The hot, humid weather continues.

I did a quick walk-about this morning and found the beetles are still here and have discovered my favorite shrub, Limelight hydrangea.
Normally I would just grab up my made up Sevin in my trusty 2-gallon sprayer and hit them but I did a remarkably stupid thing the other day. I picked up the empty garden sprayer and took it to the milk parlor/garden work area to exhcange it for the herbicide sprayer.....You can guess what I did. Even though the herbicide sprayer is marked with an orange twine necktie, I just marched over to the sink measured the Gly-4 and put it in the garden sprayer. Sprayed and returned to then fill my Seven sprayer and discovered I was using it! I immediately filled it with hot soapy pipeline cleaner and let it set but I will be afraid to use it on anything valuable. Once herbicide is in a plastic sprayer, that is it! So until I buy another one, I will have to use my 15-gallon battery operated one. I will test the small sprayer on something today some time.

I do love the Limelight shrub. It blooms a long time and has grown fairly fast.


It was one of my purchases with an eye to cutting back on so many perennials and things that needed deadheading or pruning. So far, it has met all expectations (until the JB decided to eat it), no pests, no disease, water normal (until our drought this year), no trimming. I also have Little Lamb but it has a habit I am not happy with. The bloom heads are so heavy the limbs fall over. Maybe it is just young.

They are both in the new shrub, eg, small tree border I am building about midway to the road in the front yard. The only perennials will be very easy maintenance plants. I have only planted a couple of Hyperion daylilies out there so far. I am hoping to relocate the hostas this fall.

I finally found one single caterpillar on the bronze fennel:

FOOD

I know it has been so hot that we all like to avoid using the oven. I found lemons at a bargain price and bought several. We love lemon pie and find it very refreshing in hot weather and it is not quite so high calorie (as if that would stop me!). I baked it in the counter top oven but had to place foil over the meringue to keep it from getting too brown before the time was up.



I just used my regular pie and crust recipes from B H & G's old standby cookbook.

Next project will be a blueberry cobbler. Blueberries are more reasonably priced this year too. I will be trying to replicate the one my sis served us at her home. I thought it was just delicious.