Tales from the Garden

With a small reprieve in the heat I decided to go out early this morning to complete a few gardening chores. At 6:30 a.m. with a quick cup off coffee on the deck it was time to clean up and weed some of the overgrown garden beds at the Parker/O'Reilly home (otherwise known as Bine Weed gardens). O.K. maybe it's not that bad but there were grasses along the driveway that were taller than my car and had a nerve to be in bloom. The annuals are almost all dried out so off to the compost pile they went. After two and a half hours we'd cleaned down the back pathway and across the new picket fence,not bad. Maybe those morning glories will have a chance to bloom. Every new garden structure means new garden beds underneath. We'll need a tractor trailer of mulch delivered. All the container plants were limp and lifeless despite looking more like Longwood a few weeks ago. We managed to clean only what was in line of sight from the dining room windows before the temperatures started to soar. With a mountain of weeds collected I noticed that cars passing by were all looking our way. Was it the rich purple crape myrtle and butterfly bushes they admired, or could they see two garden nuts with dirty hands and knees and wondered what are they doing outdoors while air conditioners ran inside? By 11 am, I'd cleaned the deck and just in time for an unannounced visitor who asked why we didn't answer the phone this morning? About three, no distractions I announced that I was going to read "American Gods" in my favorite deck chair. Before five pages were complete I'd drifted off to sleep but not before Bubba announced that he was planning to buy a pool. Reluctantly, I said OK, if that makes him happy why not, at least there'll be fewer weeds.I hope!