Close to Dolman

SOOOOO CLOOOOOSE.

This was before I finished the neck hole.  Really all I have left is the ribbing around the arms. Should take me like an hour, max. However, before I can knit the ribbing, I need to figure out how much extra I have around the armpits. I decided when I was doing the stripes that area that it needed to be longer. Now I have gaping pit holes! All it should take is a slip on and a mirror look, but it's so hard to put on alpaca when it's 90 degrees outside.

My garden, however, is happy in the heat.

Look at that zucchini grow! This was taken a few days ago and I now have two three inch zucchini fruits.

The roses are almost done with this bloom. And the strawberries! Oh, the strawberries. I had a really good harvest from my June-bearing plants and they are sending runners everywhere. The winter savory, lime thyme, and oregano are taking off, too.

I think this is the strangest looking tomato plant ever. I had a couple of stragglers when I was moving my tomatoes to bigger pots a couple months ago and popped this guy in an old blueberry pot (the blueberry didn't survive last summer). The tomato is tall and stringy, but proof that tomatoes can survive and thrive on their own in Seattle. I have paid absolutely zero attention to it since I planted it. No flowers yet, but it's barely July, so we'll have to wait and see.

The only guy not happy in this heat?

The poor shasta daisies outside the fence. They get very little water from the hose (because I'm too lazy to haul it outside the fence) and were feeling it on Saturday.  I took this after I came home from working at the boat ramp. I totally sympathized because I felt the same way. Sunburned, tired, and thirsty!

Finished Twilight

Finished and delivered the Twilight afghan. 

I've been so bad about taking pictures of my finished objects before giving them away.  This is the only photo I have of the blanket. Hopefully I'll get one the next time I'm in Portland visiting.

Project: Twilight Afghan
Yarn: Caron One Pound, Country Blue
Needles: US Size 17, 29" circular

I used two and a half pounds of yarn! And only took four months...

Tube Top

I had high hopes of finishing my Roxborough Dolman by my birthday, because I started it on my birthday last year.

Right now it's just a tube top. I don't think that's going to happen.

I've been distracted by this giant project:

But it reaches from my toes to my chinny chin chin now, so I think it's time to do my 8 rows of garter and be done. Yay for late wedding gifts!

May Planting

Weather here was HOT HOT HOT this weekend. We hit 80 and that is freakishly unheard of in Seattle. I got a bit of a late start both Saturday and Sunday so I only had an hour or two in the garden before it got too hot to be outside, but I got quite a bit done.

I've been hardening off most of the plants this week in preparation for the weekend heat wave.  On Saturday all of the peppers and tomatillos got new homes that were appropriately sized. Of course I ran out of pots halfway through and made a mad dash around the inside and outside of my house trying to find pots that were big enough but not too huge. They all look much happier now.

Sunday I did some planting. Silly Robyn, planting six tomatoes gave me six pots that I could have used for the peppers! Ugh. Poor planning.

I planted two Sungold, two Saucy, 1 Purple Calabash, and 1 Nova tomato. I have one open spot left to fill with an Indigo Rose, but the two plants were still kind of small and spindly, so they're going to stay inside for another week before planting.  Marigolds got placed between front row of tomatoes, and some Kong 12 foot sunflower seeds were planted between the back tomatoes. I also managed to squeeze in three of my basil starts diagonally between the tomatoes (one each of Aroma, Cinnamon, and Amethyst).  And I still had space to plant some lettuce seeds! Fingers crossed the birds won't eat all the seeds in before they can germinate. I only have three little lettuce guys that are 1 inch tall, the rest have been picked off.

I waited until Sunday evening when the heat started to wane to work on the north bed. The radishes are starting to plump up and I'm super excited. I ran some twine through last year's pea trellis and planted beans along half the length. It might be a bit early, but this weather is supposed to continue through the week, so I'm hoping they make it. I also planted a Black Beauty Zucchini and a Golden Zucchini that I started inside that just sprouted, one on either side of the bamboo trellis. I tried to hill three cucumber seeds at each corner of the bamboo teepee, but I haven't had any luck with cucumbers so far, so we'll see.

There are still a few kale and chard plants from last fall's planting to pull up.  I have butternut and delicata squash seeds sprouting inside that are destined to live here. And maybe a few cosmos to draw in the pollinators will go along the fence.

And lastly, the carrots and radishes beside/below the bird feeder are starting to come up. Do birds like radishes? Dunno about the chickedees, but this Robyn certainly does.

What the Hail?

Part of Seattle were hit with a couple of inches of hail over the weekend. Most of Wallingford didn't have power for about an hour on Saturday. I'm counting my blessings none of that hail hit my garden.

My peas are still too short to reach the twine on the fence. The last section of peas I planted are up, but there are two suspiciously vacant spots. I'm debating whether it was squirrels or failed seed. I'm betting it was the former.

The daffodil and tulip layered pot we got last year is looking pretty good. We only got one daffodil for some reason (last year it has 3), but we've got a handful of budding tulips.  The violets are full on blooming and look beautiful mixed in with the greenery.

