In addition to my garden borders and raised beds, I also have quite a collection of containers I like to fill with annuals. In fact, the collection gets a little bigger every years (thanks thrift stores), so it took a full day while I was on vacation to get them all planted up.

Here’s a look at some of them.

I’m not a huge fan of Geraniums. But this year I bought a full flat.

You may recall that last year, I discovered that they can be used to help control the dreaded Japanese Beetle. The beetles are attracted to the leaves… but eating them stuns the beetles. It makes them easier to pick and dispose of, and often the beetles never recover and dry out in the heat.

I had a handful of plants last year and while it didn’t make a HUGE difference to the overall damage across the garden, it did kill quite a few beetles. So I decided to go wit a full flat (18 individual plants) and planted up a pile of containers which I’ve placed throughout the gardens. I added in some petunia for interest as well.

Another thing that I learned last year is that small pots dry out FAST. And I have quite a few small pots. To help with this, I bought SEVERAL flats of portulaca

Portulaca can take being hot and dry for much longer than many other annuals, giving me a chance to get out and water them before they dry up. The petunias I planted in small pots last year were definitely a fail.

This was especially true for the pots in stands I have at the front door.

The portulaca should be just as colourful and fare much better.

And I’ve added a pile of new small pots!

Like this large candelabra we found a thrift store last year. They will look fantastic when they fill in a bit.

Thrifting has also provided me with a nice little collection of decorative bird cages

This is just two of them (there are six total outside) and they also have portulaca. I think they are going to look amazing with the stems start falling a blooming through the bars.

Another things that does well in pots…

Hens and Chicks! The first two pictures are new “Collector Chicks” apparently. They are “Chocolate Mint” (Red), “Appletini” (green with dark tips}, and “Gold Nugget” (yellow). the third picture is a pile of babies from other hens that broke off.

Established containers include…

My pump half cask with “Blue Fountain” salvia and white bacopa, and my cauldron, with celosia flames, bubbling over with a white dahlia and alyssum.

And last…

Because of the cooler spring, my porch pansies are absolutely THRIVING! It will interesting to see how they last once the weather really heats up. I may pot up some marigolds and set them aside to fill this is the pansies give up.

Despite a pretty busy weekend…

Decent progress was made on Miss Woodland Fairy. The leaves on the front of her dress and sleeve were finished up. And I even had time to complete the ones that lined the lower part of her skirt.

I think I might work on her rippling ribbon this coming weekend!

Vacation has, sadly, come to an end. But it didn’t go by without some time in the studio. Two days, in fact!

We are refinancing our mortgage this year, so early in the week we had an appointment for the bank’s assessor to come through. That meant I had to so some cleaning because the studio was in bad shape!

Yeah… it was that bad! Surprisingly, it didn’t take terribly long to get it back in order.

And I have to say, when I went back in there a few days later, it was so nice to just start sewing – and not have to clean anything up first. I really do need to get better at cleaning up after I work in there, instead of saying “Ill do it later,” and shutting the door.

And here’s what I was working on…

Yup… it was time to finally get those arrow blocks together into a top. Since they were 16″ blocks, it didn’t take long.

We just sewed them up, added a quick, plain white border and it was done!

It finished up at 56″ x 72″ so a nice size for a small bed, or a big lap quilt.

I’ve had this quilt planned for several years, including this flannel backing for it. And I decided to go with some scrappy binding using more fat quarters from the bundle.

There’s still LOTS of fat quarters left, so I’ll be making another quilt from these fabrics at some point. But not just yet. Now I’m in the mood for something completely different… stay tuned!

I gave you an update on some of the seediness going on here mid-week, but there’s still more!

The sunflowers I started late have germinated beautifully!

If all of these, and all the ones that re-seeded in the gardens, survive – it’s going to be one sunny garden this summer! Of course, I have learned that the squirrels LOVE sunflower seedlings, so chances are at least half of these will get eaten.

The tray below it is doing just as well. As I mentioned before, it’s a mix of annuals. I may just plant those nasturiums out in the garden this weekend.

Out in the containers… I’ve said before it pays to be patient…

And those tiny bits of green are the proof. You’ll remember that some weeks ago, I planted a pile of foxglove seeds out in one of the raised beds. Then the squirrels came along and dug up all the soil. Foxlglove need light to germinate, so if they get buried, no foxgloves. I figured this lot was lost…. but decided to give it a bit before planting anything else there. And as you can see – that was a good call! It doesn’t look like the Rusty Foxglove, or Chinese Foxglove beside it, made it – but I’m happy the Yellow ones did.

The swiss chard has also taken it’s sweet time.

I planted seeds weeks ago, and I’m just starting to see sprouts.

These chives were started from seed in 2022. It’s so nice to have them come back year after year. (and nice to add the chives to dinner on occasion!). At the townhouse, I learned chives can take over if you let them, so I keep them in a pot now.

