What I Did Sunday...

I spent the rest of the weekend redoing the flower beds out back. First I removed the old mulch, which was so dry it could be simply lifted off in whole plates, then I turned all the soil, with a pitchfork and a trowel, to a depth of about a foot, which it badly needed. It had become so compacted; it was like cement. I scooped out big gobs of clay, and actually quite a lot of soil from the one bed, then I planted black eyed susans, which are sassy and gorgeous; moved the Gerbera daisies leftover from Alex and Chris’s wedding, 4 of which are still going strong, and also moved half a dozen yellow mums from a couple of falls ago. I planted the black-eyed susan vine and put in a metal trellis for it, and I moved a jasmine vine, which had survived in spite of itself. I hope both those vines take; the black eyed susan because I love the look of it, and the jasmine because I love the scent. When I finished all of that, I watered like crazy and then applied several inches of mulch. The beds look great; I may post some pics later.

I made another big bowl of pasta pugliese, but this time I used kalamatas from a jar and I added some smoked mozzarella as well as plain. It’ll be ready to eat tomorrow, when the flavors have melded together a bit.

It was close to a hundred degrees today as I worked on my flower beds. The sun was behind the house by the time I started, so I wasn’t in direct sunlight, but despite the heat I wore a shirt, long jeans and socks with crocs to protect myself from insects and any poison ivy I might encounter. It’s abundant here in Texas, as I’ve learned the hard way. I got fairly dehydrated, but all in all, I've decided covering up is the way to go on a project like this. Eventually I stopped to have some dinner: a salad of black beans, corn, jicama, red pepper, and onion in olive oil, washed down by glasses and glasses of ice water. I swear nothing ever tasted so delicious.

And the flower beds look GREAT.