Wow...a whole month went by!

Wow...I can't believe a whole month went by! August was busy, busy, busy! We had our cedar fence installed. It took the builders 3 days to complete it. Before we had it installed we buried a drain tube across the back of our yard so that we don't get flooding from our neighbor's sump pump outlet which dumps out right on our property line. It has helped tremendously. No more standing water...no more mosquitoes brewing in our yard.

We also installed a short retaining wall just inside of the fence so that we could build up the soil before planting along the fence. This is what we wound up planting:

5 5' tall arborvitae
2 red twig dogwoods
2 variegated Japanese silver grass
1 aster
2 beebalm
2 black eye susans
2 milkweed (alsclepias)
1 cardinal flower
1 Chinese lanterns
1 coral bells
1 coreopsis
1 crocosmia
2 echinacia
2 foxglove
3 hyssops
1 liatris
4 mums
1 monkshood
2 sedum
2 yarrow

We added a ton of new peat moss and soil and bag after bag of mulch to the back of the yard and corner gardens. We also ran 150' of soaker hose under the mulch to help keep things moist and cut down on the daily watering.

In the front of the house we planted 3 limelight hydrangea along the porch and living room windows. We had to rip some of the old shrubs out to make way.

I'm really happy because my oceana blue salvia did come back and just started blooming last week. I saved the seeds from the plant last year and planted it up indoors in March. I have 4 or 5 plants that made it and they're all starting to bloom that beautiful royal blue color. The Bella Donna delphiniums are on their 2nd bloom cycle too...they are just breathtaking next to the almost black Thai basil.

We're about 75% done with the stone pavers in the front. The left side of the walk is done and so is the small island. The pavers that go along the front of the house have made it almost all the way to the corner. Now we have just about 25 pavers left to lay and about 15 caps to cut. It's been a long, slow project! And this near 90 degree weather has not been helping us to finish any faster!

I want to get everything done because we're having our daughter's 2nd b-day party (and informal open house) this coming Sunday. So it would be nice to be done with projects so we can relax and enjoy everyone's company and actually enjoy all the blooms around our house.