My strawberry seeds did not germinate at all… so I picked up three new plants to add to my existing strawberry beds

They are the ones with the dark pink flowers (one in each bed). The strawberries never make it into the house – they are for in-garden snacking!

What’s your favourite garden snack?

No words needed.

Please enjoy.

I’m probably a little biased….

But I do think he is one of the most regal-looking cats in the world!

As mentioned previously, I took Saturday off… but as much as I probably should have, I just couldn’t stay out of the garden for long. So Sunday, I got out there early, because it was hot, hot, HOT!

Gardening without kneeling is difficult, but I managed it. I got a few things planted…

Susannah Swan got planted up with some pretty pink sedums (from baskets I had last year), and a lovely apricot dahlia.

I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of impatiens, but they are one of the few things that will grow well on the sidewalk garden that gets very little sun.

But these rose-like impatiens…. well I love them! There’s only one garden centre around here that sells them, and they are twice as much as the regular impatiens…but I think they are worth it.

They will fill out the spaces between the Heuchera and add some much needed colour to that area.

My half cask on the step got a begonia and some fuschia. It’s pretty much what I grew there last year and it did so well it was worth a repeat.

Then I moved to under the tree to get a little relief from the heat.

And now my little garden mirror/window has a planter of fuschia and ivy …

this will grow and trail as time goes on.

After that, it was time to give some love to all those seedlings I’d started.

Several things got planted out into the garden – squash & pumpkins, cucamelons, and yellow pear tomatoes.

The Morning Glories and Sweet Peas got planted into large pots with supports they can grow up.

But the rest of the seedlings weren’t quite ready to plant out yet. Instead, they all got planted on into pots…

And they are all sheltering on the porch where they can have a little more time to grow and get stronger before they go out in the big, hard world. In truth, with the exception of the squash, and pumpkins, while I got decent germination on most of the snails, they did end up a little leggy and weak. Not 100% sold that snails will be my go-to for next year.

After all that was done, I took a little break in the A/C for a bit, then came back out after dinner to plant some more seeds. We were past time to get the peas, beans, cucumbers and carrots into the ground.

And for some extra excitment, while I planted one bed up with my regular, reliable Neptune carrots…

I planted up an entire second bed with these colourful beauties!

There was still lots to do… potatoes and zucchini still need to be planted… and then there’s all those dahlias, and pots to be planted up… but that was about all my knee could take (and it was getting dark).

Monday and Tuesday were hotter than Hades (and there was much to be done on the INSIDE of the house), but Wednesday cooled right off. I used it as a sewing day (more on that later) but hopefully today I’ll be back out to finish those tasks. Its a good start to what I hope will be a banner season.

You might be surprised to see an FO post for quilts, as you know I haven’t hit the studio in a few weeks. (Tis the season… garden season!). But when Mom was here, I sent her home with the two tops I had finished so she could quilt them.

First up.. the Blockhead quilt.

Although I did not love making this one, I do like how it turned out. I love the black and white theme with pops of colour. As you can see, we went with a scrappy binding. But it’s the back I really love.

Aren’t these tigers so cute? I got several yards of that fabric on deep clearance probably about 10 years ago. I’m so thrilled to finally have a quilt to use it on! It works so well with the animal theme of the Linework prints.

As you will recall, there was enough fabric leftover to make a baby quilt too.

It got binding that matched the border on the lap quilt. But… it got the same backing.

I really can’t get enough of those grumpy tigers! There’s some left, so expect to see some scraps show up in other quilts!

In the mean time – both of these are in the shop…

Not a lot of stitching got done this weekend.

I only stitched on Saturday night. But that saw me pick out the greens for the leafy parts of her dress. I got a little bit done on the front of the dress – but there still a fair bit more to do there. Then there’s the leaves that run along the bottom of her dress.

Still enjoying every stitch

My vacation did NOT start out as planned. All the weeding I did the other weekend apparently took its toll on my knees. Well…mostly my right knee. Over the course of last week, it got steadily worse, and Friday night I noticed it was swollen.

The internets told me to ice it, elevate it… and stay out of the garden…

So my Saturday looked a lot like this…

With Furby on nursing duties, I figured if I was stuck in my chair, I might as well finish my sock. So I binged The Other Bennet Sister, and got them done.

I’m afraid you get unblocked socks, because the blockers were upstairs and the knee did NOT like going up and down stairs. And yeah… they TOTALLY look like mismatched socks. I’m not thrilled with that but I can live with it. The balls must have been two different dyelots. As long as they keep my feet warm, it doesn’t really matter.

That said, they fit perfect. So it looks like 52 stitches on 2.75 mm needles will be my set combo for Kroy socks. I’ll just be checking dye lots next time.

And… while my knee isn’t 100%, I was able to get in the garden on Sunday. More on that later