Hello Dear Steemians!
We have a very hot and humid weather today with temps between 32°C - 34 °C .. the probability of having rain is around 70%. Even if you just sit around and don´t do anything in the garden, the sweating is there. We´d been to the cemetery today to visit hubby´s Mom and grandma and we cleaned the grave cutting lavenders growing from another grave. The lavenders are growing wildly and attracting many bees and butterflies as well as other insects. I brought home the cut lavenders and placed them in the garden to shoo away all mosquitoes that are many this season. For sure, this has something to do with the humidity. Well, the slugs come out in the night after the rain, but they are not that many compared to last year´s number.
I love the smell of lavender and these are the ones I have gathered today that I put in a pail. I really think they can help to distract the mosquitoes.. I have a beehive on top of the sunshade and many of the bees have visited these lavender already.
I like to have many flowering plants and get them ready in Spring as they are available in the garden center. For me, it is better to plant them early so I can enjoy them in summer. The tulips from Spring are now long gone and I have to look for another batch of onions that I will be planting this late Fall. This time, I will carefully choose the variety and colors.
The spanish wall where I have the geraniums is the area I like most in the garden. The Boston Ivy or the wild vine we call in Austria veitschi is already cascading down from the pergola and it really looks lovely as you can see in the first image above. I have the geraniums in different colors. Last year on the same wall, I had the purple petunias cascading down this wall and mind you, they were always thirsty that I have to water them almost 3 times a day.
The pine hedge has been trimmed last week in preparation for the end of summer. Gosh!!! We´ve had 4 huge plastic bags for the cut branches. When we moved here, the previous owners had 40 rose bushes planted as hedge but we remove them because we´ve had our AKO, the rottie pup we had by then. We planted the pine hedge for privacy purposes.
Now, the pine trees are tall about 3 meters high. The apple tree couldn´t have as much apples as it was in the beginning because we cut the branches every year and its cycle to bear apples is every 2 years, I think. We also have the trumpet vine that is climbing til the rooftop and to my container garden in the top terrace. Sometimes, this trumpet vine is annoying because they just grow anywhere they like.. It is a hindrance to the sunshade at times and we have to cut the strayed branches all the time.
Although this is a small garden, we have plenty of works to do to maintain it and the only time it is maintenance free is during wintertime, lol! But this little refuge however plenty of work is involved is very relaxing... Lily, our tiny chubby chihuahua princess is liking it here because the flooring is tiled and very cool for her tummy on hot days as the garden is protected by tall trees all over. We are happy too that this small backyard serves as our summer paradise!
