Augie Picture of the Day, May 29, 2012 (with bonus content)

Augie isn't the only one who's happy it's cooler out today. I am too.

Warning: Bonus content ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

And so are the marigolds by the mailbox. We put these in almost two weeks ago. I surrounded them with a combination of bricks from Home Depot, a couple of clay bricks I found on our property and this awesome Veedersburg Paver. I found it buried in the dirt next to our garage when I was pulling out a stump. I did some research and found out that the brick was made in Indiana by the same company that made the bricks for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I wish I had found more of them.

The same day we planted the marigolds, Gretchen dragged out the two over-the-rail planters we had in Wisconsin and filled them with flowers for the back porch.

I have really enjoyed working on the gardens this spring/summer, but I have a feeling these will be the bane of me. One of the neighbors has a maple tree that produced thousands of these seeds. I have pulled out at least 40 that have sprouted in the gardens. This one was under no more than an inch of dirt and mulch. They grow way too easy.

Speaking of gardens, the lilies behind the garage are about ready to bloom.

Something that has bloomed is this wild flower in the tree stump flower pot out back.

It is sure to be the first of many more to come (see flower at bottom right).

On the less green side of things is our "new" red maple tree. (What better way to fight all those seeds than with seeds of my own?) We brought it home from grandpa Westerhoven's house on Saturday. The leaves are looking  pretty crappy, but if the transplanted tree in the back yard is any indication, it should bounce back. It can look horrible for awhile if it wants as long as it takes root.

My latest pet project is the front lawn. A few weeks ago I edged the front of the lawn so I could find out how big our parking spot was. It was overgrown to say the least. I pulled out up to 4 feet of grass in some spots. Yesterday, I did the edge of our driveway. It was much less overgrown. The driveway needs to be seal coated. Does anyone know of a good company?