Stuck 201

Stuck needle bar on my 201.

My first quilt.

A quilt for my new nephew Henry.   Moda Monkey Tales fabric, with a green cotton flannel dot backing, wool batting.   Most challenging part was having to get my mom's sewing machine back in gear to finish it, as I had only gotten halfway through piecing the top before I went home.  Mom's machine was well cleaned, oiled, and put away all together - with a fabric cover to reduce the dust.

Long Time No Post...

Been knitting and sewing lately.   Will try to update soon.

Mosquitoes

I am missing the days when my city could afford to spray for mosquitoes. Last night, after spraying, having a semi-functional bug zapper, and 2 citronella candles in the area I was working I still have tons of bites. I was quite glad I decided to shower before bed, cause when I undressed, there was one under my shirt.

Ugh.

Weather and Weeds

The weather here in the Midwest has been far too wet, and like two years ago a great deal of the rain has come during the day. Two summers ago that meant blight and fungus, unseasonably milder temperatures, and extremely low tomato production. It could be worse - praying for the victims of the flooding and tornadoes - but still makes it so that the garden here is a mess. Especially when you factor in all the weeds that got to sprout and seed to their hearts' content with a summer mostly away.

There are huge tap root weeds in my veg. garden - and a large number of volunteer parsnips. (Still haven't cooked any of my own yet.) And I can't find my pitchfork - and the clayish soil is too wet to do anything about it.

A summer away...

Sorry, no posts this summer. Will update with knitting soon.

Signs of Spring

The crocuses are starting to fade - the record high in the 80s a bit too much for them.

The daffodils are starting in full force.
But the heat has some of the full size ones in bloom already (above), while the miniature ones are just getting going. (below).But the Phlox is still only greening up.

But one of my hellebores is giving a good show.
The funny thing is my oldest plant has the weakest show.

Snow Day

Today we've already gotten a couple of inches, and are expected to get up to a foot more over the day.

Back to Knitting...

Sorry I haven't posted for a bit. First frost was in September, along with week of damp cold - then an Indian Summer - that didn't quite qualify due to the previous frost. So no more gardening.

So back to indoor hobbies. Knitting for Christmas is going poorly - mostly because 1 mitten is AWOL. So I couldn't match it's mate to it (winged the pattern), and now am knitting a third. Using sock yarn - and am happy that there is still enough left for the third, but am quite unhappy with myself for the loss of the first. On the upside I've listened to quite a few audio books the past week or two as I tossed my room and cleaned and tossed it again. (Anyone else find that some mystery authors are better abridged? Reich I find is over-peppered with foreshadowing and duh moments in the complete text.) And my speed isn't helped by the fact I accidentally grated the skin of the back of the knuckle of my middle finger making dinner last night. Ouch.

Fall planting.

Summer crisp didn't have a great germ. rate for me - so mostly have swiss chard in the garden for greens. Today I planted little cos, and black seeded simpson - rather heavily as they were older packets and I'm hoping there will be some germination. I also planted an old packet of Detroit red beets (really old packet) and 4 rows of peas 2 of sugar snap and 2 of sugar Ann. I wanted to get them in a week ago - but we had a week of rainy days.

The carrots I planted a few weeks back had 0 germ. So no carrots or parsnips at all this year - think I'm going to try another seed source next year.

The beans are still producing. I'm disappointed in my butternut squash with 3 plants only 2 squash, maybe I should try paintbrush pollination - though I don't know if there will be enough time for a new one to grow before frost. The yellow squash and zuke are puttering out a few every other week - which I don't mind as much at this point in the season as I did 2 months ago.

I have tons of green tomatoes. I was hoping for a little more heat this weekend to push them into the red, but no. Thank goodness I planted early girls - they are practically the only tomatoes I've had this year.

Leaves are falling from the trees (a bit early). And it seems that the weeds have slowed down too - or maybe the desired plants are big and raggedy enough to hide them more.

September already.

Fleurs of August.

Wonderful bloom. Easy to see how some people can get obsessed with them.

I love zinnias. And the cleome is still going strong.

