There are some beautiful payoffs - the annual flowers are just gorgeous and allow me to take some pretty shots.
