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

Ideally, many of the seeds I started will be going in the garden this week.

The sweetpeas are starting to flop, so I think it’s time to get them outside and on a support. And remember how I said none of my Mini Mike Melons had germinated….

Take a look at the bottom and top pods!

We have sprouts!

On the porch…

It hasn’t been terribly warm, but the sunflowers are sprouting!

The tray of mixed perrenials below is in a similar state.

So far it’s just the Cosmos and Scabiosa, but the Nasturtiums are starting to show signs of life.

Outside…

The lettuces are all looking nice – in a few weeks we could be enjoying some nice salads!

We might even be able to add some radishes to it! I probably should do some thinning in those big clumps though.

The winter sow jugs are still growing along…

Some better than others but they are all growing. These will stay in the jugs for a while longer. I’ve learned not to take them out too soon.

The Cornflowers seem to have survived the squirrels digging. They’ve bounced back quite nicely!

But the big success….

I have Poppies!!! When I was buying poppy seeds, I bought two types… California (Left) and Corn (Right) poppies. As I was weeding I was thrilled to find several seedlings thriving. No idea what colours these will be – I literally took all my poppy seeds, mixed them in a bowl and tossed them throughout the bare patches in the gardens.

With the exception of these poppies.

In my fat bird planter I planted Amazing Grey. It’s a corn poppy and I’ve tried to grow it a couple times with no success. But it looks like this year is going to be the year! My hope is they all grow well enough that they get established, reseed themselves, and also provide me with some seeds to keep back and share.

I know we are really only getting started, but I already feel like this has been a very seedy successful year!

Today is the first day of my week-long vacation. It’s also the start to the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada. Which is also the official start to the gardening season as it usually means we are past our frost date!

So you know that mean I’m going to spend as much time in the garden as possible. There’s lots to plant, but I will still be takin some time to pause and admire all my hard work.

There’s still a handful of tulips hanging around.

And my pretty Poet’s Daffofil is the last daffy standing.

Coming into replace them we have the alliums

I have several types of Alliums, so they will flower in success until at least July.

The Lupins are almost in full form.

And while the irises aren’t going to be as spectacular as previous years – they still look darn tooting pretty.

I’ve got several Geum just getting started. If I dead head these, I can keep them going for at least a month or so.

And the Lily-of-the-Valley is always a favourite this time of year. I brought a tiny clump from the townhouse, and I’m happy to say it’s thrived. I’ve been able to spread it around all over the Woodland garden. The clump from the townhouse was from a much large clump that grew from a few small plants Mom gave me when we first moved there in 2013, so it’s very special.

I’ve struggled with getting Forget-Me-Nots to establish, so I was thrilled when two patches came up in the catio again this year. And then when I was weeding the fence borders, I found another patch. It’s in a shadier spot, so not many flowers, but the foliage is much more lush than that of the catio patch. Hopefully both patches continue to reseed and spread for years to come.

Out front we have a pink abundance in two separate spots! The first is Armeria (aka Spanish Thrift), and the second is that Creeping Phlox I showed last week. Just amazing.

And not to be outdone, just look at that saxifraga! One of my tasks this week will be getting some impatiens and begonias to fill in around it.

Ok – that was enough of a rest – I better get back to work!

It’s hard to believe, but we are coming up on this guy’s 10th Gotcha Day!

I brought our dear Rupert Von Scrufflebutt home at the end of May 2016. He was (according to the Humane Society) about 10 months old at the time. Hard to believe he’s been with us for 10 years already! We’ve loved every day of having him. He’s such a sassy little weirdo.

Here’s to hopefully at least 10 years more!

I mentioned the other day that I spent most of the weekend in the garden. I was basically doing the big “Start of the Year Weeding Session”. I got almost everything done – all the front and back beds. I just have the pathways around the veg beds to do.

And all that weeding means I was up close and personal with (and constantly disturbing) the resident pest control squad.

They may all look the same, but I promise, each one of these is a different toad. There were several others that I didn’t get pictures of, as they scarpered before I could scoop them up. I guess some toads are just a bit camera shy.

