It was another one of those weekends that got away from. I made some good accomplishments, but very little of it were the ones I planned.

For instance, the only tiny needle that got plied this weekend was a teeny tiny quilting needle…

… as I worked under the snoopervision of these two, finishing the binding on the sunflower quilt. But more on that tomorrow – and the rest of my weekend adventure the day after.

While the beetles have been the bane of the garden, the delight has been these guys.

The monarch caterpillars had a bit of a rough start. When the Common Milkweed was in bloom, the flowers attracted ants. And the ants killed all the caterpillars that had hatched at that time. I didn’t have the same problem with the swamp milkweed, which is interesting.

However, after the the flowers died away, the ants disappeared and new hatchlings have fared better.

I’ve seen several start to leave the milkweed, which they only do when they are getting ready to build their coccoons. I haven’t been lucky enough to find any of those yet… but I hope that maybe one of two of the dozens of monarchs that have flitted through my garden…

… are from the caterpillars that hatched and fed on my milkweed.

Apparently, only 10% of monarch eggs survive to become monarchs. There are lot of hazards out there, from ants to parasitic wasps, birds to toads to….

Lemmy!!!!!

I’ve talked to Dave, and next year, we’re going to build a butterfly enclosure so I can raise them in a more controlled environment to give them a better chance. It won’t protect them from Lemmy… but it should help with everything else!

I know there’s a lot of buzz around right now about the second Beetle Juice movie, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. This is my kind of beetle juice…

I mentioned several posts back about my battle with the dreaded Japanese beetles. Every day, I go around the garden to do battle with the pests. I got out usually at least three times – once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening, and I pick the beetles off my plants, and put them in this bowl of water, mixed with a little dish soap. I pick off about this many beetles almost every single day.

Why do I do this?

Because this is what they do to plants. And many of their favourites are my favourites too. Especially my roses.

They also love the pussy willows, the raspberries, the hyssop, the coneflowers and the butterfly bushes. It’s a constant battle. I won’t say I’m winning, but things would be much worse if I did nothing. Next year, I’m going to try nematodes on the lawn, to see if I can reduce the population by attacking the grubs before they emerge as beetles. The problem is though, these little jerks fly… so they come in from all over.

As much as the soil here is better for my roses than the townhouse, I definitely have more insect issues. The other big problem I have are these jerks.

They are Sawfly larvae. And like the Japanese Beetles, the best way to keep them in check is manually pick them off. The problem is, they start out really small, and can do a lot of damage before they get big enough to easily see.

Despite these troubles, the roses are doing pretty well this year.

Those last two pics are of the newest- Prairie Princess. She’s such a pretty shade of pink, and a very welcome addition to my collection.

While last Saturday was raining, and spent in the studio. Sunday dawned relatively mild and sunny. I knew I had to get out and get some yard work done. Since Dave had finished the new fence, I really had to get moving on the landscaping to make it a usable space.

You will recall it looked like this:

I don’t have the time and resources to do the whole space at once, so I decided to focus on the area along the fence line, connecting it up to the existing border garden. First, I had to clean out at least 3 years of dead leaves and sticks. Happily, all those leaves meant there was nothing but bare ground underneath them, so I didn’t have to do much to prepare for planting.

I fillled the area with the hostas and heuchera I’d bought earlier – keeping them in the shadiest positions. The bugbane and astilbe got planted closer to the drip line, as did a new dark pink tickseed, and a purple pincushion plant I managed to get on clearance last week.

I also got Dave to install hook so I could hang the basket of impatiens I got.

After that, it was just a matter of moving in my bench, and table and chairs, providing a couple places to relax and enjoy the shade,

Much more will come next year, but for now, it provides a nice shady spot to enjoy a view of the yard, all the way down to Willow Grove at the very back.

Despite how it might seem in the picture above, Rupert seems to be healing very well. The incision, as terrible as it looks, is healing quite nicely, staying dry and clean. It helps that he can’t lick it, but he seems to be staying away from scratching it too, though that may change as it heals more. We got a soft cone thing just incase it becomes a problem.

It’s been a week since the surgery, and he’s finished with the painkillers and gabapentin (used to keep him calm and stress-free). All that’s left is the anti-biotic which he’s getting daily. He still hates that part, but there’s only a week to go. (Halfway there!!!). As long as it’s not raining, he spends the day sleeping in the catio… which is what he did before the surgery.

The sutures are supposed to dissolve/fall out on their own, but if they don’t, we take him in next week and they will remove them. I hope they come out on their own though… both he and I have had enough of getting him in the carrier to last for quite a while!

The other day, Dee had a post all about sunflowers. And if I had to pick a flower that represented August, it would be the sunflower.

I started several sunflower seeds earlier this year. And thanks to the squirrels…. not one of them made it past a sprout!

But also thanks to the squirrels (I’m assuming), this giant volunteer showed up in my garden on the corner of Willow Grove. Well… it didn’t just show up, I’ve been watching and tending to it for a couple months now. But it’s only the last couple of weeks that it’s really gone crazy. For reference, I’m about 5’7″… and it’s about a foot taller than me. It’s got one big head at the top… but also dozens that are sprouting off the sides.

