So there’s been a few happenings in the last week…

Oh my, look how much our lavender has grown since we planted it! Juuuust kidding. When we planted the three little lavender plants they were quite pathetic looking already, but at least they were green and alive looking (See photo). Within a week all three plants shriveled up even more and turned into brown leafed and dead looking plants. Maybe we were a little fast with our decision, but we decided to tear them out and replaced them with some grown plants that we purchased at a local garden center. The one on the left is called “sweet” lavender, the one on the right is called “hidcote” lavender. Peeking in on the left is also some “red fountain grass” that we planted.

Atlanta has had a drought (already, and it’s not even summer yet!) with some 10 inch rainwater deficit. We haven’t had a good downpour since we started planting. We knew that there was some flooding in the area by the back steps because when the laundry extension was built they did not bother to calculate in the drain run that was going along the house. So now the water accumulates in a giant puddle (actually it looks close to a pond with the weeds in there!), including in our new flower bed. Everywhere I have read about lavender it says that the plants like very rough conditions, which includes dry soil and full on sun. With the standing water after a downpour I’m a little scared the lavender won’t be very happy in that place – I guess we’ll have to see how it grows or doesn’t.

On the other side of the stairs we recently dug up the lost drain that is now blocked by the laundry addition. With the soil gone, or perhaps we just haven’t paid as much attention before when it poured, there seems to be quite a lake. The itty bitty green plant in the middle is a “weigela carnaval” that we planted there in hopes for it to grow large and hide our monster of an A/C unit.

While we’re busy enough trying to keep up with our own house and garden we have also had to tackle the neighbor’s yard. A while ago it started off with one kudzu plant starting to creep up the side of their house. It was actually quite crazy to watch because I was able to literally count it going up one brick a day. Eventually the lawn mowing service came out and cut it down. But since then they haven’t come back and the lonely kudzu plant amidst the grass has turned into some grass plants amidst a kudzu field. And those little buggers just loooove to grow onto our driveway. And over our backyard fence for that matter. Since they say kudzu grows up to a foot a day (!) I have been going out there every few days to cut the plants that started coming onto our side. It’s really quite annoying.

So the other day we had some excitement…we kept hearing helicopters over our house. Finally we were curious enough and walked outside to see 2 news choppers hovering right above our house. In the evening news we found out there had been some car chase that ended in a street a block over from our house.

The gas company has come out and made a mess of our street. They’re upgrading the gas lines in our neighborhood from 5 lbs. to 57 lbs. of pressure or something crazy like that. This is where they dug up the gas line coming to our house…a couple hours later it was all covered up with dirt again.

When they changed the pipes at the street they also had to come to the gas meters at the house to upgrade the pipes and some converter there. That included a bright yellow pipe that we weren’t very happy about. After complaining to the workers they told us they would come and paint the yellow pipe. We were about to give up hope when they started working further down the street, but to our surprise we found the pipe painted two days later.

And last, but not least, we have also done some work inside the house! We finally got around to painting the window in the bathroom and a couple of days later the wainscoting. The prep work probably took longer than the actual painting itself. All that caulking and nail hole filling and sanding and refilling nail holes and re-sanding takes up a lot of time. Now we just have to finish painting the base board, which we waited on because we hadn’t caulked that part. It definitely makes a difference in how the bathroom feels.