My New Thing

I thought I'd come home this afternoon and finish the weedeating, but it's even hotter today than it was yesterday.  I decided the weedeating can wait.  It's so hot, I won't even let the dogs stay outside for more than five or so minutes. 

So, while we are huddling in the air conditioning, I thought I'd show you my new thing. 

Back in the spring, when I bought my gardenia, I noted that the tag said Morning Sun Only.  I picked the shadiest spot in my back yard, thinking it would be OK.  It wasn't.  The poor thing ended up getting much more afternoon sun than I thought it would.  It was beginning to look pretty sickly, and I began to think I was going to lose it.  

For a while, I put one of my bushier potted plants there to shade the gardenia, and it seemed to perk up quite a bit.  Unfortunately, the potted plant got scorched on the sunward side, so I had to bring it back inside.  Almost immediately, the poor little gardenia started looking sickly again.  Next idea, put up a trellis.

I looked some up online, and picked one out.  It's the big green thing, not the little white fence.

The little white fence is to keep the dogs out.  Yes, it works.  They recognize it as a border that they must not cross.  Of course, having it paired with a hot wire at my old house helped drive that point home...

I must have misread the description of the trellis, because I thought it said it was 6 feet tall.  It isn't.  It's only about 5 feet, but it'll do for now.  Also as a temporary measure, I taped a black garbage bag to the trellis to cast some shade on my gardenia. 

 I took this picture probably around 4:30 or 5:00 PM, when the afternoon sun is at its most intense. 

 I'm hoping this will provide some protection until the sun is behind the trees.

Since I don't want to have a garbage bag covered trellis right outside my back door for the next 30 years, I took some English Ivy cuttings to try to root them.  If they don't root, I have much more ivy from which to take cuttings. 

I'm still debating whether I'm really going to plant it there, though, because English Ivy is so very invasive and hard to eradicate.  But like I said, I've got plenty more.  It practically covers the back corner of my house. 

The eventual plan is to put up some sort of lattice that extends to the edge of my little back porch, and goes all the way up to the eave of my house, on both sides of the porch.  I'd like to put a lattice roof on it, too, then maybe train the English Ivy to grow up and across, creating myself a little leafy bower right out side my back door. 

It sounds good in my head.  Not sure how it's going to work in real life. 

BTW, I got picked to do a Nielson TV Viewing Diary.  I've done them before, and I don't know why they keep sending them to me.  I know they're going to be disappointed, because I don't watch much TV at all.  In fact, after Shark Week, I'm seriously considering cutting my cable back to the cheapest package.  I just can't see continuing to pay all that money when I only watch The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, and football.