I was coming up the street after picking up the mail the other day, and I couldn’t help but stop and admire the front gardens as I approached
While we haven’t had a lot of rain, I have been watering enough to keep the beds from drying out completely like they did last year.
And while it does look good, I, of course, mostly see all the things I need to find time to do…
Like some major weeding! I managed to tackle the backyard and catio yard on Sunday, but the front beds are terribly overdue!
And while the squashes and pumpkins are struggling in the vegs beds (more on that this weekend)… out front they are THRIVING! Right where I absolutely don’t want them! And the kicker… these are from decorative gourds that rotted away over winter… TWO YEARS ago!
And I really need to get the beds cleaned up, because like an idiot…
I went and bought more plants, and I need to find spaces to put them in! Picture are new (annual) salvias, hyssop, coreopsis, blanket flower and that amazing fringed shasta daisy!
And that doesn’t include the plants that I already have that need to be planted out…
Like the Bachelor Buttons, Zinnias, and Cosmos I started from seed!
Let’s not forget the Asiatic Lilies, Day Lilies, Joe Pye Weed, Pearly Everlasting and St. Johns Wort…. all started in Spring and way overdue to be planted out!
Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not complaining about the amount of work I’d have to do in the gardens. I love doing it, it doesn’t feel like work to me. What I need is TIME! Hopefully I can get to it this weekend… though I did hear something about a possible trip to Long Point to see Dave’s uncle….. so don’t hold me to it!
Because I don’t have enough on my plate already.. I’ve committed myself to making at least two quilts for Christmas. They for the kids of the couple I made a quilt for last year… apparently that quilt keeps getting purloined, so I guess they need their own.
One is for the young man who Dave chauffered to his grade 8 grad last month.
So classic cars seemed appropriate for a theme. The line is called American Muscle by Studio E fabrics.
His sister is going into his last year of highschool in September, so for her I dug into the stash and came up with this layer cake
It’s one I bought on sale ages ago. A digital print that looks batikish but isn’t.
Here’s a look at the prints it contains.
I haven’t landed on a design for either of them yet – but it will be something quick and simple. I certainly don’t have a tonne of time to get finnicky with them!
Despite all the excitement of Saturday, I did managed to do a little stitching on Sunday night.
In fact, Burton insisted!
As you can see, I moved the hoop back up. I finished up a good chunk of the purple ribbon. There’s still another piece that goes over her head, but it’s disconnected from the piece I finished. It’s broken by her wing and it was just too many stitches to count from the places I had done, and I didn’t want to risk messing it up. So instead, I decided to get a start on her arm. From there, I’ll probably do her head, which will be me a better place to count from for the rest of the ribbon.
Part of the reason I’ve been so busy lately is because, in addition to a large workload, and and over-extended garden, I’ve been party planning.
You see… Dave’s been fast approaching a pretty big milestone. The big 5-0. It still feels very strange to me – we started dating when he was just a young, cocky 26-year-old. But it’s true!
Now Dave normally doesn’t like a big deal made about his birthday, but he does love a good party. And I figure 50 years of not dying is something to celebrate! So on Saturday, we had a pile of friend over for a BBQ. The hot disgusting weather meant we kept the festivities indoors (except for me outside at the grill), but thankfully we have a large house that’s laid out well for entertaining.
I let Dave kick back and enjoy his guests while I managed food, drinks, and making sure he and all the guests were attended to. As such, I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures.
I did get one of him blowing out his candles, so at least there’s that!
I was absoutely beat by the time everyone left. But the big smile on that guy’s face was worth it. 10/10 would celebrate him again!
And I’m happy to say it’s another decent harvest. At least for the regular garlic. I doesn’t look like any of the Elephant Garlic made it. It’s supposed to be MUCH bigger than the regular garlic
The biggest one I have is only slightly bigger than all the other bulbs, so I’m not 100% sure it’s Elephant garlic. Either way I got 15 bulbs (two were pulled earlier and taken to Mom’s) so it’s right on par with my usual harvest.
While I was out there, I also pulled the shallots.
They technally weren’t “done” (ie greens flopping) but some of the stems were starting to rot so I figured it was best to pull them before the rot spread and I lost too many.
Normally, shallots split into two or three separate bulbs, but this year I didn’t get any triplets, and only ended up with a handful of twins. Most of them stayed single, though they are a good size. I think the cooler spring, and up and down weather had something to do with it. This was the first year I’ve ever had to cut scapes off my shallots. In the end, I only got about 1/3 of what I got last year.
These (and the garlic) are now all laid out on the catio porch to cure for a few weeks. Along with these little guys
I bought a tray of pickling onions back when I bought the bird house gourds etc – I needed to buy 10 trays to get each for $1. Some of you may remember my pickled onion adventure from way back. We can actually by Dad’s pickled onions again, but I figured these would be fun to do up a home made jar for him. Like the shallots and garlic – these are on the porch curing. Because I’m pickling, them, they don’t really need it – but I don’t have the time to pickle them just yet – so it won’t hurt them to hang out for a bit.
