Gardening and Knitting.

Seeing Spring bulbs flourishing in her Edinburgh garden on Pam's blog I knew I had to get more bulbs planted here. I brought pots of  red nerines with me from my last garden and there are quite a lot of daffodils here but not other Spring bulbs. I planted these yesterday and realised as always I could have easily made room for 10 times this many. Never mind they will multiply and I can get more. I am very aware that I must not put in more patches of garden then I can easily maintain. ( I know this from experience. ) .

R has repainted the 6 outside plastic chairs. They had faded to a powdery pink shade.( They don't normally stand in a rigid row like this ) Bright? Yes! ( at the moment .)

 Yesterday I did some digital pest control. It was much needed.  6 new shoots on my yellow rose all looked like this.....my fingers turned a strange greeny  squashed aphid colour.

I have been appraising the crops we have grown here so far. The successful ones have been:my strawberries. They haven't stopped since early summer. Scarlet runner and other green beans have been very productive. Silver beet grows like crazy. The tomatoes ( too many ) potatoes and spring onions ( still being used ) and corn  -  all good. The herbs all flourished. Courgettes were good. 

With the tree crops, the 2 varieties of avocados are still feeding us. The citrus except for one tree  ( it's coming out ) were amazing. ( lemons grapefruit and oranges and mandarins )  2 of the apple trees are good. - The Granny Smith and Splendour .The Royal Gala had too much black spot ( we will prune it right back as it is huge and hard to reach  ). The 2 pears trees produced amazing crops. I had never seen bees eating fruit before. Wasps yes.  Bees no - they were falling on the ground drunk.

 On the other hand the grapes disappointed. Far far too many vines  and not very sweet ( 5 big ones ) Just one green grape  vine is being kept. The birds and wasps just ruined the rest as I didn't net them. We have plans for their site.  Also coming out is the loquat tree.  Peas didn't do so well. It may have been the seed.  We love them and won't give up on them - a different site next year.

 ******

 I have also started knitting another little vest. It looks skinny here but as it is 2 by 2 rib it stretches right out. It is my tried and true pattern. Easy to knit and really easy to pop over a small boy's head. It has no back or front or inside out. I finally got myself a good standard lamp to stand beside the couch so I can see to knit or sew at night or on dull days.