Monday, May 25, 2009

How Does Our Garden Grow?

It seems like it was a slow week. I know it wasn't, however. Knitting-wise, it was slow, but there was a lot of other stuff going on. I came home from Arizona with some kind of bug, and spent most of the week not feeling my best. I am almost to the toe of the Kieler Sprotte socks, as you can see:



Here's another view, with the heel. The pattern called for the heel to be done on 35 stitches, which seemed big for me, so I did it on 33. For this weight of yarn, I normally do the heel over 30 stitches. This is a bit deep for me, but not excessively so.

I love these socks so far. Aside from how totally cool they look, they're very smooshy and warm because of the stranding. This is a sock that could easily be done in different colors for a man's sock, too.

In other goings-on, we've been working on raising our veggies in anticipation of the nice big raised bed that will go in our backyard soon. So far, we're doing well, with some purple-leaf sage:


A nice herb pot, with cilantro, regular basil and the most delicious smelling lemon basil (in the background on the right is the thyme and the curry plant (smells heavenly):


We've got two different kinds of lettuces, and seeds for more when the bed goes in:


Tomato plants, too, of course - grape tomatoes and campari tomatoes, already flowering:


We started cucumber and pole beans from seed, and they're sprouting nicely:


We also planted some red onion seeds earlier this weekend, but it's too soon for those to sprout. Our favorite so far is the brocolli. Yummmm:


Here's our little garden, waiting for its new home:


Yesterday we went to the Nats/Os game at Nationals Stadium. The stadium is normally pretty easy to get to, but the annual Memorial Day Rolling Thunder takeover meant that many of the roads we would take were closed. Grrrr. It was hot, and I still wasn't feeling well, so unfortunately we had to leave early. But it was jersey day for the kids, so the boys got Ryan Zimmerman jerseys :)



Sr. Jr. is trying to earn up enough money to buy himself an iPod Touch. He put signs up in the neighborhood advertising "J___'s mowing service" and offering to mow lawns for $10. He got his first call this weekend! Today we walked up a few blocks with mower, trimmer, and extension cord in tow and he earned his first $10. He did a great job, and I'm really proud of him. I think they're going to have him back next week, too. Not bad for an almost-12 year old, eh?

4 comments:

Scott T. said...

those plants look better in the photos than in real life

Anonymous said...

LOVE your socks. Now do you have to make another one?

The garden is looking great! Have you passed your 'last freeze' date there?

I would totally have J mow my grass. His rates are quite reasonable as my mower earned $50 just yesterday.

k

(google won't let me log in this morning...arrgghhh)

Sharon said...

I can't decide if I'm more impressed by your green thumb or the fact that your son is working! Wow--nice job!

Loren T said...

Sharon, usually my thumb is as black as they come, but we're doing well this year. Let's see if I can keep it up. As for the kid, he's trying to save up for an iPod Touch :) I'm very proud of his initiative!