Greenhouse and Back Garden

This is the first year that we’ve had the greenhouse and it’s already much loved.  The benches have been added and the first of the seeds have been planted.  There’s still room for a bistro set which is a lovely place to have lunch.

We started some flower seeds and tomatoes in early March and now the tomatoes are just starting to come up.  It is always an exciting time going into the greenhouse and seeing what is up.

We watch Gardeners World with Monty Don, a TV show from Britain, which showed us a different way of starting seeds.  He uses half seed trays and once the seeds have their first true leaves he then pricks them out into larger pots.  We are trying this method this year, although we can’t buy half seed trays for love nor money so we’re using supermarket mushroom containers, as they are about the right size.  To maximize the use of the containers we use a piece of milk jugs to separate the container into two sections, the milk jug is made from food safe waxed paper.

Some other things that are in the greenhouse are some soft wood cuttings that were taken in the fall which have survived the winter and are starting to leaf out.  They are Weigela, a lovely flowering shrub, in the back and Enkianthus 'campanulatus', a wonderful flowering tree also a bee magnet, in the front.  They are a bit of an experiment and we have no idea how long they will take to become big enough to plant out, nor where they will be planted out to!

The garden is still in the winter clean up stage, as it has been a lot colder than in previous years but some things are starting to show.  In the back the Clematis is about 6 inches tall and the black pot is full of Crocosmia but the tips have been touched by frost.  In the front are some pansy’s, why do they always bloom away from you?!  This garden along the fence is going to get a makeover this year so it will soon look very different.

The 60+ heads of garlic are up and are a very promising start to spring.  We are already looking forward to making garlic scape pesto in early summer!

In the front garden the daffodils are showing their sunny faces and wonderful calling card for spring.

Spring Plaid Table Runners

The yellow, peach and pink plaid runners are off the loom.  They made a very satisfyingly large and heavy pile while I was taking them off the loom.

The runners were then washed and air dried.  I run them through the steam press for the first pressing before folding up the hems for hand hemming.  With the plaid pattern there were an amazing number of ends to clip!

The runners are now waiting to be hemmed, just need a sunny day because sitting in the sun and sewing is really lovely.   Now that it is early spring and the garden is calling to be cleaned up every time the sun shines, so a real conflict!

I did a small photo shot to show what the final runners look like.  The first table runner that I wove had a very long repeat; so long, in fact, that I couldn’t see the whole thing as I was weaving.  I was a little worried about it but the runner came out great.  I like the large scale of the plaid stripes.

The second runner has more stripes of plaid and it’s longer overall.  I have to remember when I photograph these runners for Etsy, to take my time to straighten the stripes.  They looked straight on the table but the camera really exaggerates even the smallest of the wiggles! 

I really enjoyed weaving these lovely runners and I’m already thinking about putting more plaid runners on the loom.

The garden photo is crocuses.  They were hidden under some leaves so they are a little bedraggled but they are very welcomed sign of spring in the garden.