It has been hot, humid and dry, followed by more hot , humid and dry. Rather a conundrum—dry and humid at the same time. You get used to it and don’t really think about the lack of rain until one day you see the lawn is yellowing and crispy, and the big clumps of perennials are limp. Uh-oh.
This weekend hit us with that revelation. So even though we were emptying out the library in order to paint and re-carpet, we were also moving hoses around the yard for two days straight. The world was dry. When I had the fan sprayer on the hose, the water would hit the soil and dust would fluff up into the air. Not a good sign. The water would either pool on top of the dirt or would just run off. I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees with one hand digging deep into the dirt and then flooding the hole. Yes, it would have been easier to use my four pronged, curved claw hand tool, but it was in the garage, and I was at the far corner of the yard.
As I said, our weekend was two solid days of watering with no relief in sight. Today? Out of nowhere we are having rain. Huge storms moving across the state from Chicago have already reached the east side of Michigan and we have rain. It isn’t a nice long soaker, but a fast moving dump with lots of wind. I heard on the news that 600,000 people in Chicago are without power, people across Michigan are also without power and we are under a tornado watch as well. Typical July weather, but what? I had to run water for two days in order to initiate this storm? At least our yard should be soggy enough to soak up every last drop of rain. That would be a good thing.
Currently it is 94 degrees, raining like crazy, so hot and wet that your glasses fog up when you step out the door. The big winds have gone south of us, but hopefully this rain will take the temps down.
The midnight lopper has been at it again. Our neighbors to the south have moved out. They had rented that house for at least 10 years. They did a nice job with the yard, planted trees, added a hedge punctuated with rose of sharons down one fence line, put in lilies, chrysanthemums and hostas. However, over in one corner of the yard under our big oak, there were many saplings: mostly cottonwoods and mulberries that had sprung up and were easily ten to twelve feet tall. Last night Jack went over with the loppers and chopped them down. As he chopped, I dragged them over the fence into our yard, where we quickly cut them into four-foot lengths to bundle for yard waste.
I know, not our house—not our problem, but there was no room for that many trees in such a small corner, nor was there any room in the canopy for anything to grow upwards. Renters don’t pay attention to such things, nor does the absentee owner. One small victory for lawn order.
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