Garden De-Construction!

 The last time we encountered the garden apprentice was in Calgary, happily building 4x4 raised beds and making grids with cotton twine for plantings.  It was fun and the garden and I got along very well.  Thanks to the very knowledgeable gardeners who took me under their wing at the Silver Springs Botanical Garden in the North West part of the city, I learned so much and was the recipient of some great booty in the form of plants and seeds.


So...new house, new garden and endless possibilities but first....de construction.  I have to say that no loving care was given to this plot of land after the first initial plantings in the 1990's.   Juniper was allowed to run wild behind a hedge of bushes that had no business being a hedge.  Creeping Jenny was choking  the rose and covering up struggling lillies.
Landscape cloth - rotten under  a layer or gravel had weeds and quack grass growing up through it.
Oh...and landscaping wood borders were rotten and full of icky bugs.
So...first things first this late winter/ early spring.  Some of the hedging bushes had to be removed and the juniper tamed.

then the layer of rocks had to be...shall we say...relocated.and as much of the rotten landscape cloth as we could, torn up, along with the quack grass roots.   This is high desert country and there are lots of rocks here, big ones, small ones and some in between.

The space is starting to take shape.  Some early planting carefully put in - and edging started with some of those rocks I told you about.
So, the next task was to tackle the insidious Creeping Jenny.

I was feeling quite kindly toward this stuff until I started trying to dig it up.  I even put some on the bank close to the juniper.
but after fighting with it today I have to say most of it went into the green garbage for pickup.
It was doing a fine job of choking out this pretty white bush rose.  

Here we are - finally - took me over an hour to dig up the horrible creeper and I'll have to keep an eye out for errant roots I guess but I feel like I won that battle for now.  Still lots to do ...and we haven't even started on the back yet - well...Libby has - she is having a lovely time digging out there. That's the thing about gardens isn't it.
And on we go.  It's raining now, time to cozy up to the fire and knit I think.

Hope in the year of Fire and Smoke

Last summer was tension making - as I may have mentioned here before.  I slogged through a big move, packing and unpacking in a lovely new space taking a breath....and then.....the valley caught on fire.  There is an irony here, spending time and money to move a complete house to a new location only to have the location go up in smoke.  We were evacuated - half the town was and lived on tender hooks for quite a while while the intrepid firefighters battled spot fires and tried to save us.  I was so lucky.  My new dear little house dodged the fire bullet.  Lots of families weren't so lucky farther south.
But we lived through it.  And we lived through the smoke filled valley when the winds changed.  And we got on.
Which brings me to the challenge.
I belong to a wonderful guild here.  The desert Sage Spinners and Weavers guild.  They tolerate all fibre arts with joy and generosity.  So, weekly, I haul my latest sock down to the community centre and sit among like minded artists chatting, nurturing, and exchanging help and ideas.
Last fall, after we all took a breath when the fires were at last out and the fire camps closed down, we were presented with a challenge.
Create something using the colours of summer - the red of the fires, the greys of the smoke, the brown of the rocks, the green of the evergreens.  It was called the summer of fire and smoke.
So...here is what I did.
I call it HOPE.  Hope for a new beginning here in this lovely part of the Okanagan.  Hope for a peaceful, creative life here.  And hope that the winter rains and snow put enough moisture in the ground so we won't repeat last summer.

 I started out wet felting some lovely Mohair dyed by Cattails Farm Fibre - I bought 3 colours from her at the craft fair.
I then turned to needle felting and cutting out my shapes.  
Once I sort of had that under control, I got out the beads.

And here is the result.  Hope in the year of Fire and Smoke.