Fresh garden onions! Considering our drought and the horrible heat, I'm incredibly pleased with my “haul”.
Stained Glass Afghan, photo one. It's simple garter stitch; with black borders. I worked it in strips and then joined the strips by whipstitching and single crocheting them with black yarn. It looks a lot more complicated than it was.
Frosty in my lap, “helping” me with the knitting. You can see the tips of the needles between him and the camera. Gone but not forgotten, whenever I miss him I can pull out the afghan. I'll always remember the joy he took in disrupting my knitting, by lying on it and getting "lovies" for a few hours.
Photo two of stained glass afghan. You may recognize some of the yarn scraps if I ever made you a brightly colored afghan.
Garden bed four! Ignore the bermuda-weed on the left edge of the bed, I'll get that later today. In the front, we have an excellent collard plant. Back right, Lavender Cotton - I wish it were taller but I love the fragrance. Speaking of fragrance, back left is my lemon verbena. Glorious lemon fragrance and an incredibly happy plant.
Garden bed 3. Notice the huge vining summer squash on the left side of the bed. It wraps around a collard plant. The front edge of the bed has two scented geraniums, a chive, and a burnet plant. In the back, I have a rose scented geranium (notice a theme?), and a little buckwheat growing as a cover crop/beneficial insect food. The bees that come for the buckwheat will stay to pollinate my squash, especially since I don't use chemicals.
Another couple collards (the one in the back right survived last years's hurricane!), and some chard. I constructed shade barriers to give it shade during the afternoon (photo taken early AM). The shade also protects a lemon balm and some thyme to the left of the barrier. I just clothespinned some newspaper to 2-foot sections of plastic garden fencing.
Another view. I found it amusing to use a garden center sale flyer as my “guardian”.
Heidi, this is the patchouli plant (right side). An upright rosemary lives behind it (between the two poles). I intend to drape covers over the poles when it gets chilly to protect the patchouli. Survivor Collards (drought, heat wave, hurricane) to the left). One tip, if you've noticed, EVERY plant is mulched, every one. At least 2 inches of mulch. I've used grass clippings, discarded oak leaves the neighbor put out for “trash”, and wood bark mulch. The pink things are flowers from my neighbor's crepe myrtle.
The new and improved garden bed one! it is now 4 feet wide, by 7 feet long. Collards are looking good, and survivor parsley behind it didn't mind the hurricane, heat, or drought. When that bad boy (parsley) goes to seed I am SAVING it! The small black pot contains amaranth seedlings, and the larger white pot contains a happy stevia plant. I used some moisture crystals in the potting soil, a fair amount of compost, and mulch. On the far left back, a cinder block for Heather to sit on and enjoy the garden. Gotu Kola (prefers partial shade, and lots of moisture) grows in the long plastic pot in the back left corner. Why the new fence? Old one blew down in the hurricane, but the posts I have in the back of garden beds kept it from crushing the babies. Even the unplanted bed is mulched.
I bought several transplants recently, and the Champion II tomato has done the best (the plant in the back, next to the netting. I have shaded the Rhubarb Chard, and it's pleased. If you look closely, you can see the parsley behind the collards and in front of the tomato plant. I love how I organized my bags of mulch and soil amendments.
Another view of garden bed one, showing the angle of the shade and my lovely seat. Look at the beautiful collards plant.
I got very glamorous here. A big plastic pot shades the west side of the chard. Notice how happy they look. In the back (near gotu kola), note the unhappy “Heatwave” tomato transplant. To the left of the pot, we have an unhappy pepper transplant.
A better view of my “closet”, my seat, and the gotu kola
Two scented geraniums (in front the lacy one is a pine, nearer the pot, we have the old spice) coexisting happily with the eggplant to their left. Look closely and find the fruit!
Lexapro allergy rash, after 1 day of treatment. The backs of my legs didn't photograph well, but they look far worse.
Five days after starting the steroids. 8-23. 12 days after initial drug reaction.
Right leg, 8-23
Left arm, 12 days after initial attack.
Right foot, not very happy right now. It looked a lot worse 5 days ago.
Left foot. Shoes are not fun right now.
Right knee and calf 8-23
The back of my left thigh, not very visible. But you get the idea - this was all purple and deep red 5 days ago. You couldn't see ANY normal skin.
Inner right arm, 8-23
Right leg. The skin on my heel and around my ankle itches terribly when I wear my work shoes. Notice scar near ankle bone.
More views of left foot and shin scars
I did up the shortest vending machine! The bows on the tree say "Merry Christmas"
