Thursday, April 30, 2009

Shovel & Hoe

Another lovely day. More sun and more gardening! I managed to finally get the new raspberries planted yesterday – even though it sprinkled rain on me twice. We now have 10 plants: 4 Latham (older cold-resistant variety), 4 Qualicum (newer variety developed locally), and 2 Autumn Bliss (a fall-fruiting variety from the UK). We’ll see which variety does best. They took up more space than I expected in the narrow new bed next to the fence between our property and next door. It doesn’t leave me as much room for the tall sunflowers as I wanted but no matter. Given a choice I always go for food over beauty! We haven’t had raspberry plants for a long time. Not since the chestnut tree grew so big that it shaded the original patch into oblivion. BlueberryFlowersWe’ll probably have to wait until next year before we get many berries though. Luckily this year looks to be a good one for the blueberries instead. Aren’t the flowers such cute little bells?

The weather has warmed up quite a lot finally. I’m feeling very behind on cleaning up and planting even though I’ve spent at least 3 hours per day on it. That’s kind of my limit because I don’t want to jeopardize my current good health. After all, I’m no spring chicken! T-Man has done what he can but he’s had other things to focus on. Mainly the side fence which seems at a standstill now until he can get some of the crushed limestone that he uses to stabilize the fenceposts. All the lumberyards are mysteriously out of it and he can’t carry on until the main supports are in. I’m beginning to like having the side open. It makes the yard look so much larger. But it’s just a bit too public.

The veggie garden is now nearly planted as far as possible until it warms up more at night. It’s quite the little mini-farm:

SpringGardenI can’t plant the beans and squashes out until the middle or even the end of May. Meanwhile, I have the big stepladder out to take me up to the higher branches on the pieris so I can finish that pruning job. I also placed most of the new path stones Pierisyesterday but haven’t settled them in place properly yet. Yet another big job! I’m trying to get as much done as I can before the weather is supposed to turn to rain this weekend. And then I will happily be forced to rest for awhile.

Continuing to plug away at knitting the Papyrine Wrap. Sometimes it’s quite a slog but I managed to keep to the plan of at least one repeat per day and sometimes more. I have a few more repeats before I can start the decreasing where it tapers towards the end. I will celebrate when this is done knitting! Then I have to knit the final dangly leaves and finally dyepaint the whole thing. Hopefully not turning it into a cat yack in the process! At least I get to sit down while I’m knitting. And I haven’t run out of podcasts to listen to yet.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful setup you have! One day I shall have to bring you some cake or cookies and we can sit and drink tea and knit in that lovely little Eden! ;)

Louisa said...

You are definitely on, girl! Though for another month or so it will be mostly bare dirt out there. At least the deck is pleasant especially when the walnut tree leafs out later this month to provide some shade. Getting the rest of the deck furniture out very soon so I'll be all ready for company!

Suzanne said...

I have little seedlings of escarole and batavia lettuce if you want some, one inch tall. Transplanted some yesterday . I always seed too many and cant bear to throw them out. the corn salad is not as good as last year, not enough rain. Last year it was good for greens since it rained until july...Let me know.

Louisa said...

Sure, Suzanne, I'll have a couple of your spare seedlings. There's only room in the garden for a couple though. It might look like a lot of bare dirt but it's pretty much all spoken for!

magnusmog said...

Wonderful - it all looks so productive:)