Nature In My Garden 2023

SEPTEMBER

I was weeding and planting some spring flowers in pots when these 2 grasshoppers  jump on my garden shoes and decided to have some fun. Sheeeesh 😜😁😊

In July's post I've written about the Mason Wasp that found home in my greenhouse under a tray, so today I've checked under the tray, well not really under, because the tray is transparent (was chicken breast in it before, and now it's a tray for my pots) it showed the 2 Mason Wasp cells, where the larvae is feeding on caterpillars, growing big and strong. 

The top pics show the Mason Wasp cells, the other pics are just visiting other wildlife (hover flies, a very drunk on nectar bee, tortoiseshell butterfly). 

This is Charlotte, as I named her, she's a garden orb spider. Very useful little thing to have in one's garden. I spotted today a grey and a brown one. 

My Garden 2023

September

2nd of September

As Autumn draws in my garden is still producing amazing crops. Chillies will be strung up on a long twine and dried. Last year ones are going to be ground in chilli flakes.

I spite of foggy mornings and weeds my garden still looks amazing and produces delightful crops. 

Took those pics today (4th of Sept) just as the fog was lifting my hubby pointed out a spiderweb on his car mirror. Later on when got home managed to take the other ones. The toms are chocolate cherry and the cuc was one I've missed the other day. 

7th of September

Once summer crops like tomatoes are near finished for the season, there's plenty of empty space to fill up with some veg that we'd use during autumn and winter. Also it's still the time to sow some perennials. 

Today I sow winter cauliflower, cabbage, corn salad and perpetual spinach and some leftover onion sets. They'll grow on in the greenhouses along with some carrots, radishes, lettuce and onion sets. I've never grew these things in the greenhouses, but it seems to me such a waste to leave so much space empty during autumn and winter. Even better since our winters are still mild I'd be able to grow some veg and experiment with other. Of course I'd be covering thesmall greenhouse with bubble wrap and create a greenhouse in the greenhouse (more about this on a later date), which works amazingly well. Also my little wonder on a vine, as I call this lil fruit of lufa seems to be growing. 😁😊

9th September

Planting, sowing, harvesting continues inspire of the heat wave we are having (not complaining, it's great). Last of the tomatoes were harvested, the vines discarded, the green tomatoes will be ripening inside. Also had a "huge" crop of pop corn and sweet corn (see pic of the popcorn). 😂🌽🍿. I might get a handful of popcorn out of that cob. Sweetcorn did great this year, we had a few cobs of those too which were boiled and smothered with butter. I also harvested the last of my runner beans as I have enough in the freezer to last me through winter. Also harvested aubergines and made my usual summer curry with chicken. Also had some old runner beans that are good only for seeds, they'll be sowed into pots, they when strong enough into their final spot in the raised beds next year. 

Perennial seedling and seed sowing continues in the greenhouse with some frozen coke. That makes life a bit easier. 

The weather person says heatwave slowly getting to the end, and few showers will be possible in places. That's ok, I suppose, as long as we still get a bit of warmth. Let the cold creep in starting with November. Wishful thinking, we'll see. 

15th September 

Overcast was today and bit on the chilly side. I saw some sparrow fledglings perched on the fence, parents still feeding them. I wonder if they'd get strong and fat enough to survive the migration? Most of the sparrows are gone, I think. These must be the last round of that pair's chicks. Poor things... I hope Autumn will be kind and provide enough food for them to survive and get strong enough to endure their rough journey. 

However things noticeably are changing in my garden too. Tomatoes in the big greenhouse have finished cropping. Vines removed, leftover green toms, now, are ripening inside. In the small greenhouse there are still toms cropping their hearts out. 

The tomatoes shoots I cut from the toms in the big greenhouse have nice roots now. They'll be planted Monday, and with a bit of luck they'll give me a crop or 2, before the frost destroys them. Some of the winter veg seeds are up and growing happily. So are the green onion sets, and the autumn cropping raspberries are full of huge fruit. 