And I was so excited about my tiny peppers…. only to discover this…
Three of them had these brown mushy spots. Google tells me it might be sunburn. There’s more flowers on the plants, so there’s still a chance for peppers… but I think I may need to rig up some sort of sun shade.
The hot weather has been hard on my peas too. They are still producing well, but the pods are a bit curly! They taste just fine though and I love my daily garden snack as I make my rounds.
The melons, at least, are enjoying the heat! We’ve already got blooms, so fruit shouldn’t be too far behind (though it takes almost all summer to ripen!)
And last…
It’s bean harvest time! This makes me so happy after the bean debacle of last year. And unlike previous years – I didn’t go crazy and plant up a whole 4×4 bed. These are in a large container and there’s probably five or six plants. If I’ve calculated correctly – it should be just enough to keep us in beans for fresh eating for most of the summer, without too much, if any, overflow!
While I haven’t won the war on the Japanese beetle… I am winning many small skirmishes. I try to get out there every day – ideally twice a day, morning and evening – picking beetles of my plants.
As a result, I am seeing a reduction. Where they normally demolish the raspberries and willows, I’m seeing fewer and fewer there. They are still being very hard on the roses, and the weeping pussywillow out front, but even there I feel like I’m seeing their numbers lower. The stupid, mind melting heat is making it hard to get out there though – but I’m doing my best.
I’ve managed to mostly keep them off the Hollyhocks and have been enjoying these beautiful blooms. The double blooms also seem to be a little harder for the beetles to as opposed to the single ones, which they could destroy in just a couple hours.
Most of the roses are pretty munched right now, but Chicago Peace managed to bloom. The heat is pretty hard on the roses too, so we wont’ really see them shine again until September.
I think I’m once again winning the lily beetle battle too. I pick them off and put them in the bucket right alongside the Japanese Beetles. These two are the most recent bloomers.
These two are both Stargazers. Most people are familiar with the Pink Stargazer, but don’t realize there’s a yellow one too. They are the most robust, and resistant to the lily beetle in my collection.
Happily, there are no pests that really seem to bother the daylilies. These three are Night Embers, Catherine Woodbury and Crimson Pirate.
On the left we have Frans Hals, middle is Children’s Festival, and right is Bonanza
But these two…
while pretty… are a bit of a disappointment. They were part of that “Purple and White” daylily mix I bought. Now, I’ve banged on before about how purple isn’t always purple in the horticultural world.. but this is how the grower advertised them…
Certainly more purple than what I got. And not even the same petal type – these are more “spider” like.
Onto better things…
My Native purple bee balm (which is ACTUALLY purple) is blooming! Normally, it is subject to powdery mildew. But despite the humidity, it’s been a pretty dry summer so far, so the leaves are green and happy.
My Grandma always called these Red Hot Pokers. I’ve since learned they are called Kniphofia, and they come in a range of colours. At the townhouse, I had one called Traffic light, that blended from yellow on the bottom to red on the top. They didn’t make the move, and I planted a mixed bag when we moved here. But I only got one colour – this cheery orange.
The first sunflower has bloomed
I honestly can’t tell you if this is a volunteer or one of the ones I started from seed. It’s over on the back fence, so my guess it that it’s a volunteer. They did much better than most of the ones I started. I am debating on even starting any next year, and just redistributing the volunteers as they pop up!
Over in the catio, the Culver’s Root is in full bloom. It’s hard to get a a picture of just how magnificent they are. They reach the top of the catio fence which is almost 9 feet. And they branch out all over the place. They’ve gotten quite bushy so I might try to split them up in the fall. I think they’d look great along the fence. They are a native plant too (though this is a hybrid cultivar).
The whole catio is looking pretty darn amazing! Though I have to get out, stake some things up, and do some weeding. (Don’t I always?)
I’m trying to spend as much time as I can in the garden, but the heat (and now wildfire smoke) is making it hard. But I have to at least make sure this one gets some time on the garden swing with me each day.
I got myself some new pajamas the other day. They came in the mail, and I took them out of the bag, took the tag off, and laid them on the bed, to be put on later that night
Two minutes later, I came back to find them claimed.
I mean… I guess they do kind of have his name on them.
I FINALLY finished the broken seed stitch sock this week.
It should not have taken so long to finish such a small sock – even with the seed stitch and changing of colours. In truth, that doesn’t slow it down much at all because you get into a good rhythm with it.
No – it’s because the reality is – I just haven’t had time to pick it up and work on it. I normally knit in the evenings after dinner, but between work, garden obligations and just general tasks that have piled up, there just hasn’t been a chance to actually sit and knit.
I have an event this weekend (more on that later) and after that, I hope life calms down a little bit. I still have to knit the second sock!
I mentioned early this week that the Monarchs are once again regular visitors to the yard. So, it shouldn’t have totally surprised me to find this on my bed last week….
Now, regular readers will know that it’s not unusual for Lemmy to catch monarchs in the catio. He usually get’s five or six every summer. But bringing them in the house. That’s new.
And then it happened again a few days later. Once again in the bedroom, but this time on the floor. I tried to have a chat with the young offender
Wandering Cat Studio 