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melissaaipapa

Entering the summer grind

10 months ago
last modified: 10 months ago

Yesterday I got up on the wrong side of the bed. Didn't feel good, and felt progressively worse as I went to town, picked up my worker, came back, and listlessly cut and pulled weeds and dead growth out of the rose beds, until finally I retired to the house, breakfast, and the fan. My helper was unfazed, working brilliantly, striding back and forth carrying on his head pots of sand from the heap by the road and bags of compost, refilling the holes he dug with the amended soil. The garden looks dry and drear, especially the front row, with a handful of subshrubs previously planted, roses behind, hedge of shrubs behind that. There's not enough plant life; the grass is dull--weeds looking lively, though--and the hedge doesn't offer enough in the way of coolness and protection. There are a few trees growing in it, and I plan to add more, but they'll take years to grow, of course, along with the shrubs that have yet to reach maturity. The soil is gray and harsh, even where amended: it will never become the cinnamon red-brown of the alluvial soils in the Po Plain, but it can be made more friendly to life. We need rain.

We've entered into that part of summer that requires endurance. It's hot; it's humid, but there's no rain in the forecast; and with every sunny day the house gets a little warmer. Experience tells me that it will be August before the days become perceptibly shorter, with cooling to follow, in time. I'm swatting tiger mosquitos, the kind that carry disease, even in the bedroom under the fan. No roses in bloom, except for a trickle of flowers from Rosa moschata: instead, I've been mooning over photos of Setigera hybrids on another thread. Fortunately groundwater supplies are good, thanks to abundant rains earlier this year, so I can take my one or two daily cooling showers without second thoughts, and the trees and vines planted around the house keep it comfortable for now. This isn't heatwave weather like we had back in June. But it's uncomfortable enough. And it is almost certain to last for several weeks to come.

Comments (7)

  • 9 months ago

    I feel for you, Melissa. I have been there.

  • 9 months ago

    Sheila, are you not there now?

    Actually, when I finally stuck my head out the door later this morning, it was fresher than I expected. I ended going out at the unusual hour of 10 a.m. and working pretty happily, well covered against the sun of course. I spent my time weeding the second Serbian bed, which looked a trifle more flourishing than I had anticipated, so it was a pretty good day.

    I do wonder how bart is doing. Bart?

  • 9 months ago

    AH Melissa . . . It sounds like we are living in the same summer . . . Well, we're not really hot, and most of our spring bloom was non-existent. But we know, this, too, shall pass.

  • 9 months ago

    Sheila, that sounds like a fine array of annoyances. I take it that most of the problems have been corrected (not the one of the rose on your first husband's grave).

    Jeri, yes, it will pass. Whenever I'm unhappy about the weather, though, I remember 2017, an awful year for me. It was summer-hot by mid-May, and I set a day that I identified as the middle of summer, and counted up to it, and then counted away. The weather first broke in September.

    Sorry to hear that your spring bloom was poor; will autumn make up for it?

  • 9 months ago

    At least now we're half-way through July. Sheila, it sounds as if you and your DH are like us.My joke is that, if we ever do a trip to a malaria-ridden zone,he wouldn't have to get vaccinated against it -all the bugs would just bite me. I finally have been able to accompany him to our land when he goes out to water (may Heaven bless him a trillion billion gazillion times and more for offering to do this while I am out of commision!!!!!!). It was muggy and buggy (no south-western wind). We returned home -me, with a miriad of bug bites on my lower legs (which were covered by long pants and long socks tucked into said pants to avoid ticks), and Francesco with zero bites. Now, this morning, I discovered that a tick had bitten me as well, on my belly...

    I want to buy an air-conditioner.

    From what I could tell, some of my new implants are, alas under attack by the dread Black Finger of Death sindrome. I think it's caused by the sudden temperature swings and the extreme heat we suffered through in June. I sprayed Rocksil a week ago and yesterday another bio spray based on mycorizza. Hopefully, these treatments won't harm and might possibly help.

    I hate summer.

  • 9 months ago

    Hey, bart, thanks for checking in. It sounds like conditions are unfriendly, and who's surprised, but summer is passing. I'm sorry it's so hot where you live; that is miserable. Also the bugs are no fun.

    I woke up to an unpleasant domestic emergency this morning, as a consequence of which I wasn't able to pick up my helper and get out in the garden. The resulting errands and stress flattened me, too, but tomorrow I hope I'll be able to get out and peacefully work in the garden. I need to find enough rebar stakes to mark the inside edge of the second Serbian bed. My helper mowed the narrow walk between it and the hedge, but in his thoroughness went into the bed and got some small roses, which I hope may grow back, but who knows. So I need to show where the boundary of the bed is. Anyway, treats in store.

    Bart, you are lucky in your DH, but there are a lot of good guys around. I hope you get to do something nice for yourself, and for the rest of your family. Something involving coolness, for sure.