Category: garden

Except for the tomatoes and anise, all the plants in my veggie garden were started from seeds or tubers. If I didn’t remember what I planted, I be hard pressed to even tell you what everything was. They all look the same in the sapling stage.

These will be chives when then grow up.

The onions are obvious, thankfully. It’s such a joy to see ‘something’ growing in the veggie garden. In the upper left hand corner, you can see the saplings that will one day be lettuce heads. In the upper right hand corner, if you squint really hard, you might be able to see the carrots growing.  

The main reason I started a veggie garden was for the tomatoes. Nothing tastes better than a vine-ripened tomato warm from the sun.

Despite all my attempts though, Dan still hates uncooked tomatoes. I really don’t understand him. I pine for the fruit from the moment I put them in the ground until August when it’s time to harvest. Periodically, I go outside and just stand over them, drumming my fingers on the cages.

Yesterday it was raining, so I couldn’t play in the garden. Instead I cleaned my red desk off and hung my latest swatches. Here’s hoping it inspires me.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

It feels so close

and yet so far away with the temperature at a chilly 35F. At least it is no longer below freezing.

I can’t wait to start tidying up the garden, trimming the hedges, and deciding what to plant in my veggie garden. I am less enthusiastic about raking up all the seed pods the two Sweet Gum trees have dropped over the winter.

Jake is my cheerleader when it comes to that task. He loves to pick up all the dead sticks that I rake up with the seed pods.

How come things like this never happened when I prayed for them hours before a report due date?

Sunday night, a huge thunderstorm came through the area (I live in PA).

My neighbor had been contemplating cutting his maple tree down, since it was showing signs of decay.
He wasn’t quick enough. Mother Nature decided to help him along.

The crack came first. Then, a few minutes later, another gust of wind came through and hoisted the big branch a few feet to the right of the break.

The branch fell onto our cable line, snapping it in two. We lost TV and Internet service for two days.

It also got tangled into my rose bush. My neighbor spent a good hour trying to extract most of the smaller branches from the bush. I think he is more attached to the rose bush than I am. Ever since I started draping the long branches on his ranch-style fence, he’s doted on it.

Though it was annoying to not have TV or Internet, I remain grateful that the tree landed in our yards and not on our houses.

During the silence, I managed to get some knitting and spinning done. I’ll tell you more about that later this week. I also received wonderful goodies from Mandy of Sew Spun and my Summer of Love swap partner. Pictures coming tomorrow.

The storms started rolling into the area around 4 pm yesterday. While looking out the kitchen window, I notice how stunning the clouds looked. I ran and got my camera.

Can you see the bird flying to safety?

As pretty as the storm was to watch, I would have been upset had it not watered my garden sufficiently and had it not broke the heat wave. The storm did not disappoint. Jake and I were able to take a longer walk than usual due to the cooler temperatures. I plan to do absolutely nothing in my garden this afternoon. Nothing but sit underneath the oak tree and read a book.

Speaking of the oak tree, I took photos of it in Spring when it was in full bloom. Recently, I had one of the photos developed and framed.

I’m thinking of hanging it in our bedroom (We have a total of 3 pictures in the bedroom right now. Maybe another photo will help it to not look so sparse. I’m not much for the minimalist look.)

And because I couldn’t resist, I had a picture of my favorite lilac bush blown up.

I feel a bit silly hanging pictures that I’ve taken of our garden on our walls, but I’m sick and tired of looking at bare walls. Something had to be done.

I bragged to my neighbor that my mulch pile would be gone by Monday. It was my 2nd mistake. My 1st mistake was ordering 7 yards of mulch last month. What was I thinking?

I have laid it everywhere I can think of:
the garden that wraps around the entire house,
the garden bordering my neighbor to the left,

The path in between the house and the garden to the left:

the garden bordering the my neighbor to the right,
the sunflower bed behind our firewood pile,
the veggie garden, 
the two trees and two saplings in front of our house,
and the garden behind Henry’s tree.
(After listing them all, I’m starting to think … perhaps … we have too many garden spots).

Even my neighbor has taken a few wheelbarrows of mulch to use in his garden.

And still I have a pile of mulch sitting in my driveway.

I’m beginning to hate the sight of it. Do you think anybody would notice if I set it on fire?

Speaking of my veggie garden, my strawberries are growing!

I have come to the conclusion already that I will not be making strawberry jam from any crop I receive out of the plants. They are too tasty. I can’t seem to stop myself from eating them as soon as they have ripened.

Though not official until June 20th when the solstice will occur, Summer has started to strut her stuff.

My roses are blooming.

The Fancy version:

The Wild version:

I don’t need my garden to tell me it’s starting to get hot outside though. The sheer fact that I can no longer knit in the front room of my house (living room) without my hands getting sweaty is proof enough. Because all my current knitting projects use wool, I have relocated my knitting materials to the back room, the guest bedroom.

Year-round, it is the coolest room in the house. It is shaded by two trees and the L-shape of the kitchen. In the winter, we avoid the room and even shut it off from the rest of the house. In the summer, when not sitting underneath the air conditioner watching baseball, Jake can find us either in the back room or in the basement.

As you can see from the picture, I have started on the last handspun tie for my Christmas Tree skirt.

Last night when I finished the 6th tie in my Christmas tree skirt, I decided that I deserved a reward. I had been knitting diligently on this one project, trying desperately to get back on schedule. At the beginning of this year, I had mapped out a time line. If I knit one tie every month, I could complete the project by August – well in advance of Christmas. Two months ago, I fell off the wagon and didn’t knit any ties. This month, I made up for lost time and knit two ties.

Some people choose to reward themselves with chocolate. I eat chocolate everyday, so one piece isn’t a reward; it’s my daily alottment. Rather, I opted to play in my garden.

After coming home from our daily walk and chat with the neighbors, Jake and I spent the rest of the morning outside in the garden. I staked two tomato plants, laid more mulch, and planted Forget-me-not seeds underneath an Eastern Redbud tree, since the Columbine seeds never took. Jake laid in the shade and watched me work. He only moved if I was no longer in his line of sight.

My garden is growing!

By two in the afternoon, I decided that Jake was wiser than I. I was exhausted and Jake was dancing around me – full of energy. Waving a white flag, I went back inside the house.

I’ll leave you with one more brag picture: my new Mountain Laurel bush. It was purchased from my local gardener and planted this Spring.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

One of my very first gardening projects was to transfer a shrub I named “Two Flowers”, since only two clumps of flowers bloomed on its branches in the Spring of 2006.

It had been planted in the shade of a large conifer tree and a pin oak tree. It simply wasn’t getting enough sun. It took me all afternoon to dig it out of its shady home and transfer it to the other side of the house where it would get at least 6 hours of full sun. Halfway through the summer, I was certain I had killed it. Half of its foliage was dead. Two years later, I have a hard time recognizing it as the same bush.

This bush isn’t the only thing growing in my garden.

My onions are growing!

After being rained on continuously for two days, they decided to stick their heads out of the ground. These little green sprouts are all throughout my raised bed. I forget how many I planted. I think the answer is ‘a lot’.