Speaking of tulips, the yard guys didn't weed whack mine this year that they're all about to bloom. Let's hope the neighbor kid is in a better mood this spring....

Here's my herb and rose garden.  The roses look to be healthy and happy, and the herbs I transplanted from the ORG are taking to their new homes. You can't really see them in the photo, but there is winter savory, curry, two limy thymes, and a greek oregano in there.

My strawberries are going bonkers! Several of the runners from the potted plants, in addition to the ones pilfered from the walkway at the display garden are leafing out and looking wonderful.

Several of the blueberries are flowering. I haven't seen too many bees yet, so this is a little worrysome.

The big shade tree is just now starting to leaf. I'm happy it's waited this long because it's allowed me to keep an eye on the bird feeder!

French breakfast radishes. This section of the fence fell down last week. The seedlings were a bit trampled by the guy who came to fix it, but they appear none the worse for wear.

Yesterday I transplanted all of the kale I started indoors. I kind of hardened them off. They went outside on several nicer days and came in at night, then they spent three days in the cold frame. But they're kale and cold hardy, so they should be fine. I plan on sharing a couple of plants with two friends, so I won't be planting all of the nine starts!

Speaking of being cold hardy, you can see the swiss chard and kale that I planted late last fall. They have all woken up from hibernation and are starting to grow. I should probably fertilize them all, but without knowing how long I will be staying at this house, I'd rather just harvest them all the way to the ground at the end of May if I have to move.

One last thing - doesn't this guy look a helluva lot better than it did when we moved in?

Not the best picture, but this was taken right before we moved in. I kept hacking at it until I got it to a manageable size. When I was going walkabout in the yard yesterday I was looking at it and thinking "dang, what a good job." It's sad to think about what the garden is going to look like a couple months after we move out. It's a constant battle with grass and weeds in the beds, and in very little time they will take them back.

Tomato Forest

Oops.

Don't think I really need 24 tomato plants.

Or that much kale.

I ran out of containers and ended up planting two starts in a pot with a blueberry that I'm pretty sure is dead (no new growth) and one in the corner by the grill in a spot that is out of the way and doesn't get watered. It's pretty dang early to plant them, so they'll probably not survive, but I had the extras. I'm considering this a science experiment.

Spring!

The grow light is on its timer and clicking away. I've started tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, and kale and they're growing at a speedy clip.  The kale will go out in a week or two (once it gets 6 true leaves) and the tomatoes will be repotted any day now. That's a big task and I'm sure I'll need to purchase more seed starting mix, so they will probably be stuck in their 6-packs for a bit longer.

I think next year I'm going to throw caution to the wind and only plant one seed per cell for my tomatoes. Both last year and this year they have ALL come up, and I have this serious internal struggle with just clipping off a perfectly healthy tomato seedling. I know I'll have to snip several of them because I've got 2+ seedlings per cell and I planted probably more cells than I really want tomatoes in the garden.

After the great seed exchange with the ORG I came home with a bunch of basil seeds. I planted some in Earthpots I got for freesies after the NW Flower and Garden Show.  ORG's Amethyst basil and Cinnamon basil have come up, and so has the Aroma basil from Territorial. I'm trying to start some lemon balm again this year, and again, nothing has sprouted. Maybe my seeds are just duds?

Earthpots are kinda cool (especially the free part). They came stocked with seed starting mix, so that's a big help. So far I noticed that they do dry out pretty fast, due to the wicking nature of the cellulose wrap. They're basically like the toilet paper rolls I used last year, but thinner. Pretty handy since they were just laying around, but I think in the once I use them all I'll stick with the 6-packs and yogurt containers and filling them with seed mix.  I got a flat of 3-inch guys that I think I'll try to start my giant pumpkins in when I get back from a wedding this weekend. 


The peas I planted on George Washington's birthday have all come up. It was agonizing waiting for them. They always say 6-14 days for germination, and intrinsically I know that the soil is cold and it's going to take the max number of days to germinate, but... It's so hard to wait. That first batch of peas took 16, 19, and 20 days to show themselves, depending on the type of pea.  I planted other sections on March 10 and on March 18, but it's been in the 50s recently, so hopefully I won't have to wait 2 more weeks for them to sprout!

My kale from last year was budding out, so last night I cut down one of the "palm trees" they've become and chopped off all the leaves I could. We used some in last night's dinner, and still have a big bundle in the crisper drawer.  I left out the other two plants, to be cut down in the coming weeks. I'm worried it's going to bolt soon, so I might have to share instead of hording it all for myself.

I planted some lettuce seeds outside on March 10 and they're the tiniest little sprouts now. If I wasn't specifically looking for them, you wouldn't know they were there (or you'd think they're just another of the weeds that's trying to take over).

After a speed weeding frenzy two weeks ago I discovered that the strawberry runners I harvested from elsewhere last year are actually growing! I imported lots of runners, but very few of them took root. I think some of them weren't quite big enough when planted. But about three or four planted in the "rose bed" are doing wonderful, and one or two in the blueberry pots look like they'll make it. Yay for free strawberry plants!  The plan for this year: Import as many as possible! Fresh berries and jam all summer long!