The Salty Knitter

It’s been a minute or two and just like gardens change over time, along the way so has life.

Sometimes plants die.

Usually I expect it to be the hardy hibiscus, but they are just late to rise in the spring. Still plants go missing over the winter, sometimes I remember what they are and other times I don’t notice right away.

Losing my dog Louie in February of 2020 was just brutal. I knew from the time he was a puppy I would only get to be with him for a short time, I just didn’t expect it to be quite so short.

One day after a bath we found some lumps on his neck, and then more behind his knees. The vet confirmed what I already knew and even though he was just 9 1/2, lymphoma took him anyway.  I was just lucky enough to get a month to spoil him silly and even luckier to have him pass gently at home so we could have one last cuddle.

Sometimes plants outgrow their spaces.

Or sometimes the conditions change in their spaces. I have one bed that continues to be taken over by maple roots. It’s too hot, the soil is too poor. The plants will have to move while they are still alive. And of course there is always the little tweaks to be made – a plant that was right sized one year is suddenly too big, or hidden behind a shrub that formerly framed it perfectly.

In October of last year, my oldest boy decided it was time to leave the nest and bought a house with his lovely girlfriend.

Of course his German Shepherd – Jack – moved with him. Suddenly I found myself dogless. Jack was never a dog I would have chosen for myself but he did help fill the giant hole Louie left behind. Jack can be a genuine pain in the ass and has to be locked in a bedroom when company comes, but I did miss him once he was gone. I did not miss having my patio door opened at random times or the piles of dog hair.

Sometimes there is a gap to fill.

I have 2 Hillbilly Blues Hosta in search of new homes. Luckily there are 2 perfect places for them around my Japanese Maple. I believe there used to be a variety of Heuchera there, but last summer was hot and dry and this year they aren’t there.

In January, I went to look at a litter of Goldens and came home with this little girl.

Her name is Gabby, or Gabby-girl, or just Girly, but when she’s bad it’s Excuse me Ma’am!

I brought Louie home as a puppy just before I turned 40. I am now 51 and while I’ve enjoyed the majority of it, I’m not sure I would do it again at 60.

However potty training was quick – I credit the fenced yard. Teaching her to stay off the couch has not been nearly as quick.

The benefits she has brought to my life are hard to count, but one of the biggest is her daily walks. After years of living life mostly sitting down, it’s been good to get moving again. Even if our walks are still on the short side.

Visiting the dog park and casual conversation with other dog park people has been a huge mood booster for me. I couldn’t tell you a single persons name – only their dogs name. More importantly I have no idea what their political beliefs or covid beliefs are. We just walk the track and yak about our dogs. It is lovely beyond belief.

I really haven’t made or done anything new since I completed my broken shovel waterfall. I have a couple projects I’m working on right now, but they’re both multi-step projects and I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for stuff to either dry or cure. Unfortunately I have a busy week coming up so they probably won’t be finished or on the blog this week. There’s always next week though!

One of my projects involved first carving SM Blue foam. What a mess that makes! It’s pretty easy to shape, I mostly sanded it to the shape I wanted, but there was foam and dust everywhere.

Once I had my shapes, I needed to make molds of them. I used a tip seen on Made by Barb to mix silicon and corn starch. Honestly, when she says it smells strongly of vinegar, she’s not exaggerating. We’re talking about a vinegar smell that slaps you right in the face! She makes some really cool stuff though so go check her out.

Learn something new…

Okay this may not be new to you, but it was very new to me. My ex-husband is a plumber and whenever he did any caulking, he always spit on his finger and then used it to smooth the caulking.

I have never in my life had enough saliva in my mouth to even spit much less smooth caulking with it. So there are tools you can buy that will smooth it for you but sometimes the tools won’t fit where the caulking needs to be smoothed. I’ve tried using just water, but water is not saliva and on it’s own doesn’t work. But then I saw this recipe for making silicone molds that uses dish soap and the light bulb went on.

If you add some dish soap – any dish soap people, there’s nothing magical about blue dawn – it adds enough slip that you can dip your fingers in the soap water and smooth the caulking without the silicone sticking to your fingers.

Failure is still an option…

One of the things I most dislike about multi-step projects is that completing any of the steps successfully doesn’t guarantee the final project will work. So I carved my shapes and they came out beautifully, just like I wanted. I’ve made my molds, and they worked in spite of some kinks and the frustration of trying to work on something fiddly with flies biting and neighborhood dogs barking. What I wouldn’t give for a garage!

Biting Flies

On the topic of flies biting – they are horrible this year. We’ve never had them so bad. But I found these disposable fly traps at TSC Stores and they work. They stink – like rancid grease – but they work. The included bait even draws in those gnats that are always hanging out around the dogs butts so I call that a win. It seems to be helping, I have two in my yard. They’re supposed to be good for 30 days so we’ll see how it goes.

Have a happy Sunday and hopefully in another week I’ll have a successful project to share.

