When I came home, I turned on the watering system, and found that one of the soaker hoses, where I had cinched it off, had broken open. I was able to seal it with one of the extensions I bought, thankfully, but I am not sure I can create soaker hose extensions just yet, only repairs.

• Mowed the lawn, cut up and moved logs off the lawn, hand-watered potted plants. My Spanish lavender and a citronella plant both wilted in the intense heat, so I moved them from the deck into the grass.
• I tied down another branch on the pear tree so it now has two long branches growing horizontally.
• Local kids I hired to mow the front lawn produced a large pile of grass clippings. Sadly they mowed lower than I wanted: the front lawn is at risk of drying out. I think I will ask them to skip a week so the lawn can recover.

What was incredible about the grass pile is that it had already started to break down. The temperature was easily 32 Celcius and when I dug in to the pile, steam rose from it — that pile was HOT!

I have Wednesday (July 4) off from work so I will plant the berry bushes and see if I can pick up some mulch from Home Depot to start locking in moisture around the new plantings.

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