I can’t believe how long it has been since I posted here, except I can believe it, because I’ve been doing a LOT of gardening instead of writing about gardening. Specifically, in May our next door neighbors approached us to say that their brick wall between our properties was in danger of collapse, and that they could either demolish and rebuild it entirely, or, with our permission, build up the support pillars with buttresses on our side (at their expense). Because the wall runs all along the side of our lot, quite close to our house, and demolition would have been extremely disruptive and destructive, we went with the buttresses.

The good news is that their contractor did an excellent job, the pillar supports look really nice, and he rebuilt or built new raised beds all along our side of the wall, after clearing out all the weedy vines that had grown up over the years. So I’ve spent much of the summer redoing that side of the garden with new hydrangeas and perennials, as well as transplanting others from other parts of the garden. The contractor also cleaned up the pathway on that side and reset the edging bricks and flagstone pavers that were disturbed during the work. So it looks very nice, and I’m excited to see how the new plantings look next spring once they’ve really settled in! Just in time, too, because in March I will be hosting a monthly meeting of a women’s club I’ve joined (retirement is great!), and I want the garden to look its best.

I’ve also continued on my rose “kick”, and their fall flush has been excellent. I’ve even added to my collection, so I’ll be busy repotting several, moving others, and generally getting them ready for colder weather. Not that we’ve seen any of that yet! It is still reaching the 70s during the day, though the nights have been cool.

I’m awaiting a shipment of fall bulbs, mostly daffodils, and this year I plan to take more proactive measures to protect them from the chipmunks that have colonized our back yard. I actually like them, and they don’t do much harm, but they do gobble up bulbs. Supposedly they don’t like daffodils, but I’ve lost too many over the years to fully endorse that theory. So I’ll place plastic netting over my bulb plantings in addition to the usual repellent granules and cross my fingers.

Have you undertaken any garden renovation this year?