Gardening 101

Although there's been little crafting, there's been plenty of gardening!  After consulting my gardening books and online guides, we visited the garden centre.  You know that "high" you get from visiting a really nice yarn shop?  Yeah, I get that way from visiting a good nursery.  

Front flower bed

Perhaps overly ambitious, I was lured by the promise of bright colours.  When I got home, I went straight to work, digging up the long neglected garden--covered in that yucky weed fabric (which never really works very well at keeping out the weeds) and tons of unappealing red mulch (I'd rather use natural or black-coloured mulch).  Love the feel and smell of soil between my fingers . . . and then there's the satisfaction of seeing the plants in their place.  Wow! 

View from above

There's nothing like caring for a garden, tending those little plants and watching them grow.  It's good for the soul.  And then your creative juices start flowing and great ideas swim 'round your head: Yup, I has plans--big plans!!  But I need to go slow and work on it a little at a time because (a) I'm no spring chicken and (b) I don't have enough funds to follow my dreams all at once.

That small flower bed at the front of the house took a few hours worth of digging.  There was nothing there and the soil needed lots of compost and good black top soil.  Whatcha think?  Pretty?

Detail of columbine flowers

Lots of shade loving perennials: columbine, bleeding hearts, lungwort and coneflowers.  There's also some dianthus and alyssum in hot pink and purple.  Hope everything survives.

Hanging basket detail

We added a couple of hanging baskets too--in hot pinks.  These will look pretty when they're in full bloom--if summer ever decides to officially show up (I'm lookin' at you Mother Nature.  After the long winter we've had, we need some summer, please.).


Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine. :)

Good Girl

Yup, I've been a "good girl": got much more knitting done this week!  Yay for me!

Growing Cashsilk Fern Scarf

Met up with my knit group too.  Haven't seen some of the gals in a long while.  With this year's hard winter (bad weather or terrible road conditions), everyone hadn't been meeting on a regular basis.  Besides, school kept me busy.  

Detail of unblocked lace pattern

Hopefully I'll continue to attend knit night this fall.  It's a nice break.  And I usually get a fair amount of knitting done.

How's your week?

Slow Progress

The week whizzed by and there was little progress made on my lace scarf.  Work keeps gettin' in the way--go figure?!

Little progress . . . . 

Don't misunderstand.  There has been knitting, mainly at nap time when my toddlers are all fast asleep.  But it's slow going . . .  :(     Maybe I'll get more done at knit night this week . . . (and I promise to show some updated photos).