A trip to Holland; back for the first time since May 2010. A chance to reconnect with family; e-mail works great, but it is a poor substitute for being together again in the same room.

August has arrived and some gardens are starting to look a tad tired. Most gardens start “accidentally”; a quest for flowers as we carve out a bit of lawn. Sometimes a plot just beckons and we start with a large empty space which we try to fill up as the stores try to sell us their flowering plants. Then we run out of steam. A month or two later the flowers are gone, replaced with tired foliage. You stand around in the garden, wondering where the flowers went and what you can do to make it look better. Well, that falls into the category, been there, done that!

Summer started with a blast of hot air. With a forecast of 99F for today, and a warning about the heat index, 105F, or "how hot it actually feels", I would like to add "find a spot in the shade and it will actually feel cooler".   

Looking back at this spring, it has been a very mixed bag. March brought us a hot spell, April had frost and cold winds. May was chilly, windy and mostly dry. By June it was still cool, but at least there was much needed rain. Now the garden is lush again and despite all the work done earlier I see hostas encroaching on other hostas. Time to break out the shovel again, dig up these big clumps, divide them and move them around in the garden. It never ends, does it?