I forgot.

As I'm tying up loose ends trying to get ready for the mega-weekend and leaving on vacation I realized I never shared the work I did on the garden this spring. This wooden fence is the replacement for the stucco wall that was blown down this past winter. What meager plantings there were in this bed were destroyed during the building of the fence (except for one little heliotrope that is coming back now. Before my DIL's mother's visit I weeded this bed, added soil (the new fence has a different footprint than the original and we ended up with at 12" trench along the rear of the bed where the old footings had been.) I had tried several "water features" in this corner and finally found this fountain (for cheap) at Costco. I installed the fountain, then planted flowers all around. Some of the flowers are perennials that, with luck, I will never see grow to maturity: two hydrangeas (one behind urn, one under outlet); a half dozen apricot foxgloves; a couple of blue delphinium (have never had much luck with them but my SIL grows them beautifully and her conditions are much more challenging than mine.) Pink wave petunias interspersed with a blue and white lobelia. Behind them is a pink gerbera daisy, some heliotrope (smells so delicious) and a snapdragon. On the other side of the urn are more lobelia (dark blue this time) and some more hardy plants like sage, blanket flower, a couple of kinds of daisies and a bright yellow thing that the nurserywoman assured me would spread througout everything. We'll see. The fountain has a very small catchbasin (I had a 3' diameter, 8" deep pond there before) which is just big enough for duckweed (I fell in love with duckweed when I was a teenager and try to keep a little bit of it growing all the time. Yes, I know it's a pest.)

I wasn't able to plant the rest of the flowers I bought because of the Demon Dog (who is being picked up by her owner tomorrow evening if the woman keeps her word this time.) It's too late to plant them before we leave Monday (I wouldn't ask my son to do the twice daily watering they would need to get established in the heat of the summer) so this afternoon I did some judicious pruning (leaves and roots) so that they will make it through the next couple of weeks until we get home.

This is the piece of sidewalk decking I replaced. An embarrassingly half-assed job but it's functional.


My husband cleaned up his old laptop for me to use. I signed up for Verizon's broadband service and got myself a cute little wireless mouse. I'll try to keep y'all updated (with pictures, she says hopefully) of my Shepherd's Bush trip and the Wasatch Utah Shop Hop (if I go). Not to mention the drop dead beauty of the Ogden Valley.