Hurricane (Tropical Storm) Irene

Well, yes, it's the end of August.  We have passed through the longest day of the year, and last week we had both a very rare east-coast earthquake, and later in the week, on Sunday, August 28, an east-coast hurricane/tropical storm.  The garden had no damage, our skylights held, and we didn't lose power...for us, it was essentially over by early afternoon on Sunday.  Vermont is suffering mightily, and they say it could take weeks for the power to be back on.  42 people have died so far.

What I have been doing since end of May:

• Savagely pruned the (male) holly in the side yard, which was large, ungainly, and not contributing much.  It is now pretty interesting, although skeletal, and has been putting out little green leaves.  I think it will be fine.  In the space that opened up I put in a dwarf oakleaf hydrangea, a few short astilbes, a pale apricot-leafed heuchera, a gaultheria procumbens, and several white anemones.
• I decided that the spreading-out-of-control daphne in the back yard needed to be severely pruned.  Much better.  Transplanted a Viburnum winterthur to the space, plus some Achillea red velvet, and more of the heuchera with pale apricot leaves.  

 Random issues:

• I am trying to prune things before they get out of control; makes it all easier. 
• The grassy strip between the street and sidewalk did pretty well.  The ajugas failed, or are hidden or something, but the grass seed that washed down from some other place, and the portulacas that began to spring up, and the purple (really pink!) love grass now blooming (Eragrostis spectabilis) along the edge are nice.  The two short sections of flimsy white fencing was enough to keep the delivery trucks at bay.