As you can see, these guys are all pretty small. I’m sure we’ll be seeing the bigger ones hopping up the stairs for snacks by porchlight soon.

I’m so lucky to have such a devoted garden crew!

While good progress was made on the cross stitching.

Barely any progress has been made on the mis-matched mossy sock. It doesn’t look much different from the last time you saw it, though I promise, there is about an inch more added to the leg. No real excuse for the lack of progress – I just haven’t really picked them up. Of course, I have spent a little more time outside now that the days are warmer and longer. And when I come in, I’ve had a bad habit of playing games on my phone instead of knitting.

Still, these are for me and there’s no real rush to finish them. They will be ready when they are ready!

The weather was fantastic this past weekend. I spent the majority of it in the garden (and have the sunburned shoulders to prove it), but I didn’t neglect my tiny needle time in the evening.

Burton was on duty to keep me on track (it’s hard to tell, but he’s mostly upside-down in that photo)

As a result, another good chunk of Miss Fairy’s skirt was completed. If you look closely, you can just make out where Mr. Foxes ears will go.

I’m on vacation next week, so I might even sneak in some more tiny needle time!

I said this year with the gardens was going to focused on growing from seed… but it’s hard to resist the siren song of the garden centre this time of year

I went just to get some soil. But then I saw the Dahlias…

Usually I find the dahlias at the garden centres tend to be a bit on the dull side. But not this year! These, combined with the ones I started myself, and I think it might end up being the year of the Dahlia.

And you know I can’t resist something new and unique…

Have you ever seen golden Hens and Chicks? Neither had I – so I HAD to have them.

I don’t feel any guilt at all about buying this Blueberry plant. One of mine didn’t make it through the winter, and they say you need two for a good crop, so this was a real need. Aren’t those flowers so pretty?

And I don’t feel even slightly bad for buying another rose. Long Time readers will recall that this was the first rose I had at the townhouse. It died before we moved, and I’ve been looking for another one since. It’s also the best smelling rose I’ve ever come across (though my Bolero is a close second). When I picked it up, Dave just rolled his eyes and said “Don’t plant it anywhere I have to walk”.

These didn’t come from the garden centre, but were ordered about a month ago. And it may look like I bought a couple pots of dirt, but their are dormant roots in there. They are Maypop, the hardiest type of passionflower native to North America. I’m just a the tippytop of the range they can grow in – but I’ve always loved passionflowers so I was thrilled when I discovered I could grow them outside here (when I bring the non-hardy ones in for the winter, they always died).

Like the blueberries, you need two to get fruit so I bought a pink and a white

They should start showing some green soon. They will grow up the side of the catio, like the Clematis. I’m so excited!

(And I’ve only hit three garden centres so far…so there’s probably much, much more to come!)

Things continue to do mostly well in the seed department.

The lettuce/spinach continues to grown nicely.

The radishes are doing very well too – look at that little red root. Of course, they have much more growing to do, but I couldn’t help checking on them.

I am THRILLED with my sweet peas. I’ve got over 50% germination rate. and look how tall and straight they are. They get rotated a couple times throughout the day to keep them growining nicely.

Sadly, the Mini-Mike melons aren’t showing any sign yet. Im going to give them a little more time before I give up on the completely.

And it looks like the squirrels are protesting the lack of peanuts

They made quite the mess of the cornflowers. There are still some growing, (and I have a lot more seeds) so it’s not a total loss.

The seeds I planted last week are just starting to sprout – mostly the tray of sunflowers. But here’s some proof that sometimes you just have to let nature do it’s thing…

These are all sunflower seedlings… from the sunflowers I had surrounding the front porch. I’m going to let these grow on a bit. If they survive the squirrels, I’ll give them some better spots in other gardens

While the strawberry seeds I planted didn’t germinate at all..

The existing strawberries are starting to bloom. I still need to get some fresh plants though. These ones are a few years old, and strawberry plants tend to weaken over time.