Some of the perennial seedlings got planted in their own pots, where they'll stay over winter. I noticed 2 strong, bushy basil plants, leftovers from the basil I planted with the toms, so I left them in situ, and I'll use the leaves when I need them. The little luffa and the aubergines still growing, especially the aubergines still producing fruit. 

Resin Art

So after a few years of break from this craft I've picked it up again. Can't wait to show my new creations to you.

I'm going to use some of my tatted creations, dried flowers, beads, coffee and seeds that way over their germination date. 

My creations for now are a bracelet with golden flakes, a coaster and 2 Christmas baubles with tatted lace and golden flakes. 

More to follow... 😜

Round Macrame Wreath 2 - Sail Away

This wreath will go to a person who makes miniature boats, planes and trains. I'm so excited to present this to him. 😜

This pattern I've found on YouTube and it's called Half Hitch Knot with Waves. It's absolutely perfect for this project, which I had to adapt for a circle. Took me a minute or 2 and 3 days and a few attempts to come up with a way I can adapt this to a circle. 

It's not perfect, neither are the real waves,some are bigger then the next one 😁😜. Next to "build some boats" (or maybe just 1 boat) to ride the waves. 😜

For the sails I used 5 mm twisted off white cord, the boat is a piece of my own apple tree branch. 

Ta-daaaa finished 😁

I just hope the person I'm gifting this for will enjoy it and like it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Round Macrame Wreath 1 - Let It Snow

This is how my wreath is going to look like. I shall gift this to a friend I'm going to visit in September. I also made a snowflake which will dangle in the middle and I plan to add some soft fairy lights for more effect. This wreath is a compilation of 5 patterns I looked up and mashed together in 1.

This pattern contains knots like: lark's head, square and double half hitch knots.

Ta-daaaa, finally finished :) 

I hope my friend will love it as much as I loved making it. 😁

My Garden 2023

August

Well, this month started sunny and bright, but ended up gloomy and overcast, and it's raining as I'm writing this post. Yet I managed to get a small harvest of runner beans and tomatoes and 1 looooong cucumber. Beans topped and tailed in the freezer. Toms, chilies and cuc in the fridge, chilling until they are eaten. 

It's raining again today but thats OK, nothing unusual there. At least when I use up all my rainwater, I just blink and voila the rain water container is full again. However with all those showers I've managed to get some toms, cucs and chilies in for the kitchen and freezer. 

As you can see my toms gone pear shaped.... Literally pear shaped 😜🍐🍅And more to come.....

The harvest continues with more tomatoes and cucumbers and other vegetables that we enjoy eating in various dishes. 

Finally good weather 20 C today. It has been warm the last few days with scattered showers. Went out to see what else can I harvest and saw this... 

Also came in with 3 big heads of cauliflower, forgot to take pics in my excitement, but I'll show you the cauli cheese I'll make for dinner tomorrow. Beans are awaiting to be harvested tomorrow as well. 

E voilà cauliflower cheese from my own caulis...and this is one the moment where I feel it was worth it, because here growing cauliflowers is like hit and miss. 

The wonders of August doesn't finish here, just look at this bounty. The corn is in the fridge waiting to be boiled and served with butter, the melon tasted like honey. The amount of beans harvested again was huge. I'm running out of space in the freezer.

It's not much, nor show case products, but I grew them, they don't come fresher and more organic than this. They are fed chicken manure pellets, my own home made confrey liquid fertilizer. The trick is if you have greenhouses like I do, to choose plants that are suitable for where one intends to grow them. Simple is that 😜

These yumm looking pointy cabbages will be eaten for lunch today. 

17th of August

After the fiasco with my watering hose I've managed to cut the grass, harvest some veg and fruit and snip some pics. 

Here are some pics.... 

This little pretty flower is the orange cosmos, it adds such a cheery splish splash of color to the border. Aubergines are ready to be harvested for a curry, chillies are getting red and hottttttt, not scorcio hot, just enough to make a statement. Melon nr 2 in the fridge chilling, and a bowl of tomatoes. Very yummy and sweet and juicy addition to breakfast and tea. 