This one appeared out of nowhere a few years ago and has continued to seed itself all over the flowerbeds and lots in the grass. They are pretty though, especially as most of the other flowers are fading.

The obviously new lilly...

This lilly is less than 6 inches tall. While the established ones bloomed in June, it was planted then (one of the bulbs from the half-off bin). It makes me laugh - as the established plants were 2 feet tall. :)

Weed or Flower?

I emptied out many old seed packets this spring - so I don't know if this is a weed or a flower. Any ideas? If those are all seed heads - I need to pull it quick.

Update: After some searching I think it might be pigsweed. Which I have never seen in my garden before. I don't think I'm going to be buying the same mushroom compost ever again.

Bean Identity Quandry

I know I planted limas. However, I did not label them. I've also planted bush green beans. I noticed today that I finally had some beans in the garden - but do not know if they are immature limas - or small green beans... The obvious solution is to just let them keep growing - but I so want to have beans of my own..

I don't think any of the parsnips I planted between the beans have germinated. I know they are supposed to have a long germ time - but I think they might not happen. As the carrots also didn't happen this year - it has me wondering about the middle of my garden.

Fleurs

Too many choices...

This is the NE side of the house - and I'm uncertain what I want to do here. It's fairly dry - as it is a foundation bed. There is snow-on-the-mountain aka bishop's weed, a lupine, a volunteer garden phlox, a volunteer __, a pink daylilly, and a green hosta.

I have a white bleeding heart, some columbine I grew from seed, and some liatris bulbs... but was struck with the idea of putting different hosta there...

On one hand this is close to the front door - more flowers would be nice - and my other columbine aren't thriving so it would be nice if they would here. I started tearing out the b.w. because the phlox has powdery mildew - and grabbed one of my remaining bags of mulch.

This is the side of the house that the gas and water line comes in on - so the beds can't really be extended from where they are. So moisture is always going to be an issue.

Hmm... Any opinions?

First Hummingbird Sighting.

The other couple of photos I took only showed a blur. :)

Bloom Day

I think I have a hybrid here. :) I think I may have planted the large yellow daylilly - but I have a feeling that the large orangey-red one may be a result of a tryst with with the orange ones by the mail box.


The white trumpet lillies are now blooming - as the orange orientals have faded. Lillies staggered across the summer really help keep something always in bloom... Plus it's nice to have fragrance.
It also helps to have long bloomers like coneflower... Only my purple ones are in bloom - the white are close - with the yellow and red still haven't shot up bloom stalks.


Musacdet? is blooming on taller stalks than in years past - wonder if it is the wet spring or just the age of the plant.

My oakleaf and Endless Summer Hydrangas are still blooming - as are the stella d'oro daylillies and the hollyhocks and crosmosia.And this purple species geranium is going a bit nuts... I think he likes the extra sunlight that the others I planted in the shade aren't getting. And the buds on the butterfly bush are developing.
The hosta are blooming, as are the balloon flowers (though they just started), the Russian sage, and lavender are still gorgeous.
And I'm quite happy to have plenty of tomato, pepper, and squash flowers - the beans are still a bit slow. :)

Seedling Guilt.

I have too many tomato seedlings. I planted a row each for 4 different varieties in the Jiffy peat pellets. 6 * 4 = 24 Hey, usually about 1/2 die. This year not a one. Plus I bought a few, and planted those (Early Girls).

So tonight I was in the garden planting the veggies that ran out of room for. And I still have more plants than room. But I was pushing on - trying to get as much in. I had citronella candles out - and was breaking sod. However, the candles did no good whatsoever. Except to make me think they might be doing some good. My arms look almost like I have chickenpox.

And I only got a couple plants planted. I did some weeding - but sod clearing is a bit more work. I'm not even doing it properly - which may bite me next year. I did find a near completely intact brick while digging, and broken glass. I dug out what might have been a coneflower plant from the grass - and moved it by the fence. There are a bunch of coneflower possibles next to the garage - that I think I might dig and move somewhere that I can wait to see what happens.