At one time it used to be my job to manage orders for pot mum growers. Back then, hot weather could be counted on to bring on calls from growers hoping to cancel or delay orders. The heat would cause a delay in blooming, and the grower wouldn’t be able to ship his pot mum in the scheduled week. Then his benches would get a bit crowded so he would try to delay the next order of cuttings. It may not be the correct name for it, but we always called it heat stall.

Certain flowers are well known for not flowering when the temps climb too high – bacopa is always the biggest offender in my mind but there are others. Certain vegetables won’t set flowers or fruit if the weather is too hot also. Then there are others who seem to thrive as the temps climb.

I’m the type to stall a bit when the temps get too hot, so I haven’t really worked on anything new and exciting this week. Outdoors seemed to hot to move and indoors the constant noise of fans and air conditioners wears at me.

But the siding is clean and there’s always a good book to read so the week hasn’t been a wash in my mind. Even in the heat, my deck is well shaded and usually bearable to sit outside.

What’s blooming?

Hosta ‘Cadet Blue’ is still putting on a show. It’s a spreader, so anyone starting with one of them will eventually have many of them. It flowers as prolifically as it spreads with pretty lavender flowers.

New to me, Lobelia Cardinalis is flowering as well. A native plant that likes a damp location, I planted it for the hummingbirds.

I haven’t seen them feeding from the lobelia yet but I have seen them visiting the Salvia before heading to the feeders.

Zinnia are flowering but not really putting on much of a show yet. Last year I had them in planters and they seemed too gangly, so this year they’re in the ground and seem too short. I have to remind myself there’s still a lot of summer left and they’ll most likely put on the show I want from them eventually.

Plenty of summer left to go

I have a tendency to feel as if the season is over once we’re into July. Probably an occupational hazard because my job has me thinking of next spring already.

While weeding one of my gardens, I found these little seedlings. If they make it through until next spring it will be interesting to see what they wind up as. They don’t look like they’ll be anything special at the moment, but they could end up blue like the Blue Cadet. Time will tell.

How is the weather where you’re at? Hot and stifling or just right? Have you got heat stall in your gardens or your own energy or do you just keep motoring along?

We’ve been knocking off some of the more tedious chores the past two or three weekends. Things like cleaning out the shed (my boys), cleaning the eaves troughs (me) and washing siding (also me).

All that is left for the siding is the front of the house and deck. Then it’s bye-bye swag of yuck. Fish flies seem to be done in my area, even if they’re still going strong elsewhere – like this ball game that had to be called because of fish flies – Windsor ball game called on account of fish flies

Yesterday I scrubbed down all the outdoor furniture – I’ll move it back once the front of the house is respectable again. This is actually where I hope to someday move my patio so I can sit with my coffee in the morning and admire my gardens. Maybe watch some hummingbirds and orioles at the feeders.

Right now it’s off the deck and just isn’t working. First because it wasn’t installed properly – it should have had a bed of sand underneath to level it out. Second, because of the location. It should be a path there to elsewhere rather than a destination.

Ho

What’s blooming?

Hosta ‘Blue Cadet’ is in flower and doing it gloriously. Blue Cadet is a spreader so even in my relatively young gardens, there’s quite a bit of it. As you can see, it is generous with the flowers too.

This is another one of my planters that is finally all in bloom. Other than the Angelonia it is entirely PW varieties. Salvia ‘Rockin’ Fuchsia’, Penta ‘Sunstar Pink’, Supertunia ‘Vista Paradise’, Calibrachoa ‘Superbells Compact Blue’ and ‘Superbells Blackcurrant Punch’. The Penta doesn’t really fit, but it had to go somewhere!

I hesitated to share this one because the color of the petunia doesn’t photograph accurately – at least not on my phone.  The petunia is Wave Lavender Sky Blue along with Angelonia ‘Serenita Rose’ and Calibrachoa ‘Kabloom Orange’. The Petunia is really more blue – almost fluorescent it’s so bright and the Calibrachoa is really a far more intense orange.

As expected the Calibracho in this planter has stopped blooming. There really isn’t enough sun for it here, but that’s why foliage is so important for shade gardens. I mean honestly, with all that color who needs flowers?

And then it rained…

We had a hard rain last weekend that really knocked around some of my plants.

The bleeding heart split down the middle and will need to be cut back. Thankfully I still have a few annuals I can stick in the gaping hole it will leave.

My hibiscus took a beating too. Hopefully next year I’ll remember to put a plant support around it. I think when they are planted in full-sun they can take a bit more wind and rain, but there’s no such thing as full-sun in my yard so it’s in part-sun and making do.

The Waterfall!

In case you somehow missed my bragging all week, I made the most awesome waterfall last weekend.

It’s made with broken shovel heads and honestly I love the thing. You can see how I made it here>>>Broken Shovel Waterfall – With No Welding!

Have a fabulous Sunday!