Keepin’ It Cool in the Heat!

A couple months ago a wonderful neighbor of mine gifted me with some store credit to Lowes. I waited to use it till I could find something that would stretch my dollars as far as possible, especially keeping my eyes open for plants to place along our new back fence, which has looked rather bare since last year. So when I was in the Lowes’ nursery a couple of weeks ago, and saw a table of Star Jasmine vine plants marked way down to be clearanced out, I snatched up a few. After planting them at the base of several posts along the back of our fence, it occurred to me that they looked lonely. Surely, getting a couple more to fill in the gaps would be more aesthetically pleasing, yes??

Without bothering to count before shopping, I somehow came home with exactly the right number to plant a vine at the base of each fence post: no more, no less. Why I chose the afternoon with temps above 103 degrees as the ideal time to plant these, I am not certain…but now that they are in, I feel such a sense of accomplishment. If by some minor miracle I can keep them alive through this heat wave, I will be even happier. But if not, thankfully Lowe’s has a full return policy on any and all plants that perish within a year of purchase.

While I sweated buckets installing my baby plants, the children amused themselves nearby (surprisingly, no, they did not cheerfully offer to help lug dirt or dig holes with me!). Patiently awaiting the treat of running through the lawn sprinklers when Mommy’s hard labor was finished, they amused themself by spraying each other with the hose, and then resting on their towels in the shade. I caught a few cute shots…

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Perhaps wearing goggles enhances the picture book experience??

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She worked on her knitting – doesn’t every girl put on her favorite swimsuit, and take some time to knit before running like a wild thing through the water sprinkler??

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Tending his monster pumpkin plant he started from a seed:

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Nicolas actually did jump in and help by watering several of my little vines after I got them in the ground:

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And here are my Jasmine babies…I could only get eight of the ten in my picture, but you get the idea:

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And a close-up of one little plant that I like to call “Wild Child”:

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