The flower parade continues with yellow cosmos, white mallow, impatiens balsamina, and white straw flower. These straw flowers I collect while they are still small and barely open. Whilst they dry in a box, they will open  but not much, just enough to create a display of color. These plants are part of the flowers, grasses that can be dried for different dried flower arrangements or other crafts. These strawflowers come in many colors and shades. They are sooo pretty dried. It's another way to sneak some summer into the bleak winter days. 

I just love the way my sunflowers come out this year, they were full of butterflies and bees. Among other flowers I have a lonely gladioli that survived winter. A lovely nice impatiens balsamina showing proudly it's very pale, almost white baby pink. 2 more strawflower: a magenta and a red one. 

White and red scabiosa, then borage with its lovely baby blue flowers, occasionally they develop pink and even white flowers. These are edible flowers and taste like cucumbers. The next picture made me smile because I saw this very sleepy bumbles on one of my sunflowers. Another dark red strawflower adding it's flowers to the collection. The 2 last ones are yarrow flowers one is called Pearl, the other one is the wildflower version of it. 

19th of August 

The corn was harvested a few days ago and kept in the fridge until today when it got boiled and eaten with a splash of butter. Only gardeners who grow stuff know the feeling of satisfaction your own crops give you. Not mentioning the utter feel of happiness and joy when you got to it them. 

Also harvested some aubergines and a green chilli, and one of my onions I harvested a month earlier. These veg were the base of the curry I cooked for dinner today 😁😜😋

25th of August

In spite of occasional dry and warm weather, there are still a few heavy or light showers in sight. However this won't stop any plant frow growing and doing what it does best. 

To my utter surprise while I was clipping the grape vines I've found something that made me giggle and go "wowwww". I'd never expected to see at this stage fruit on my luffa, but there it is and with a bit of luck I just might get one fruit out of all those tiny ones. The beef stake tomatoes are amazing this year too, I kid you not. 

The sunflowers are still pouring out flowers to the delight of many visitors like bees, which get drunk on the nectar and fall asleep on the flowers. Not only bees but other polinators and butterflies find these coming up flowers and every day bufe. 

These are  tagetes that I planted among brassicas to keep the cabbage butterflies away and help the plants grow and to mask their scent from the cabbage white butterflies (which absolutely works). 

This is a tortoiseshell butterfly feeding/pollinating  my tall tagetes, so I can have seeds for next year. And those are the cabbage white adult caterpillars on my brussel sprouts. 

These sprouts were outside the cage, planted among tagetes just to see how effective the plant is, and it works. Of course there are a few nibbles on the plant, but as I said before, nothing major, and it won't effect the development of sprouts for  Christmas. 

And this is why companion planting is so essential, especially in the kitchen garden. Of course I had to net the brassicas while they were small but I uncovered them now, as they were pushing up the netting for more room. I find that the adult plants at this stage can face the cabbage white caterpillar attack with no major effect on the plants. 

These are my straw flowers, I mentioned about these above. Of course I won't collect the open ones, that I left on purpose to fully bloom and attract pollinators and then finally set seeds. I'm happy to see that my collection is happily growing and I'll have plenty for my resin projects. Can't wait to play with them and create lovely things. 

These are the things that make me happy among a few others.

27th of August

It's raining again, but I've managed to get in my last 2 heads if cabbage of this season. I'll chop them up and boil them for lunch with gammon and spuds and pineapple chunks. 

Only a gardener can understand the feeling of satisfaction and pride when I harvest abd serve up something I have grown. 



 
 

 

 

Macrame

Hello again, 

A few years ago I tried macrame, did a few snowflakes, feathers and stars, after which I set it aside, just long enough to pick it up again during lockdown. 

I wouldn't create big projects, but I like the small ornaments and the bags are so cool. Macrame is slowly getting back in fashion and if I can help this craft to be more fashionable, why not? 

There's a little similarity between macrame and tatting when it comes of knots. In tatting the guide cord will be either the thread (if shuttles are used) or a needle (when needle is used) and the Lark"s Head Knots are worked on those. Also the picots are done the similar way. 

I rarely buy tutorials, my go-to is YouTube, there's a vast range of tutorials for everything in there, that helped me alot. Also helps if one joins groups on Facebook for similar crafts.