Progress is slow on the cable socks, but that is to be expected…

I’m about an inch from starting the heel on the first sock. Things will speed up then because I will only be cabling on the front of the sock. But even now I’m loving it. I’ve been doing mostly plain socks for more than a year now, it’s a nice switch to do something that takes more thought.

When I posted my last garden post, Betsy, of The Simple Life of a Queen, asked for overall pictures of the garden. It’s never polite to deny the request of a Queen… and I aim to please!

Now, it is a little difficult, mostly because the gardens are fairly extensive, and faraway pictures don’t do them justice. So I’ve tried to “chunk” things up a bit, and do a couple of panoramic pictures (which become a little distorted but give a decent idea)

But first, I thought it might help to have a little map.

(Click to enlarge) The light grey areas are the house (the largest) the double garage (top left) and shed (bottom left). The darker grey bar is the road and therefore the front of the house.

The front yard is realatively small compared to the back, but it is packed with flowers.

Above is an overall view from the south side of the house (the front of the house faces East). Not overly visble in this picture are the driveway and side walk gardens which flank the walkway up to the house.

Above is a slightly distorted panoramic view. And here are a few closer looks

The front garden

The island garden.

And the side garden at the south property line.

The only other garden out front is the walkway garden at the side of the front porch

This chunk of the garden is technically new this year. It was all Snow on the Mountain but I pulled it all this spring and planted it up with a variety of plants from other parts of the yard. It’s taken off far better than expected.

Now it’s time to head out back.

On the south side of the house, the front and back yards are divided by a fence (which you can see in the first photo. The backyard side of that fence sits under the only tree in the yard – a Norway Maple… so that’s my woodland garden.

It’s the only shady spot on the yard, but in truth, most of it get sun from about 2 pm on, so it’s not all that shady except closer to the fence. The above panoramic picture does not do it justice at all.

I much prefer this view, looking through my arbour down a long green lawn to the veg beds.

Here’s another panorama that shows the entrance to the Woodland Garden, then the long fence border on the south side which runs right back to the shed.

The North side houses the catio

This, of course, is an approximate 12′ x 25′ floral playground for the boys. It has planting both inside, and all around the outside.

The view from the inside is my favourite and I often sit on the step during work breaks and just soak up the yard.

From here, you can see that Fence Border runs into the Veg Beds. (AKA Edible Alley, Potager Parlour and Cucurbit Corridor)

Like the catio, they are mostly surrounded by floral borders too.

The veg beds are all raised bed or large containers making it a very eclectic, but functional space.

And last, at the very back of the yard (western most point), we have the newest garden

The aptly named Back Fence Border. Here is where my Forsythia and Blackberries were already planted, but this year, I’ve added a Butterfly Bush (white one, as my original didn’t make it) and well as a few perennials. This is also from where we feed Loki dog cookies through the fence.

And that’s the grand tour! I cant remember the exact size of our lot, but it’s somewhere around 60′ wide by 100′ feet deep. And you can see I’ve packed plenty in that space! Especially out front.

Disgusting heat and humidity kept me in the house all weekend, but it required a little extra enforcement to get me in the chair and stitching.

Thanks to Burton’s help, I was able to finish Block 17 at last.

Only three more blocks to go!

Something fun is happening in the garden.

As you know… I am great friends with these guys…

I don’t mind that they eat from my feeders. And as a result, I often get volunteer sunflowers in random places.

As you know, I’ve been feeding them for many, many years. But one thing I’ve never had happen…

Is peanut sprouts! I pulled up the first couple I found, mostly because I didn’t realize what they were. And now I’m finding them EVERYWHERE!

There is at least one in almost every raised bed, and every flower bed except in the catio. So I’ve decided I’m going to leave them! And we are going to see if we can harvest some peanuts!

The July garden is hot, steamy and full of colour.

The day lilies always shine this time of year. Regular readers will know I have many, many varieties, with much more to come.

