More Complaining and Muttering About the Garden and Knitting
So I finished the Faggot Check block and have begun one named Horseshoes which I am knitting wrong. This is not unusual. I am new at knitting and start every project at least twice. I know, I know: "Measure twice, cut once," you say to me in your annoying bombastic way. I measure twice, poorly, and then cut 3 or 4 times. Leave me alone. I'll improve with practice. I'll bet I'm pretty good by the time I've been at it a year. Isn't that traditionally the time after which one is expected to have achieved some significant level of expertise? Or is it different with knitting, and one murmurs modestly, "Oh, I've only been doing it for a year..." and everyone pats your hand and assures you that you are doing very well, considering?
The garden! Oh the garden is WONDERFUL! I love having all these things to eat. We have chard, collard greens, peas, string beans, peppers, squash and baby miniature ittle bittle tomatoes. Actual tomatoes! We can't eat them yet, of course, and they may not ripen completely in this cool-summer climate, but I am so THRILLED. And there are quite a number of corn infants, too. We have other things, lots of herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme and majoram and chives!) and of course figs on the grownup fig tree. We are hoping for avocados and lemons on their respective trees someday.
But I may have made an awful mistake. I put the Ajuga genevensis in a windowbox. All three of them. Well, in my defense they were little and cute (and I had forgotten to read the description when I was making the garden plan, to be honest) (plus: I didn't exactly write down their ultimate size in my little garden notebook...heh) (well, if I had a PRINTER that worked I wouldn't have to WRITE out everything laboriously in my painful scrawl. *Whine*) (Not my fault! I had no choice but to...um. I don't like where this thread is going. Changing subject now and blaming everything on you.) (Sound familiar? Hee!).
This weekend I didn't bathe the Stinkery One, but I did plant most of the remaining Annie's Annuals loot. Posting the photos (butterfly warning for pedx) under the cut
All of these photos are from Annie's Annuals and Perennials http://www.anniesannuals.com/ by the way. I adore them. Go and buy their pretty plants.
3 Anchusa azurea Alkanet---last weekend
3 Erynginum tripartitum---last weekend
3 Aristea major---last weekend
3 Ajuga genvensis ("Blue bugleweed"--not such a pretty name, is it?)
3 Agastache rugosa "Korean Mint"
1 Agastache mexicana "Sangria"
3 "Harlequin" marigolds
1 Echium gentianoides "Tajinaste"
. I know, I know, I swore I'd never grow another echium but the flowers were so BLUE, and the plant seemed relatively small. Um...smallish. I planted it close to the pyracanthus as an experiment so that they can have a plant-fight, after their leisurely vegetable fashion. It will all take place in slow motion of course, as these plants do things, but I will be very happy if the pyracanthus suffers even a little over the next few years. It is the enemy of me and so insanely vigorous in growth that I have to do battle with it at least 3 times every year if I want to keep it from taking over EVERYTHING. I like to think of it as espaliered, currently, but it really just has been chopped back over time and has grown laterally, spreading out about 15' wide. Frankly, I'd chop it even more if its berries didn't feed the entire mockingbird population of Northern California.
I didn't plant the Pycnostachys urticifolia
(that must be the ugliest plant name EVAR) and it doesn't look very healthy now. Too much water perhaps. We'll see. I do not have high hopes for it. Too little water? It's a terrible pity, since it has a very lovely flower with the interesting nicknames" Hedgehog Sage" and "Blue Witches' Hat." Aren't those lovely names? I like hedgehogs.
The garden! Oh the garden is WONDERFUL! I love having all these things to eat. We have chard, collard greens, peas, string beans, peppers, squash and baby miniature ittle bittle tomatoes. Actual tomatoes! We can't eat them yet, of course, and they may not ripen completely in this cool-summer climate, but I am so THRILLED. And there are quite a number of corn infants, too. We have other things, lots of herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme and majoram and chives!) and of course figs on the grownup fig tree. We are hoping for avocados and lemons on their respective trees someday.
But I may have made an awful mistake. I put the Ajuga genevensis in a windowbox. All three of them. Well, in my defense they were little and cute (and I had forgotten to read the description when I was making the garden plan, to be honest) (plus: I didn't exactly write down their ultimate size in my little garden notebook...heh) (well, if I had a PRINTER that worked I wouldn't have to WRITE out everything laboriously in my painful scrawl. *Whine*) (Not my fault! I had no choice but to...um. I don't like where this thread is going. Changing subject now and blaming everything on you.) (Sound familiar? Hee!).
This weekend I didn't bathe the Stinkery One, but I did plant most of the remaining Annie's Annuals loot. Posting the photos (butterfly warning for pedx) under the cut
All of these photos are from Annie's Annuals and Perennials http://www.anniesannuals.com/ by the way. I adore them. Go and buy their pretty plants.
3 Anchusa azurea Alkanet---last weekend
3 Erynginum tripartitum---last weekend
3 Aristea major---last weekend
3 Ajuga genvensis ("Blue bugleweed"--not such a pretty name, is it?)
3 Agastache rugosa "Korean Mint"
1 Agastache mexicana "Sangria"
3 "Harlequin" marigolds
1 Echium gentianoides "Tajinaste"
. I know, I know, I swore I'd never grow another echium but the flowers were so BLUE, and the plant seemed relatively small. Um...smallish. I planted it close to the pyracanthus as an experiment so that they can have a plant-fight, after their leisurely vegetable fashion. It will all take place in slow motion of course, as these plants do things, but I will be very happy if the pyracanthus suffers even a little over the next few years. It is the enemy of me and so insanely vigorous in growth that I have to do battle with it at least 3 times every year if I want to keep it from taking over EVERYTHING. I like to think of it as espaliered, currently, but it really just has been chopped back over time and has grown laterally, spreading out about 15' wide. Frankly, I'd chop it even more if its berries didn't feed the entire mockingbird population of Northern California.
I didn't plant the Pycnostachys urticifolia
(that must be the ugliest plant name EVAR) and it doesn't look very healthy now. Too much water perhaps. We'll see. I do not have high hopes for it. Too little water? It's a terrible pity, since it has a very lovely flower with the interesting nicknames" Hedgehog Sage" and "Blue Witches' Hat." Aren't those lovely names? I like hedgehogs.