The Hounds Love Magnolias

(Thanks to the reader that pointed out those are marigolds not magnolias. The new temporary fence is working out well. Similar to when we lived in AZ where I could keep the patio door open in the mornings before it gets hot, so the puppies can go in and out as they please. Henry and Watson spend a lot of time outside now playing, running and laying on the deck. Yet, there are some disadvantages brought to my attention when Walter is barking or is running to the computer room to get me.

Yesterday morning when things were just too quiet in the house I went to see what they had gotten into. I wasn't really happy with what I was seeing. That looked like a piece of magnolia marigold laying next to Watson. Then when I saw Henry showing interest in the same piece I knew he was also in on their new diet.

See the evidence laying no the patio deck?

Caught red handed as he was trying to hide his piece of magnolia marigold on the ground out of my sight.

Watson has already learned the look of "not me, I didn't do anything".

Calling Henry inside, he ignores me as usual. He does everything I want him to do a couple of minutes after I walk away. That even includes eating his meals.

Currently Watson eats anything and everything. He likes weeds, grass, dirt, dog food, magnolias, marigolds, and those end pieces to the patio deck.

Henry doing his best "not guilty" look as I walk around talking to myself.

I thought this arrangement might block them. All they did was 'attack' the magnolias from the open side in the yard. See that piece of something in Watson's mouth ... that's an end piece to one of the patio deck slats.

They do spend a lot of time laying outside in the grass and so far I have see no signs of them digging to get under the fence nor any signs of trying to push that pvc pipe that is there to block the gap in the fence. I cannot wait to tear this one down and get the permanent fence installed. I do not like the look of the fence but it serves the purpose it was built for.

Not much was going on this morning. With a day of sunshine I am going to get started on the south flowerbed. I found a great nursery yesterday and picked up some azaleas and a dwarf Japanese maple. I showed the photos of the flowerbed to the guy working there and he made some good suggestions. I will be moving the four rose bushes from the flower bed to the other side of the house to get them out of the 8-10 hours of direct sunlight. Azaleas will be planted 3' apart in that flower bed. After that is finished I will then head to the big square rock filled section of yard between the patio and the house.

Watson is growing taller and I barely have to bend over to pet him now.

I don't like Hydrangeas but they have been here for over ten years. The guy a the nursery thought it would be very hard for me to tear it out, pull it out and get all of the roots. This is from a couple of months ago when I was trimming them down to he level of the window. You can see below how much they grew back in two months. The flowerbed had not been touched in years. This morning I started raking out the leaves, pulling weeds and pulling that grass that has grown up through the weed preventive plastic.

I had forgotten until I saw this photo how many blooms I had in May. The beetles have gotten to them, they are in pretty bad shape today. You can see the how much stuff I have to pull out tomorrow morning.

This is my job tomorrow morning. I will go to Lowes the first thing and buy enough dark brown mulch to fill in the rest of the bed. On the left you see Azaleas. It was suggested on this south side where all the sunshine is most of the day, to move the rose bushes and replace them with the larger Azaleas spaced out 3'-4' apart. You can barely see where I stopped today with the new mulch.

All new growth from the bottom of the window since May. The plant on the right has tripled in size since May and I am told has been there since the early 1960's, blocking my gas meter.

As Walter was finishing his inspection of my work, I saw a bluebird behind me. To the right of him on that post is an old birdhouse with her eggs inside.

Working until 12:30pm, no breakfast except coffee, 84° and high humidity I was wasted as I walked into he house. I needed Gatorade and some air conditioning before I went back outside to finish for the day. Luckily my trash bin was full of weeds, leaves, grass, and bush trimmings from where I pruned off the dead stuff. That will be picked up by 7:30am in the morning, so I will have a clean bin to fill by the time I get back from Lowes with more mulch.

After a shower I took a trip to Noble Roman's pizza. I didn't know if they were still in business since I had not seen one since my college days decades ago in Bloomington. I ordered the individual deep dish and it was just as good as I remembered.

The time I was outside today and at the pizza parlor, the puppy stayed with the other two with free range of the house with the patio door open so they could go outside when they needed. I think they slept in the bedroom most of that time I was outside or gone. I found no damage of any kind in the house. I am happy with his training so far. He is much easier bloodhound puppy SO FAR than Sadie was. She was hell on wheels.

I'm tired and that is about it from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.