What to plant this fall?

My impatients aren't looking too great lately, and it's reminded me that I need to decide what I want to plant along the front of my house this winter. Everybody and their uncle plants the typical purple & yellow pansies for winter.

Pansies are okay, I think they're pretty, but I want something a bit different. Burpee has these varieties of pansy, now I just need to decide on one!:

Pansy - Chalon Supreme Mix
Pansy Antique Shades
Pansy Moulin Rouge Mix

I can't think of any other small plants that flower during the winter... and I think I'd like to keep planting annuals there so I can have color year-round.

Why can't I grow lettuce?

I was out in the garden yesterday. Onions are ready to harvest, jalapenos are ready, there are some tomatoes starting to form, the carrots are looking okay, the bean plants are starting to die out so I need to plant some more...

But for some reason, I have not been able to grow lettuce! I planted 4-5 different varieties in March and April, and they all grew a teensy bit and then died. Frustrating! Everything else has grown, but not the lettuce. (Oh wait, the Swiss Chard didn't do so well, either...)

Upcoming sewing plans?

Sometime this week I hope to finish my daughters' dresses... on Saturday I picked up some interfacing (which is something I really ought to have in my stash!)

I'm starting to think about what I want to make next. First project, I suppose, ought to be a sun hat. I'm just itching to make a historical outfit of some kind, but I have no reason to! (And honestly... I gained a lot of weight over the last several months and at a pattern size 24, they would not look good on me anyway!) I'd hoped to make something (like an 1880's polonaise) for our county's Fall Festival in September, but now we have other plans during those days and won't be able to attend... so, maybe next year, huh?

Almost done with the dresses

Well, not quite 'almost', but I think I got past the most difficult part... putting on the sleeves. That's always a nightmare for me because I hate doing all that gathering and then trying to fit the tiny little armscyes around the presser foot to stitch them together. Phew!

All I have to do now is apply the interfacing to the facing, finish the raw edges of the facing, and add them to the dress... and then gather & stitch the ruffles at the hemline and add the buttonholes & buttons.

I have a great dislike for facings... I'd rather do a full lining or bound edges. But they're not really the best option for this dress.

Lisianthus blossom!

I found this as I was checking the garden this morning. Too cool! I don't even have a proper vase for it, LOL. There are several other buds out in the garden, ready to bloom.

Need to finish...

My daughters' dresses have been sitting next to the sewing machine for 2 weeks, I haven't finished them yet! I will definitely need to get that done this next week! So far I've cut out most of the pieces (everything but the ruffle and sleeve bands) and I've sewn the bodice fronts & backs together, and the skirt pieces together. I need to attach the skirt to the bodice, add the sleeves, add the ruffle to the skirt, do the front facing, and add buttons/buttonholes.

I also need to make myself a new hat... I got some bandanas (medium-blue) to make it from, we'll see how well it works. I have this pattern from Birch Street Clothing and they have a bandana hat pattern/kit that I am trying to take my "inspiration" from.

Update on the garden

Whew, we have gotten SO MUCH RAIN in the past few weeks! We got around 9" in April, and so far we're up to 7" for the month of May! I haven't had to water the garden in an entire month.

Everything is doing well, except for the lettuce and tomatoes. Something is eating the peppers, the beans, the zucchini (which seems to be their favorite), the cantaloupes, and possibly the lettuce. (The lettuce does not stand up well to our Texas thunderstorms, and sometimes it will be there one day and gone the next, so I assume something is eating it). It's frustrating as heck. I would spray with some insecticidal soap, but... don't you actually have to see the bugs for it to work?? I can find out WHAT is eating the plants, but do I have to spray the bugs themselves? Or will spraying the plants keep the bugs away? (I feel so stupid for not knowing!)

And still, only 3 of my 12 miniature dwarf apple tree benchgrafts have sprouted. It's been TWO MONTHS! I planted them in groups of 3 (total of 4 groups of 3 each, that is) and if only 3 are going to sprout, I don't know what I'll do. It'll look stupid to have a couple scraggly trees there, I'd rather tear them out and move some thing else to there (dwarf fruit trees in containers, maybe), but it'll be a waste of the $130 I spent on those trees.

(Oh yes, I forgot to say... Burpee replaced my lisianthus that had been damaged, and the replacements came in yesterday. I planted them yesterday evening).

Anyway, here are a few pictures. Click for a little bit bigger image. The caption for each photo is just beneath the photo (instead of above).


An almost-ripe dewberry! This thing is huge, it's the size of a quarter!


More dewberries. Awesome! I'll have to keep a really close eye on them as they ripen, and make sure the birds don't get them. (I suppose I ought to have bird netting on hand, just in case).


One of my 4'x4' planters. They're all pretty much the same, except the one that has zucchini & Roma tomatoes (the zucchinis look awful, like I said- something's been eating their leaves).


The pretty purple flowers on my Royal Burgundy bush beans.


Beans!! These are the pods on my Tendergreen Improved bush beans. I think they're supposed to be harvested at 5"-6" long, they're currently about 2" long. Wild estimation, anyway.


Lemons! Looks like it'll be a loooong time before these guys are ripe.