okay, we're back

We have had some very eventful months at the Deluxe house, and we both want to get back to blogging. My small private independent school closed at the end of September, and the boys and I have become homeschoolers. Joe got a new job which he loves, but which requires him to show up every day, can you imagine? So among my many other projects, I now have to make dinner, not an easy thing for me after so many years of dinners made for me.

Knitting is happening, mostly socks.

House projects are happening too, slowly.

Photos to come....

The last gardening day for a while

We're leaving for a two-week trip to Hawaii in five days. I've been working outside quite a bit. We got lots of gardening done today, a little knitting as well. The gardens are growing right along.
This is the vegetable garden. Corn, beans, and squash in the foreground, various salad greens in the background.
Here's the herb garden, to the left of the vegetable garden.
Rhubarb, parsley, strawberries, and a glimpse of the dahlia and black-eyed susan.

A better view of the dahlias and black-eyed Susans.
The petunias, now in full bloom.
Here's how the front looks. Think of it as a work in progress. The yarrow will stand up in time, the butterfly bush will multiply, the monarda and the liatrus will bloom.
Here's the front on the other side of the stairs. The monarda is really blooming over here, and the California poppies are just starting.
The hostas, newly mulched.
The shade garden. We have this lovely bed, next to the garage. It is very shady, very very shady, because of a giant Norway maple at the very back of the backyard. We used to try to grow flowers and vegetables here, before we took a look around and figured out what the real deal is back here. This looks magical to me.
Here's a closer view.
And here are close-ups of some plants that are flowering, mostly in the full-sun front.


If anyone knows what this last little flower is, I'd love to hear. It was a volunteer in our garden this year, and I'd like to encourage it.

gardening!

We spent last weekend outside, working in the garden, and got a lot of new plants in the ground. These projects look more 'in-progress' than most, of course, because they're plants, and they have to grow. With that in mind, meet the latest in a series of new living things around our house.

This is a challenging area, growing things-wise. It is shaded by our car port, and crowded by my neighbor's chain link fence, and the grass doesn't grow so well here. So I dug out the grass and (mostly) dandelions, and planted vinca, which should spread and fill in pretty quickly. I got five plants to fill in this area about six feet long, and they are already starting to spread a bit. I wonder if it will spread into my neighbor's yard? And if it will be hard for her to control? It's an experiment.

Here's an unwitting experiment. Did you ever try to keep plants alive through the winter in the compost heap? We did. My neighbor down the street dug out all his overgrown and rather elderly hostas, and put them out on the curb for the yard waste guys to take. But I got there first, thinking I would plant them. Except I didn't, and then they started to rot, and then it got too cold for me be interested in planting things anymore, so we tossed them in the compost bin and chalked it up to experience. This spring, they were growing and thriving in the compost, so we pulled them out again, and planted them this time. In the photo, you can see where they ivy that used to grow in this spot has taken the paint off our foundation. Gotta get to repairing that paint, but probably not this summer.

The hostas look a little scrawny now, but they'll grow. Hostas do really well here.


I know this because here's what the hostas I rescued from my friend's deer-infested garden last summer look like now. Last summer they were bitten down to nothing, but we put the roots in the ground and they have thrived. I particularly like the blue green ones. They look great, but I don't know what they're called.

Hostas seem pretty much invincible. And I like how they look, and they like shade, and I have lots and lots of shade. All of which makes them the perfect garden plant. So far I have three varieties.

I also love petunias, just love them. They are the one annual I am willing to spend money on. Our house was owned by the same lady for sixty years before we bought it, and she also liked petunias. She planted them along the south side of her house, and they came back every year. Must have been an old variety that reseeded itself really well. Last summer I supplemented the petunia bed with manure, and put in a few additional plants from the garden store, and they went crazy, just an amazing display of flowers along the side of the house. And then I mulched them, and I think that did them in. Not a single one came back this spring, very sad. So I got a bunch of plants from the garden store this year, and put them in last weekend. Here they are, looking not very exciting yet.

Yes, I know, that's an iris, not a petunia. The petunias are at the base, not yet blooming. I told you it wasn't very exciting yet.

We also planted bee balm (monarda) and lavender, and in spite of the heat last weekend, they did fairly well in the transplanting process. The monarda is looking better now, after a lot of rain.


This is in the area to the right of our front steps, where there used to be a giant overgrown shrub of some kind. Apparently the previous owners also grew rocks here. We took the shrubs down with a chain saw shortly after moving in, and dug the stumps out laboriously over the next two years. We're going to continue to live with the rocks for now. I've been hesitant to do a lot of planting here before the porch is complete, but I think I can step around a few plants as I sand and prime and paint.

In other news, I finished my sweater and have worn it several times.

I'm pleased with it. I did not intend for the sleeves to be bell shaped, but I really like it, and I'm working out another design that uses that element as well. The stitch count is exactly the same from the cuff to the sleeve, the belling is accomplished with the combination of knits and purls only.

And, very exciting indeed, Joe/Shellacboy put together another section of the porch. Now it's my turn to sand, prime, and paint, but not today. It's raining, so I'm knitting and reading. But here's a picture of the progress on the porch.