A brilliant TEDTalk

This is my second summer with the garden and I decided that, in addition to tracking my plantings in using a garden planning tool (I use the amazing vegetable planner from Mother Earth News), I wanted to keep a visual record of what my garden looks like. I’ve definitely been inspired by the great gardening posts of Anne Hanson at Knitspot.

I have two main “gardens” – the front and the back. When I moved in to the house in 2012, they were typical lawn covered affairs. Through the hard graft of my father, all the grass is gone and they are now wonderful spaces for me to fill with plants. So where did the garden start?

The back yard began looking like this:

What that photo doesn’t show is the large divets in the ground from two large dogs running around and digging.

Dad dug up the back yard in May last year, turning over the sod, laying paths (recycled flagstone from my parent’s house and bricks reclaimed from the previous owner’s patio seen in the previous photo) and brought in roughly 25 large tubs of compost from the Region’s waste diversion program (a free source of the “black gold”) to build up seven main beds. He worked so hard and the transformation from grass to garden wouldn’t have happened nearly as quickly without him. I’m lucky to have my own private gardener.

At the beginning of June this is what the garden looked like:

I don’t have a photo from then showing the whole garden but you can see the main vegetable bed in the foreground (along with a squirrel on the bird feeder) and the herb bed in the background. I’m using the square foot gardening method for my vegetable beds. There are a few plants in there already, transplanted in as seedlings but 2012 was so hot that the root vegetables (beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips) never did anything.

However, if you want to grow massive tomatoes then compost and heat are your friends. This photo was taken one month later:

Within a few weeks, the tomato plants had to be trimmed off at the top of the tomato spirals.

This year, the garden beds only needs a bit of top dressing with compost, new twine to mark out the grids for the vegetable plantings and a bit of weeding and they’re ready to go. Most of the salad greens are already planted and beginning to sprout and the bulbs I planted last fall are beginning to bloom.

These little treasures are right by the back porch where I can enjoy them.

These are planted in among the herbs and I’m hoping they’ll spread with the years and provide a nice spring carpet under the red maple.

I don’t know what type of hyacinths these are, someone gave them to me as a flowering plant in spring 2012 and I planted them out in the fall. They add a nice pop of colour to the garden.

Not only the bulbs are coming up. This beautiful pasque flower has started blooming. I love the fuzzy leaves.

The perennial salad plants are making their appearance:

Young lovage leaves have such depth of colour to the leaves, edged in red and then moving through silver into green.

I’m really excited that the bloody dock came back. It got planted in the heat of summer last year and it was a lot of work to nurse it through but both plants are making a good showing. A few more days and I think I can harvest a small salad of bloody dock, sorrel and lovage. Yum!

I’ll leave you with the overall garden shots. The front bed in this first photo still needs some work. I need to mark out part of the bed, I’m just waiting for some of the perennial vegetables (right side by the primrose) to make a bit more of an appearance so I don’t plant over them. The front left corner was seeded with the salad greens.

This side of the garden has only the one vegetable bed meaning more room for perennials.

That’s the tour of the garden foundations. This year I’m testing a lot of varieties of vegetables to see what I want to grow going forward. Last year I managed to garden organically and that is my plan again this year. Most of the seeds I’m planting are heirloom varieties and I’ve very eager to see how they produce. Stay tuned!

And he’s wearing a Dr. Who scarf…what’s not to love?

Despite the weather being undecided, I know it’s spring because my bulbs have begun their flowering. It brings me such joy to see these small bursts of colour in the garden.

This little orange crocus looks like it’s burning in the afternoon sun.

The “Glory in the Snow” didn’t make an appearance until after the snow (although some wet stuff may head our way tomorrow), but I’m enjoying the little blue flowers nestled under the Haskap Berry bushes that have just started showing some leaf bud swelling.

But this little gem is my favourite, the ring of orange in the centre sets off the cream to perfection.

The garden comes to life – what a fabulous time of year.

Robin Hunter has posted an interview with me on her fantastic blog. Once a week she posts interviews with interesting people about their insights on their experience of working in the Knitting industry. (That’s from her blog – I’m pretty excited to be counted as an interesting person.)

You can check out the interview here.

“Too much snow, how’s a guy to explore when his feet keep getting wet. Make it go away!” At least, that’s how I’m interpreting this expression. Batten down the hatches, the storm’s inbound.

Me? I’m working from home tomorrow. Three cheers for tele-commuting.

Please welcome Whitman Cowl to the Eclectic Closet pattern family.

Show off the beauty of your hand-painted yarn with this simple, graphic, lace pattern. The stitch pattern used for the body is a garter stitch version of the lace pattern “Leaves of Grass.”

The first edging is knit as a long strip. Stitches are then picked up along the length and the knitting is joined in the round to work the body of the cowl. Finally, additional stitches are cast on and the second edging (which is slightly different than the first) is worked, attaching the edging to the body as you knit.

Read all about it here or head on over to Ravelry to buy it now.

My newest pattern, New Tech Cowl has just been released and is now available on Ravelry.

New “Tech” (Techniques) Cowl is a great way to use up leftover yarn or single skeins. The knitter starts with one block and then the rest of the cowl is built along the circumference from that first block until the last block connects the cowl into a circle. After that, the edges are picked up and knit and voila, there’s a cowl with no sewing to be done, just ends to weave in.

Read all about it here or head on over to Ravelry to buy it now!

I’m pleased to present the Vieux Carré Stole – now live on Ravelry!

Vieux Carré is a rectangular stole worked in sections. The first edging is knit separately and then stitches are picked up along the length to work the body of the stole. Finally, additional stitches are cast on and the second edging (which is slightly different than the first) is worked, the attached edging effectively casting off the body stitches while the edging is worked.

Read all about it here or head on over to Ravelry to buy it now!

My newest design – Stacks Socks – is now live!

Worked toe-up, the socks are offered in 6 sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL) to work for both men and women’s sizes and are best worked in a solid, tonal or semi-solid M/C/N sock yarn.

Read all about it here or head on over to Ravelry to buy it now!