I don’t know about y’all, but this is the best August I’ve ever been privy to. Wearing long sleeves for more than just mosquito protection in August is fabulous.

Lately the cool temperatures have been ideal for a little summer garden maintenance and really get me to thinking of all the big plans I have for my fall landscape projects.

In fact, I couldn’t help myself from visiting a local garden center the other day just to see what types of trees and shrubs they carry so that I could begin planning a fall and winter planting schedule for my new landscape. Although our property has plenty of shade from large trees, it is lacking in understory plants such as azaleas and camellias.

Walking through a nursery while in no hurry is one of my all time favorite activities, especially in August when the temperature is about 70 degrees at mid-morning. I had to pinch myself a couple of times as I reminded myself that indeed it was still summer in the Miss-Lou.

While strolling through the aisles looking at the selection and day-dreaming about how wonderful this and that would look in my landscape, I came across some lovely holly ferns. Well, I could hardly go home empty handed and holly ferns are one of my favorite shade plants, so I picked out a few to plant along the driveway.

And being that the temperatures were not the normal &uot;hot enough to fry an egg on concrete&uot; intensity, I purchased a few bags of potting mix to amend the existing soil with for my afternoon of August gardening.

Just the thought of doing something in the landscape other than watering potted plants close to reaching their permanent wilting point or spraying glyphosate on pesky weeds made me anxious about getting a jump on my fall planting ideas.

I drove home with my windows down determined to enjoy every bit of the 2004 dog days of summer possible.

As I pulled into the driveway back home and eyed the spot that my holly ferns would soon planted in, I couldn’t help but think of what a great day it was and how much I appreciated the gift of such wonderful weather.

Soon, I began placing the ferns into the soil, watering them in and mulching them with pine straw. Although it wasn’t a huge project, it gave me such a sense of satisfaction knowing that next year at this time even if the temperatures are record breaking in the other direction, I’ll at least enjoy the beauty of those ferns from indoors and remember how nice it was to garden on that cool August day.

E-mail

Traci Maier

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ratmaier@bellsouth.net

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