I enjoyed knitting Nami's variegated sweater so much, that I bought another ball of the pretty cashmere sock yarn to knit a sweater and hat for Lonnie. I'm still trying to find Lonnie's "look" but have determined she definitely is a "hat girl". Maybe it's because, like all the KIDs, she has a small little face on an otherwise proportionately large head, so the hat helps minimize the top of her head and makes her look "normal". Now I need to make her a T-shirt and jumper.
I'm feeling a bit demoralized by my garden. A few weeks ago we bought several flats of impatiens and potted up lots of pots and hanging baskets, just like we have for 30 years. Well, they've all started dying! First they lose their flowers, then the leaves, then the plants go all limp like they've been cooked. It doesn't seem to matter where in the garden they are, whether they are under a tree, out in the open, or covered by the porch. Which would suggest it's not from the way they are watered, or if it's the cooler rainy weather doing it. Last year I had the same problem, but it started later in the summer, and I lost about 1/4 to 1/3 of my plants, but so far it looks like just about all my plants this year are affected. I googled the problem and discovered there's a plague of downy mildew infestation destroying impatiens right across North America. The undersides of the leaves are thick with downy white mildew, and there's nothing that can be done about it. That in fact there are two kinds of mold spores - one which can become air-borne and infect surrounding (and neighbour's) plants, and then there's the spores that go into the plant itself and the soil, infecting it so that the following year if you plant impatiens in that same spot, the mold will enter the plant through the soil and kill the plant. The problem first appeared in late 2011 and only affects the regular kind, and not the "sunshine impatiens". So now I have to decide which pots I really want to have colour in later this summer, and go replace them with other plants - which is about the last thing I need to be doing when I'm already so busy. I wish I'd researched this issue sooner - like last year - so I didn't have to go waste all that money on sick plants. I will have to research what plants to buy next year, since it looks like impatiens will not be a wise choice for years to come. It's a huge disappointment as I loved the colour the impatiens brought to my shady backyard. They were about the only flowering plant that would bloom in my backyard. Good thing I've learned to like "green", and have come to appreciate all the different colours and textures of the leafy plants in an almost exclusively green garden.
RSS Feed
