Not a whole lot of posting going on here lately.  A few things behind that: (1) I just returned to work and project time is therefore at a serious premium; (2) what little project time I've got has mostly been devoted to deck scheming for the last few weeks; and (3) it was SO INSANELY DRY for so long that the garden was looking pretty wretched.  Definitely not picture-worthy for a houseiversary post, for example.

I eventually got around to deploying some more mad Lee Valley irrigation - mostly soaker hoses this time, with some extra outlets around more finicky plants like roses and rhododendrons - and between that and the rain returning things are starting to perk up.  Nothing like what they ought to be, but oh well, there's always next year.

Now that my deck schemes - or at least this iteration of them - are mostly complete, I am starting to address the increasing jungle-itude, half an hour to an hour at a time.  This evening fer instance I ripped up an alarming pile of extra-determined lilac suckers and the bits of root they sprang from.  This time they'd just better not come back, dammit.

Most pressing on the to do list, really, is to get rid of the monstrous piles of crap that were generated by this year's construction project.  Substantial heap of dirt, less substantial heap of broken concrete, pile of old rotten deck boards, and heap of gigantor fieldstones.  At a bit of a loss as to wtf to do with it all (with the exception of the rocks, which I should be able to dispose of via kijiji in notime flat.)  Getting the rest of it schlepped away costs more serious $$$ than I have at the moment.  Best option is probably borrowing mom's trailer, but that might be a few weeks in the organizing.

Other miscellaneous chores to tackle between now and when the snow flies:

* Prune out dead canes on Prairie Joy rose
* Sweep up spiral path
* Pot up primroses, which are looking pretty sad and straggly in their little newspaper packets - half done
* Use up remaining small heap of mulch in the driveway (around pieris, probably, since the bare ground there breeds weeds like whoa)
* Sweep more sand into joints in walkway and do something about the weeds growing there
* Continue to de-jungleify the back half of the yard
* Put down cardboard and weed fabric and cover with mulch (another heap thereof, probably cedar, to be acquired) - half done
* Dig up remaining grass around the edges of the patio and replace with river stones/a few fieldstones/mulch
* When junk is hauled away, clean up the damn carport finally