The Garden Conundrum

Oh, yes, I am planning a garden, a small one and of course, ornamental. No useful gardens here! ;) But here's the rub, it has to be deer proof and fire resistant. Those two things seem to be almost mutually exclusive of each other and since this is all going right by the big wood deck, both attributes are important. Deer resistant plants are often the ones with heavy aromatic oils. Those same oils make a plant a poor choice for fire suppression so close to a house structure. It's quite the dilemma. Then lets add in the hot full sun location of a good portion of the front, the poor soil composition (which of course, can be amended), and the wish to have it fairly thrifty in the watering department. Not a good candidate for small trees that like wet feet like birches and aspens. Oh and the slope. We need a fairly aggressive root system on some of this to hold as much amended soil as possible. Shrubs need to be no bigger upon maturity than say 6 feet and it's best that they lose their leaves due to our winter snow loads. Trees no taller than 20 feet max, ground covers hardy and durable to foot traffic be it human or otherwise. And no poisonous or highly invasive plants.  And to top it all off, the elevation. Not all plants like being up this high for one reason or another. So, I'm starting my list and hoping I can find someone locally well versed in something other than what thrives in the valley. On it so far; redbud, native dogwood for the shadier side, bamboo, lavender, germander, jasmine, hawthorn and mock orange. It's woefully short and of course, not all of the plants meet all of the criteria but it's a start.

In the sewing closet, it's been a lot of organizing and not so much sewing.





I did manage to start and complete two corduroy shirts which were at the top of my list. I love corduroy and this is the perfect time of year for it. I'm not a fan of flannel so this fabric fills my need for soft, warm and washable! No new ground covered here. I used two TNT patterns (tried and true), Sewing Workshops Zig Zag top and Butterick's Connie Crawford blouse pattern which I never tire of making or wearing.





  In process is a new pattern to me, an OOP Vogue for spring/summer wear in a lovely silk matka.



 I did manage to do a quick muslin of the Decades of Style Salon pant and it looks like with very few modifications it will work. It's a fun pattern, unusual style and seems like it will be quite comfortable. I'm going to try it in a nice ponte knit.

I purchased my plane ticket for the annual trek to New England. Dates about the same as previous years, end of April to just before Memorial Day. For those planning trips, airfares are on the rise. The fare was about $60.00 higher than last year and I'm not counting bag fees.

In farm news, the pesky black tomcat has been back around. And Sunday, Gene got my feeding route well plowed out, enough to have a go with Bob the tractor. That was until we got a foot of snow Sunday night into yesterday and it's still snowing.  Given the slippery nature of the snow, the crazy grading that happened with the first plowing by the log skidder and now non-existent turnaround, I'm going to stick with the hand carry. I tried Bob yesterday afternoon. It was not fun, but he needed to be started and run and we managed to stage two bales of hay up by the donkeys. The backing back down towards the barn was interesting and something I won't be repeating in the morning dark any time soon.

Parting shot: Smoochie, our optimum napper.