Midsummer garden update...

Technically, the middle of summer is almost two weeks away, but I've been hearing the term mid-summer for a couple of weeks now, and my mind has become decidedly focused on the slow downhill slide into autumn.  

Today, is a glimpse of my midsummer garden - as it's getting a reset.

This was my garden mid-June, and is one of only two pictures I took of my corn (it's in the back - on the right half of photo):

While there were lots of weeds in the foreground (above) there was so much hope growing already.

Around 50 stalks of corn came up, and they looked so pretty.  The grass at the base of the corn stalks above got out of hand fast and eventually took over the area.  I figured I'd deal with it after harvesting the corn.

It seems it was a few weeks ago that I got two ears of corn - one good and one tasty enough, but not well pollinated.

And then the raccoons found the corn.  And for the last couple of weeks, nearly every day one or two stalks at a time were taken down and immature tasteless cobs of corn were found ripped into, nibbled...  and then abandoned, uneaten:

After four or five walks of shame from the garden to the firepit, carrying one or two newly broken stalks, I decided I'd had enough.  

It wouldn't have been so bad if the racoons had waited until the corn was mature and tasty, and had given me half a chance to get to it first.  I think I could have found it in me to congratulate them for beating me to most of it, appreciating how much they they enjoyed it.  

But the waste of ruined, uneaten ears of corn was too much. I began to regret every day that I had devoted so much space to corn.

Last week ended with four beautiful days (lows in the 50's, high temps in the mid-70's).  I seized the opportunity and spent a good part of three of those days in the garden.  First, pulling what remained of the corn stalks, then pulling what had become a carpet of tall grass that had grown amongst the stalks and sweet potato vines and a few rogue sunflowers.

Then the newly bare spaces were replanted with quick growing bush beans and zucchini, as well as some autumn loving plants - more peas, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots...

...trying to strategize using shady areas provided by sunflowers and a nearby tree during the heat of mid-day.

More crabgrass that will just have to wait for another day to be dug out:  

I had such good intentions of mulching the whole garden to keep weeds at bay, but time got away from me, and then it got hot.  Crabgrass has become my nemesis this summer.

Meanwhile, the tomato plants have remained fairly small, but they are producing some nice-looking fruit:  

Same for the pepper plants.

Blauhilde beans have been producing pretty purple blossoms, but so far no pretty purple beans:

Kohlrabi planted early in the spring has been getting big enough to pull and eat:

In the foreground above, are more Dragon Tongue beans I planted a couple of weeks ago.

And two okra plants appear to be thriving:

...along with the crabgrass.

And lastly, the Kajari melon plants have been blooming for a couple of weeks:

 

I keep searching the vines, but so far I've only found one little nubbin of a melon that has started:

I'm trying to not give in to the nagging feeling that racoons are going to go after my Kajari before I have a chance to see them to maturity...

There's more work to be done to take the garden through the rest of the summer and into the fall, but now that it's heating back up, that work will be likely only be done in morning or evening spurts as I have time and motivation.  I know I shouldn't wish time away, but I am soooo looking forward to cooler autumn weather.

While I'm able and desire to do it, I keep reminding myself that the garden is a hobby and good exercise.  While my knee is a tiny bit sore today, my glutes and hamstrings seem to have largely recovered from all the up and down last week while pulling weeds.

