23 June: Time for a re-design?

We've been living here for 6 years now, and the garden has developed and changed over that time.

This was brought home to me this morning when I went out to remedy the damage done by the high winds over the weekend. Along the fence are 3 climbing roses, and there are wires along the fence that they are tied into. This year the roses were well-fed before the new leaves opened, and they put on a lot of growth. The extra weight and the gales had the effect that one wire broke, and another pulled out its (obviously inadequate) anchoring staple. The roses were flopped down in a wet (and thorny!) heap over the border and path.

After a heroic struggle with thorns, heavy wet plants, and wire - and why is the tool you need always just out of reach? - the roses are upright again and re-attached to their supports. I have wiped the blood away and dried off.

For a tiny garden, it's surprisingly jungly. The original design included a path round two sides of the garden, against the fences and behind the borders; this provides easy access to the fences for maintenance, and allows for wider borders, as they can be tended from both sides. These borders contain trees, birch, rowan, and magnolia, plus 2 buddleias, a viburnum tinus and a spotted laurel, which can all grow pretty big. And they have. It's a bit of an adventure hacking your way round the back path now. There is a range of shade-loving underplants, and the trees make much of the "lawn" shaded and damp, and full of moss. (Well, it isn't at the moment, it's full of bare patches where there used to be moss, and new seed has been sown.)

The pergola was planted with 2 roses and 2 clematis, and they have all amazed us with their ability to shoot up, out, tangle, and sag. They provide cover for the birds, of course, but also for the neighbour's cat, who likes the birds too.

The raspberry canes have died off in one part of their bed, but have colonised an area beyond that, where they are looking good, and so that part of the garden has altered itself. There's a bit in one border where nothing flourishes, and that may be a good spot for a little sit-ooterie.

We have thought about digging up the lawn, and having more planting with wide paths in between. But I am reluctant to make it more complicated and increase the maintenance - I actually prefer sitting in the garden now to working in it. How can it be simplified, but still have lots of summer colour and winter interest? And if we want to move from here at some point, we want the garden to be an attraction, not a handicap.

So sooner or later changes will be made. It'll probably be a case of waiting for conditions to ripen, and then it will become clear what's needed - in the meantime we can gather ideas from other gardens and think about what might be best.

7 June: Some thoughts on knitting

A comment on the last entry has started a chain of thought.

The method of constructing a sock which I used is almost certainly not new, though I only came across it recently (on the Internet, of course). Knitting is one of the more ancient arts or crafts - and I don't intend to argue about the difference between those two. So it follows that anything we are able to do with knitting nowadays has almost certainly been done in the past (our ancestors did, after all, invent the wheel). It's only sticks and some yarn.

A few books provide basic techniques of starting and finishing, and ways of combining stitches to make patterns, and other books show how garments were made in other places and at other times. Current magazines and the Internet provide information on what is currently being made - not worn, though; some of the weird and wonderful garments are destined for the What Not to Knit website.

So the garment is chosen, and the shape and size worked out. Most things can be started at either end, some in the middle. Knitting can be done from bottom to top, top to bottom, side to side, or diagonally. It depends what suits - drape, or the lack of it, thickness of fabric, stitch pattern, all need to be considered. If you can draw it, you can knit it, and even if you can't draw a 3D shape, if you can see it in your mind's eye, you can knit it.

The yarn has to be selected - wool, cotton, linen, hemp, polyester, soy, bamboo, alpaca, dog hair, bison, mohair, lurex, or strips cut from plastic bags. The world's your lobster.

Then colour - plain or fancy, subtle or bold, how many colours, and how to combine them; whether to use colours already held, or to make some different ones.

There are enough combinations there to provide hours of fun. Then the actual knitting process is enjoyable. And when it's finished, something to wear or give, and to feel proud of. Or perhaps to frog and start again!