We're pretty much finished our gardening redesign for this year. We got more plants to fill out the flower bed and some more veggies and herbs to put in the garden bed. We ended up re-buying the bee balms that we had ripped out from the old garden bed, but they were getting unruly, and at least we know they will grow well in that area. I also discovered that not only do they attract hummingbirds, but they're also a relative of bergamot, so I can make home-made Earl Grey tea!

It's hard to believe that less than 3 weeks ago, both the flower bed and the veggie garden were a mass of overgrown weeds! Our next task is maintenance of the rest of the landscaping, including weeding, mulching, watering, and maybe pruning. As a first step, I ended up pulling out the two trees (!) that grew at the corner of our house. It's amazing; I think they weren't there when we moved in and now they had deep roots and were over 7 feet tall. I'm not sure what kind they were — perhaps oak? — but they sure are fast-growing.