At the moment, I take great pleasure that at least half of the garden is weeded and looking good.  I think the first item of business (tomorrow) is to get some more mulch out there to cover up that pretty bare soil. 

~~~~~

Another small finish this week...

I've actually made this little doily before.  Twice in fact, and they've been given away.  Always wanting one for myself in this pretty green color, I made a third one.

I've been asked from time to time about blocking doilies, so I'm going to discuss the process, with before and after pictures.

Admittedly, this isn't the most wrinkly doily I've made, but you can see how the corners curl up and some of the picots are a bit stunted. It just isn't as nice in this unblocked state as it will be blocked:

I soak the doily in running tap water, and then saturate it with spray starch, crumpling and squeezing the sopping wet doily to work starch into the fibers.  Then I roll it up in a towel, and squeeze most of the water (and probably starch) out of it.  The above is actually how it looked after going through that process.  

I'm trying to use up this very old can of spray starch that I brought home from my mother-in-law's home five years ago:

I can't quite decipher the code, but I'm curious if anyone wants to take a guess as to how old this can of starch is: 

After all that, the doily gets pinned on a foam mat to dry overnight:

Yes, that is a lot of pins.  And this is just a 5 1/2" doily. You  can imagine how many more pins a large doily takes.  

The way to block a doily is to begin in the center, working one's way out.  Generally, (and especially as I get further out from the center), I try to pin on opposite sides of the doily to achieve as even a shape as possible.  I'll try explaining like this:  I pin one point of a leaf, then turn the whole thing around and pulling the doily taut, I pin the pointed leaf on the opposite side.  Then I'll pin another point a quarter of the way around, and the next pin will go into the point opposite of that.  Each little picot around the outside edge has a pin dedicated to it.

Once it's dry, all those pins come out, and the result is a prettily formed doily.  In case you're wondering, this doily isn't stiff (even using "heavy" starch), but it does have body and will hold its shape until it's washed, or gets wet again for some reason.

If it were to get crumpled up or creased somehow, I would put it flat in a folded towel and using a steam iron press it flat again.  If you ever bring home a musty old doily from a flea market, or grandma's attic, I recommend washing it by hand, then using my steps above, block it.  Or you might try pressing it in a towel like I explained above.  Picots may not come out perky, but I'd think the doily would at least lay flat.

Doily # 8 from the book, 99 Little Doilies.  

I've dubbed this one "Elm Leaves".

Some colors are just weird...

While I'm working on some projects in the background that I won't be able to show for a while, I decided to give myself a break from a somewhat complicated pattern and crochet another small, quick doily.  This may be how it goes for a little while.  And Marsha, I'm not working on a Hiddleston doily.  I'm still not quite confident enough to tackle one of those.

All I have to show today is a humble 5 1/2" doily named #29. 

But first, here is a picture of how #29 was presented in the book, 99 Little Doilies:

It's okay... Very unassuming.  Honestly, I had written "meh" beside the doily number on the record I'm keeping of this long-term project, with the intention that I'd probably never make it.

But I decided to look on Ravelry for what other people have done with Doily #29.  I thought I was just looking for pretty colors, but someone decided to take a different approach to blocking it, and I didn't have to think twice before following suit:

Are we all in agreement that this is so much better than the original?

Now for a little experiment with trying to photograph it...

The crochet thread I'm using is Artiste in the color, Antique. It's not a particularly pretty color.  A kind of dutsy mauve is the most generous way I can come up with in describing it.

A picture I pulled from Hobby Lobby's website:

This is it at home outside in the natural light:

Pulling the camera back, this is it (top center) next to three neutrals:

Honestly, it's not nearly as pretty, or pink as it appears in any of the pictures here. Truth be told, I only bought it because 1) it was inexpensive and being discontinued, and 2) I kind of felt sorry for it.  Along with feeling sorry for it, I imagined it might crochet up prettier than it spools up.

What I didn't quite bargain for is that in person, the color totally depends on the lighting, and the surface it's laying on.

So, like I did with another doily a few weeks ago, I photographed the same doily in the same room, next to the same windows, just minutes apart, on different table tops.  The difference in how my phone camera picked up the color is crazy.

Neither one of these is bad.  But neither one is true, either. The first picture (just above) is truer in its coloring, but it's not quite that pretty of a pink.  Clearly, this color is going to do whatever it likes, whenever it likes. I can only imagine how long the designer looked at the color before giving up and simply called it Antique.  Antique is a hard name to argue with for such an odd color that in person looks old and dusty.

Not sure what I'll ever use it for again, but for now it goes into the bin of other threads!