The top head has finally just opened

And the others won’t be too far behind. It’s going to be just spectacular. And while it’s blooming outside…

Saturday was mostly raining, so I couldn’t get out to do my garden work I had planned (more on that this weekend). So instead, I stayed in the studio and made sunflowers. Why, you ask… well as I said…. sunflowers are the ultimate symbol of August to me.

And someone just happens to be in need of an August quilt for his chaise…

Hopefully I get another rainy day this weekend to quilt it. He is obviously a little impatient!

We’ve come to the last quilt in the quilt parade… one I don’t think Lemmy wants me to put in the shop.

And I have to admit, it does compliment his fur quite nicely.

This, of course, is the baby quilt made with the adorable “Eat Your Veggies” fabric line. Using a jelly roll meant this one went together super quick.

I love the colours and the cute little dino quilts! As much as I love making scrap quilts, I still love making them with coordinating fabrics too.

And despite how much Lemmy wants this one… it is in the shop, just waiting for a dino and veggie-loving baby.

The next quilt in the quilt parade is the largest. So big, it took two nights to bind, and two shifts by three separate snoopervisors.

But all that hardwork paid off.

You will recall that each one of those little chevrons was made as a Leader/Ender. I didn’t track when I started making them, but I’m pretty sure this was one of my longest L/E projects to date. There are 448 little chevrons in there – that’s 448 separate scraps of fabric, which all had to be snowballed on each end (that means 896 squares of background fabric for snowballing!)

All to create something absolutely wild and crazy

For the back, I used one of the clearance finds that I’ve had sticking around forever.

And that’s one of the best parts about a scrap quilt – you can get away with almost anything on the back!

Like most of the others, this one has gone to the shop. Don’t miss the chance to make it yours!

The weekend is over, so it’s back to the Quilt Parade. Next up, Lemmy’s version of the Haunted Hallowe’en mystery

Since I knew this one would be going in the shop, I expanded it out with the star borders to make it lap size. It’s still a small quilt – just 48″ x 52″ – but it’s a great size for throwing over your legs on those cool autumn nights.

Like my wall hanging, this one has some fussy-cut details…

The fabrics are a mix of the Kitty Corn and Owl-o-ween lines, which are these soft colours with great vintage details.

This one was a lot of fun to sew, and quilt! Because I had so much open black space, I decided to have a little fun with the quilting… and quilted little stars randomly among the loops.

And to finish it all off…

How fun is the fabric I got for the back and the binding? I actually wasn’t planning on quilting this one right away, because I didn’t have a back for it. I figured I’d stop in at Lens one day, and get some flannel for it. But then I popped on Missouri Star Quilts a few days after I finished the top, and they had two yard cuts of this on sale. It was a total no brainer!

If you’d like to make it yours…. it’s in the shop.

The results of Edible Alley have far and away exceeded my expectations!

This is what it looks like if you’re sitting on the southwest corner, just outside of it! Now it’s surrounded on all sides with flowers, but inside, it’s just as lush and green.

The Snap Peas and Tenderbeans are coming non-stop. I harvest at least this much every couple days.

And I’m bringing in at least two decent-sized cucumbers every other day. Before I headed to Mom’s, I took four of them, sliced them up and put them in some cider vinegar in a large pickling jar for Dad.

The new strawberry plants are doing well. The critters beat me to them about 70 percent of the time, but I did manage a nice little haul for myself the other day. I don’t bother with any sort of protection for them. I just munch them when I see them ripe enough.

My squash tripled in size while I was gone, and there are several flower. I have to get out there and tie this one up the ladder so it can start growing vertically. So far, I seem to have kept that Borer Beetle at bay.

The garlic seems to be a bust – though the leaves started to yellow, the bulbs I dug up were no bigger than the cloves I planted. That’s okay – we’ll plant some this fall, and see if we make out better with that.

The carrots beside them seem to be doing well. We are still well off from a carrot harvest of any type though.

The chives are growing slowly, but they are growing. I suspect next year that the pot will be nice and full. Same with the catnip. There are some robust little sprouts in there now.

But the real success story…

Is my INSANE tomato plant. There are actually two plants there. On the left, you can just see the cage surrounding one plant… but on the right…. well that monster is just taking over!!! It’s almost as tall as me (I’m 5’7″). That box it’s in is 3′ x 3′. And it’s almost taken over the whole thing. It’s planted in the left corner, but the plant almost completely fills the box!!!! The poor asparagus are almost completely shadowed.

I’ve grown some robust tomato plants in my time… but never one this quite robust. But I have one small complaint…

Those AREN’T Grape tomatoes. I don’t eat tomatoes. Dave does, but he can’t eat too many, because the acid bothers him. I like to stick to cherry tomatoes because he can happily snack on them without too much trouble.

The garden centre was out of cherry tomatoes when I went this year, but I though grape tomatoes would be the next best thing. But it appears my specimen was mislabeled!

No idea what they are or how big they will get. But one thing is for sure – I’m going to need to find lots of people to share them with – because this plant is COVERED in them!