Monday, May 28, 2012

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day to folks in the US! As Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer, it's only fitting that Nick and I filled our 3-day weekend with long bike rides, barbecues, gardening, eating on the porch, going to flea and farmer's markets, and unintentionally getting sunburned while in the car.

Speaking of gardening, I feel like my garden is coming along nicely. Not everything is thriving, but I'm learning and tweaking my plan along the way, which is what I think should be happening during my first season of growing. Two of the flowers are blooming and doing great and two of the flowers got a bit damaged during a surprise late-season frost, but they're starting to come back.

Petunias

The cilantro is growing like a weed, which is great because cilantro is in almost all of the recipes in our new favorite cookbook, Mexican Everyday. The other herbs were doing just so-so, so last week I moved them on top of our fence so they could get more direct sunlight. I already see a difference, so hopefully they'll start growing like the cilantro soon enough! The tall herb on the end is some parsley that we picked up at a farmer's market yesterday. I didn't start it from a seed, which I think is what I'm going to do next year. The waiting is killing me!

Herbs

Herbs

The strawberry plant (on the right) just sprouted its first flower this week! Sadly, the hydrangea (on the left) that we had next to our front door took a turn for the worse and I had to pick off a bunch of dead leaves and flowers.

Strawberries and hydrangea

I think it wasn't getting enough sunlight there, so today I moved it onto the porch and we got a coleus for the front door instead, which the plant people assured us would do fine in the shade.

IMG_5704

One of the tomato plants sprouted a couple of weeks ago, but the other remains to be seen and the onions don't appear to be growing at all.

Tomato Sprouts

The spinach is growing very slowly, although that area gets hit hard every time it rains because it's directly under an overhang and I think the plants are getting damaged.

Spinach

I think both of these areas don't get enough direct sunlight, so I'm going to have to rethink them next year. Are there any veggies that don't need a lot of direct sunlight?

I thinned out the spinach a little bit and transplanted some of it into a rectangular pot that I put on the fence on the other side of our patio, along with some lettuce and mesclun seeds. This spot gets a ton of direct sunlight, so I'm hoping that all goes well and we'll be eating home-grown salad at some point this summer.

Lettuce

Memorial Day also means the 5 for $5 Simplicity sale at Joann!

IMG_5701

I stopped by on my way home from work on Friday and picked up six patterns: 2475 Amazing Fit skirt, 1801 Cynthia Rowley dress, 1941 Amazing Fit blouse, 1882 Amazing Fit fitted dress, 1883 Threads collection sportswear, and 2263 Threads collection sportswear. If you couldn't tell, I sorely need work clothes. Ironically I haven't been sewing too much lately as most of my time has been spent working and studying/reading for the course I'm taking to prepare for a certification test.

What sewing classes I've actually made it to have been spent working on New Look 6803 in view A with the belt, which is almost finished! Of course I always complicate things by adding a lining, so the patterns are never as quick and I think they should be, especially with my sewing time so limited these days.

Image source

I also finally started working on a quilt for myself using Jay McCarroll's Habitat line, only more than a year after I originally planned to make it. I have all of the fabric for the blocks cut and lined up, so now I just need to get sewing! I have a feeling that this might not get completely finished until December when I take my certification test.

2 comments:

  1. Ooh, I like that New Look pattern! I'm excited to see it! Your plants look good! The coleus is a good choice for shade, and they're so easy to grow! They thrive and get huge with basically no attention.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So far, so good with the coleus! The New Look pattern turned out ok. I need to get wide belt to wear with it. Once I do, I'll share pics!

      Delete

I love to receive your comments and try to respond to all via email.