May Garden 5/6/24

 

On the first perfect spring day, we were kept in the house while tree trimmers worked in the yard. I only managed to dig out and move four plants. Two large hostas just couldn’t be pried out with either a shovel or spading fork. Bah, and it rains again tomorrow.

I plan to bring my seeds out to the potting bench in the garage, sort though, and see what can be planted now. Once that center bed is cleared and shaped…Wednesday.

All the seedlings Istarted under lights are outside hardening off and are doing well.

Borage from seed

Purple Broccoli and Catnip from seed

My daylily bed with a few herbs, seed trays at the front.

South side of veg garden getting loaded.

An old windmill now will hold pole beans

Pulmonaria Shrimp on the Barbie

Transplants: Ligularia Midnight Lady, a gold heuchera that may need dividing as it has died out in spots, columbine, hostas, alchemilla Thriller.

Primrose

Dicentra Goldheart

May Garden 5/1/24

 While most of the seeds I’m starting this year need to be planted directly in the garden, I started some onions, tomatoes, and herbs and several varieties of Marigolds under lights. They’ve done surprisingly well and the cool weather tolerant plants are out in the garden mini-greenhouse hardening off, and they go in another mini- greenhouse in the garage at night.

 

Spring comes with a huge reorganization of the potting bench and garden items area in the garage.

I'm getting all ornaments, trellises and shelving out into the side yard. 

I'm expanding my "vegetable garden" this year 13 feet into the perennial area of the yard.  It's hard to tell in the photos because it's early on, but this will give me a much longer central bed for vegetables only, and allow me to move all of my shade perennials into this area along the sides.  The gardens will be removed from the larger yard area, creeping charlie and various other out of control weedy things will go poof, and the grassy area will be a nice play area for the dogs (working on their Frisbee and other skills) and make a space where we can set up croquet or badminton, perhaps.

From this end you can see the drop off where the garden bed previously ended. 

DOA April 1, 2024

 Sneaking in a post just moments before midnight. Go go go!

Easter Decorations!

 Here we are, with Easter decor, the last holiday till Halloween that I decorate for. My favorite things this year are the giant golden egg (Target), the pink rabbit that looks like a balloon (Target), and my brilliant idea to put my bunny head eggs in an actual egg carton.  They just never sit up quite right in anything, but the egg carton suits them nicely. 

My Easter menu is set, baskets are ready to go. There’s just cleaning and baking to go, and it’s Happy Easter. Hope you have a lovely holiday and that the snow is gone by then.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 Welcome to another holiday with small charms, unless you’re in Dublin for the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, as we were one year. If you’re there, St. Patrick’s Day is the happiest holiday in the world.

Instead, here we are on a cold winter’s day, with snow flakes floating down now and then. Here is my small, charming display for St. Patrick’s. I got the geese at Menards and they’re supposed to be a yard ornament, but the tiny umbrella would go poof after the first hard rain or snow. They’re wearing The Green is how they got a spot in this display.

Just to report, no green beer again for me this year. It always sounds intriguing but I’d have to go out somewhere for a swig, and my barfly days are long gone, though they did exist very briefly. TMI, I know.

February is National Embroidery Month

 

Here's a stitch along guide for Embroidery Month that was used by DMC and Gulush Threads from approximately 2017-2020.  I thought they might have done a new stitch along over those years, but it was the same each year as far as I can tell.

In the year I saw this, I tried to find some of the thread colors they mention.  Here are my threads. Things like Neon wouldn't have naturally popped into my basket as I'm a pastels person.  But there's a green one in the bunch someplace.

I’ve been slowly adding to my library of Embroidery books for some time and I have a nice combination of practical guides and beautiful/inspiring books.

Happy February!

DOA In The Garden 2/4/24

 

Temperatures in the 30s just don’t have the same mental impact when there’s sunshine and no snow.  Even the seed companies are detecting people want to just get out there and PLANT.

I’m finding pictures and plans for the vegetable to be most appealing.  As always, I want to grow lots of everything. Here are some pictures to dream on as we wait for the calendar to catch up with our dreams and plans.

Caturday February 3, 2024

 

From The Adventures of a Cat And A Fine One Too by Alfred Elwes

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32518/pg32518-images.html

 

Happy February!

 

Today is Groundhog Day, which is always amusing. Of course there will be six more weeks of winter. It’s all in the calendar. 

Goals for this month include not going out and raking the yard, hooking up hoses, digging out the garden beds to prepare them for spring. When the sun is out, as it has been, these are hard to resist.