I was beginning to think it would never stop raining long enough for us to set the posts for the trumpet creeper “trellis” (at 8′ high and roughly 8′ across, it’s pretty big to call a trellis), and in the end, I did have to bail the holes Friday after work, but they stayed dry, so we were good to go. We started fairly early yesterday morning, since the temperature was going to be approximately 5000 degrees with 1200% humidity. (Or, about 95F with a heat index around 100F.)

We have to mix the concrete in small batches because that’s the only way we can mix it by hand, and this is fast-setting, so we can’t dick around; we have to move fast! P had got 5 bags to start because the amounts suggested by concrete calculators didn’t seem right. Good thing he did, too, because these two posts took 4.5 bags, and if we’d followed the calculator, we’d have had too much extra. I guess the calculators were assuming steel posts…dunno.

Holes are about 28″ deep; we were aiming for 24″ of concrete, but there’s gravel at the bottom, and besides, it was a mudfest when we were doing the holes, so it was hard to judge. Anyway, they’re 10′ posts, and they’re 8′ above ground. Holes could maybe have been an inch or so wider, but this is just to hold trumpet creeper on lattice(or possibly vinyl-coated welded wire) in an area protected by trees; it’s not like it’s a privacy fence in a wind tunnel, so it’ll be fine.

P got more concrete when he went on his supply run. After he got back, we had an attack of The Tireds, so we had to take naps, and once we got up, we did the other two posts. Thankfully, we were working mostly in the shade because it was hotter than the hinges on the gates of hell out there.

This morning, I moved the 2×4 props, just to get a better idea of how it will look when it’s complete.

Then, I got really curious, so I hauled the crosspieces down and wrangled them atop the posts. My original intent had been to cut them even with the edges of the uprights, but the more I looked at it this way, the more I liked it. Kind of like a pergola, but I’m not going to 45 the ends because I think it’d look weird. Pergola-ish, but it’s going to have lattice for the trumpet creeper to climb, and I think the ends need to stay the way they are. It does give a nice vertical element to that side of the yard, and along with the Tornado Honeysuckle, keeps everything from looking too flat and one-dimensional. I’m going to put a flowerbed all around this, and put circular stepping stones through it for a sort of path effect. The path really doesn’t lead anywhere except to the brush pile and compost area, but I think it’ll look nice, especially once I put some vegetation in front of the brush pile (haven’t yet decided what).

Photos are 2D, so it looks like the Honeysuckle Horseshoe and the Pergola-ish are side-by-side, but they’re not, and it does add some depth and vertical elements to a lawn that would otherwise be flat and (without flowers) boring.

Sarah’s garden doesn’t look like much this year, but if the teardrop flowerbed is anything by which to judge, it’ll be nice next year. The scarlet runner beans and cardinal climber got planted late, but they’re slowly taking over what P has termed my “baseball backstop”. I don’t care if it looks like a backstop; it’s a place where those vines can grow however the hell they want, and nobody can make me trim them, or complain about them!

All that rain (rain, rain, rain…) has stunted 544’s Bright Lights, but the heat and sun over the past week has got them blooming. They should still top the posts we drove to contain them; it’s only the third week in July, and they’ll keep going until frost.

C gave me some of what she thinks is German camomile, which I put out front in the ex-ditch lily bed. I already have white coneflower there, but camomile has tiny white flowers, and feathery-looking leaves, which I think is different enough that it’ll look good even right next to the coneflower.

My morning glory weeds that I pulled out here and there and potted decided they were going to live even if I waited too long to transplant them and had to cut them back to practically nothing, so I went down this morning and cut some thin branches of bush honeysuckle to make a sort of trellis. That stuff is nasty and needs to die, but even if it does sprout because it’s fresh-cut, it’s not going to do anything in a pot except freeze to death in the winter. Besides, it’s convenient to have something I can chop up at will if I need thin, flexible branches for something!

Pretty little Red-Spotted Purple (that would be more appropriately named Rust-spotted Blue) in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe. I had to lean into some flowers to get close enough, so I took this photo with a fat bumblebee literally 1″ from my nose. Bumbles are mellow, though, and any bee that’s feeding pays little attention to anything else.

Beautiful, fresh Spicebush Swallowtail guy. Loved the Cindeh-golds. I told him to go sit on the spicebush and try to look sexy.

Weird little Hackberry Emperor, upside down on the rain gutter. Emps have strange tastes; they love sweaty people, and seem to go for minerals in even odder places than other flutter-guys. I love them, though. <3