colorwork, sprouts, and a new garden book

An unexpexted change in the weekend schedule caused me to put off making kudzu jam but tonight when the temperature cools alittle I'll gather up a good bunch of blossoms and hopefully have it done and photographed if not tomorrow then the next day but jam will be spread on biscuits by this weekend!

First things first...
So my first reference to knitting in this blog is not anything too exciting not a pattern or even a finished product but I've only been knitting for a short time, so small things are exciting to me and make me kind of proud.

Behold!

My first shot at fair isle! (dont look at the art room mess surrounding the knit piece) This is a panel to a messenger bag/ garden picking bag I'm making. There was one slight mess up there in the middle but not too shabby.

SN: Upon typing this post I just noticed my mutant-looking feet in the picture... strange.

Next! Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale are sprouting!

Now if only we can get that blasted tiller up and running then i can prepare the fall bed. Everything in the garden is still kicking and probably will be for atleast another month, which will force me to till up more space. well worth it though.

Last but not least.

While shopping at the local flea market I did something unwise....I went into a book store. Big mistake. My one weakness is books. I cant tell myself no it seems. But this trip into the book store was well worth it. They had a huge gardening section and one book caught my eye...

You can tell from the price tag. I got it for a good price.

And from the book marks I've spent abit of time with my nose stuck in it.

Now I have a few gardening books ( again books are my weakness) But this one is so inspiring. One look through this book and you have a strong urge to fill every square inch of land with garden.

There's a photo everyother page and theyre so pretty!

All the knowledge in the book is kind of basic but I learned a few things. It was worth every penny just to get to gaze longingly at the pretty photos and dream of that "someday dream garden"!

Now time to make some bread and butter pickles!

Not a bad friday in the garden

It's been real hot with not much rain which means crooked cukes and little broccoli but beautiful okra that I swear are growing inches over night. Tomatoes are finally starting to ripen! in a couple of days I'll have a german queen ready for eatin' and the little yellow pear tomatoes are producing a handful a day! There's a watermelon about a week away from being ready and the pumkins are turning orange!

And hooray! it's kudzu season! the forest of it below my house is just bursting with blooms! you know what that means... kudzu jam! which I will be making a big batch tonight so probably sometime tomorrow I will be posting photos and a how to so you can get in on that action!

Fall garden transplants

Well, I feel alittle bit more on schedule with the fall garden. I've got the brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale started.

Atleast someone got some broccoli

A couple of days ago, my dad said he thought he saw a groundhog with a guilty face run out of the garden. And upon inspection....

It seems he went home a full and happy groundhog, but little does he know he just became garden enemy number one.

He also tasted a pumpkin....

Fall Garden

About a week ago I got my seeds in from sustainableseedco.com.

I plan to have the garden in by the beginning of next week. Along with all this goodness. I plan to throw in some potatoes, buying online is so expensive. So I'm gonna play with supermarket potatoes and see what I get. They are developing they're eyes, so I know they'll sprout, so we'll just see.

Pretty pretty pumpkins and an almost ripe tomato!

There's maybe 10 good sized Pumpkins. I'd probably find more if I really got in there and looked. I propped up some of the bigger ones so theyd get a better shape, only to find these yellow spots. I hope they get big for Thanksgiving. I've made promises for bunches of pies and breads.

And my one slightly ripe tomato. we've gotten 2 yellow pear tomatoes so far. But I'm craving a big one. There's a bunch of green ones, promising a good load this year but the darn things wont ripen!

Oh and we got our first squash, which will be cooked with salt, pepper, butter and onion!



Forgotten Broccoli

One walk out in the garden this morning and I realized the broccoli was alittle past ready to pick.

This little guy's probably just happy to be out of the heat
Though he will be steamed with salt, pepper and butter! Yum, or maybe thrown into a stir fry!