I haven't gotten as much knitting done because I have been doing a lot of house and yard work. Over the weekend of the 4th, Pete and I put in a flower garden. Here's a shot from when we were looking at the house back in April (all "stuff" including the hot tub belong to the previous owner).
The red arrow indicates the tree stump that was artfully hid beneath a planter. Removing this stump and the big roots that were spread throughout the bed doubled the length of this project. It was *hard* work, but I think the result was well worth it:
We put in a gorgeous hydrangea in the center. On the east side are purple coneflowers and black eyed susans. To the north, facing the house, is a patch of lavender -- this smells *wonderful* -- and behind that is red cardinal flower and a purplish sedum. And to the west is an ornamental grass (I forget the name) and some ruby coreopsis.
Lots of other yard work has been done, but it mostly involved trimming bushes and pulling weeds, so I won't bore you with the details.
On the knitting front, the second Amanda Backpack (actually the 4th I have knit!) cover model is coming along nicely. I really think that there is a possibility that I may have the pattern ready for release later this month or in early August.
The bed looks great. Hope you don't have bunnies in your yard like we do! They really like the black-eyed susans.
Posted by: monica | Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 09:33 PM
Lovely garden -- real eye-candy for this high-rise condo-dwelling city girl!
Posted by: Wendy | Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at 05:56 AM
Beautiful garden!
Posted by: liz | Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at 08:58 AM
Don't know if you have porcupines where you live or not, Julie, but an old "backwoods" way of getting rid of a stump is to go and buy a five pound bag of salt, pour it onto the stump (and if necessary, drill holes so it gets INTO the stump). Then, the idea is, the porcupines come and chew the stump up for you because they love salt.
Now, understand, I've never actually known anyone to do this, but it's a good story. And one of my uncles did have some problems with the porkies chewing on his car tires in the winter when they had road salt on them.
Posted by: fillyjonk | Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at 03:13 PM
Lol! No porcupines here, but lots of squirrels and the only thing they eat is our birdseed.
Posted by: Julie | Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at 03:28 PM
Mr. Julie here...I spotted a rabbit in the backyard this morning. So, Monica, if you have any solutions for keeping him away from the black-eyed susans we'd be glad to hear them.
Posted by: Pete | Thursday, July 15, 2004 at 02:45 PM
My dad the redneck would have tried to get the stump out with dynamite. And I won't say what he would do to the bunnies, either.
Your way, though it involved a lot of work, is much better. And the flower bed looks great!
Posted by: Heidi | Friday, July 16, 2004 at 03:19 PM
Heidi, that's an interesting idea, but the stump was less than ten feet away from the back door, and I doubt if our insurance man would have had encouraging things to say about us blowing the breakfast nook off the house.
Posted by: Pete | Monday, July 19, 2004 at 12:58 PM