No rain. No growing grass. No weeds. No mowing. Normally, this time of the year, I’m busy pulling stuff from gardens and mowing, but we seemed to have reached stasis. I remulched the back porch garden earlier this year and everything looks fine. Same with the garden beneath the big oaks. The khaki weed war seems won, and I no longer have to do that. I’ve found stragglers, but nothing serious. The morning glory is climbing the trellis.

Basically, I just walk around and look at stuff growing. My tree-tending arborist son is keeping the ground beneath the big trees moist, but grass is no priority. And I can say, without fear of contradiction, that our trees, old and new, are looking fine. They make a nice sound when they blow in the wind, and they provide great shade. So, when we do get rain, we might be able to hold on to it for a bit.

We have decided to abandon one little garden in the southeast corner of the yard closest to the park. I moved three struggling crape myrtles from there a few years back along with a batch of schoolhouse flowers, next we tried sunflowers, but the soil is too thin, and it takes too much water.  I’ll use the rocks that outlined the bed to replenish the rocks that line the wildflower garden. From there I’ll just mow. And from there we’ll just grow what nature allows.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale