Read chapter 56 here
July 10, 2020
We have another yard work project staring us in the face. As expected, the ferns along the west side of the house are starting to burn up. The previous week’s intense heat and the absence of their former protection from the sun – namely the towering, diseased silver maple that was removed
a few days after our return from Warren – are accelerating their decline, causing some of their fronds to turn prematurely brown.
Our intention was never to create a fern garden in this area of the yard. Originally, a row of hostas extended along this side of the house. In the early 1990s, we bumped out the border to create a space for annuals. (The photo at left was
taken in 2003 and shows the original mass of ferns that were in place when we moved in. Thanks to transplanting, we eventually had them in multiple locations around the yard.) At some point during the mid-2000s – and curiously I’m having trouble locating any photos to document this change -- we planted English ivy here, at the time when we had two towering silver maples that provided sufficient shade for such a ground cover. My goal was to replicate what is on the sunporch side of the Conaway house in Warren. It worked pretty well until 2012, when the silver maple along the west side of the back yard needed to be removed. Since that time, the ferns have taken over, in spite of our efforts to keep them in check. Last year, I decided it was an area of the yard designated for relandscaping in the next few years. The recent loss of our other silver maple is very likely move this project up on our to-do list. With the virus threatening to upend life
as we know it well into the fall – no football Saturdays, for one -- JoAnna and I will have plenty of time to tackle it. Yesterday, the Big 10 conference announced that this fall’s football schedule will not include any non-conference games, which means that a highly anticipated match-up between Notre Dame and Wisconsin at Lambeau
Field in Green Bay is scratched. Andy and I agree that this decision is just the first step in paring the season down to nothing.
And when you look at the current COVID statistics, there doesn’t seem to be
another outcome. Yesterday, Wisconsin registered a record number of new cases (754) but not an accompanying record number of tests. The COVID tracking project graphs for most southern and western states show sharp spikes in current hospitalizations (New York City déjà vu writ large) and an upward trend in deaths.
Thanks to Trump’s dismissive approach to the virus, it seems as though we’re in this thing for the haul.
Read chapter 58 here
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