SUMMER IS FLYING BY

How is it possible that it's already mid-July?  The yard is beautiful, if a bit overgrown.  Crepe myrtles are in full bloom and winter cold damaged plants are finally looking healthy.  Pineapples are beginning to fill out, even though their leaves were badly damaged by the long chill last winter.

Looking at the planting schedule, it's now time to start a bunch of fall vegetables, so I need to get busy this week.  If I get my seeds started, it will be the first time I acutally met the deadline!

Today I stripped weedy vines from the hedges and cleared sediment from the pond and streambed, so the birds will enjoy their bathes more now with the dry leaves and twigs out of their splash pools.

My biggest problem at the moment is a family of Armadillos who insist on digging up beds, tunneling under the house, and generally making pests of themselves.  They are a protected species, so it's hard to figure out how to get them out of the yard, and since the sign in the entrance declares my house a "wildlife refuge" I guess I am just going to have to learn to live with them, just as I have with the raccoons!