Like daylilies, there are many coneflowers in the garden. These are just a few.

The butterfly milkweed looks stunning this year. No caterpillars yet but it probably won’t be long.

The mini-hollyhocks look amazing this year. At least they did when I took this picture… they are now getting ravaged by the Japanese beetles.

The colours of autumn are starting to show, though the temps are through the roof and we are far from the cool breezes of fall. Above are False Sunflower, Black-Eyed Susan, Blanket Flower and Marguerites.

The roses have slowed with the heat, but a few are blooming. My two climbers (Quick Silver and Eden – first two pics) had to be cut right back this year, so the blooms are low, but they are growing well. And Chrysler Imperial (Red) is normally ravaged by Black Spot and Sawfly larvae, but it’s doing really well this year.

High summer is such a beautiful time in the garden!

It happens every time… I say “I really need to stop spending money and stick to a budget” and the Universe goes… HA! Here’s some cool stuff you just HAVE to HAVE!

Case in point

Cast iron spider stepping stone! Definite must have.

Decorative spider garden stakes… you need seven of them. (Yes. Seven. Yes, I bought them all)

Vintage tricycle planter? Oh yeah – definitely need that. It was a little rusty, so Dave gave it a fresh paint job. I’ll be potting up some plants and putting it out in the garden today.

Another ceramic long-haired black cat? Of course you need that…

The first one I bought obviously needed a friend.

Spice of Life Lasagna Pan (Roaster) that you’ve been searching forever for? Totally going to find it when you’re sticking to the budget!

I guess I’ll stick to the budget starting tomorrow…

It was a short week for us….

But we are pretty jealous of our friends south of the border… we could use another long weekend!

With the Sanderson socks off the needles, I needed something new on the needles. And I was really feeling the need for cables. I haven’t knit cables in AGES. I searched, and searched and searched but could not find exactly what I was looking for.

So… I got out some graph paper and designed it.

And designing a knitting pattern is something else I haven’t done in ages! But I’m liking the result so far.

I’m not sure if I’ll release it when it’s done. I don’t have the pattern software I used to, so I’ll have to see if I can figure out something else to draw up the charts from my messy, handwritten notes.

But for now I’m just going to enjoy the knit

We are full into Butterfly season here… at least… we should be. Normally as soon as the weather warms up in late April, early May, we start seeing two butterflies regularily – the Red Admiral and the White Cabbage.

I’ve seen exactly one Red Admiral this spring. And the Cabbages, normally, there’s four or five (or more) flitting around the garden at any one time. But not this year. Up until last week… I was lucky to see ONE Cabbage flitting about. But slowly…

Their numbers have been picking up.

The last month, these guys have been a common site.

It’s a Pearl Crescent. It’s a small butterfly and one I don’t normally see until a little later in the year. It’s main larval food is asters, and I have lots of those, so that’s probably why I’m seeing it a little earlier this year.

And we have a new butterfly to the garden this year.

It’s a Common Sootywing. And it’s a tiny one! Think the size of a dime. I only saw it the one day but hope I see it again this year.

Last… we have a moth

This one is a False Crocus Moth. I’ve captured it a few times over the years so it’s a fairly common vistor to the garden.

I have seen a few other butterflies I haven’t been able to capture, including a monarch, a yellow swallowtail, and a little brown butterfly I couldn’t identify. My goal for July is to get out in the garden with the camera as much as possible to capture all of my little winged friends.

Despite having a long weekend… I did not finish #17. This is for two reasons:

1. I spent about 80% of the weekend in the garden. I got up early each day and headed right out. I worked and worked and worked until noon when it got too hot and humid to be out there. Then I came in to the A/C and sewed in the afternoons. Then I made dinner, and headed back out to the garden until dark. There just wasn’t much time for stitching before bedtime.
2. There are A LOT of French knots on this one! And boy do they take time!

So… making progress. Just slowly.