The first week of Spring seems like a good day for a garden update! We've now got a lot of fruit growing, as well as the beginnings of a few borders for flowers,  some seedlings are starting to sprout and there are lots of things in pots waiting for a permanent home.

The anemone above is part of a beautiful bulb collection from my favourite online gardening centre, Crocus. It's got lovely rich purple anemones, unusual blue and white dappled hyacinths and green and pink tulips - cannot wait for them to come into flower!

I've planted the largest border in the garden with fruit - four dwarf fruit trees in a row with bushes growing in between. My top garden planning tip is to do all your designing OneNote -  I've got a Lenovo Yogabook with a stylus that is the best for planning - all my knitting designs are planned out in OneNote and then it all syncs to your phone so it's super handy when you're out and about. Here's the plan for the fruit border and some pictures showing how it's all coming along:

Over to the right there's a wee seating area with two borders either side. I explained how I dug in the terraces in my last garden blogpost. I've put in a few bits and bobs - a winter hellebore, a rose bush and a honeysuckle in one and in the other there's currently a black elderflower which I'm trying to encourage to form a tree rather than a shrub, some omphalodes from my Mum's garden and a winter honesuckle which will be trained up the arch. The winter honeysuckle is called "fragrantissima" and it has the loveliest scent when you brush past it. There's a pink climbing rose at the other end, so I'm hoping there'll be flowers all year round.

There's some little seedlings starting to come through too -  the raised beds are almost all filled and there's some cima di rapa coming through as well as some early peas. I buy a lot of my veg seed from the Real Seed Company - they've got an amazing variety of heritage plants and the best part is you can save seed from all of them - no F1 hybrids! In the potting shed there's lots of little plug plants building up a bit of strength too. Lots of things in pots waiting to go into the front garden too. We're having the roof redone and there'll be scaffolding up next week so I can't plant out just yet, but there's a little red lilac, some scented peonies and a couple of little phildelphus bushes ready to go - you can maybe spot my little canine helper too!

Here's the gritty details:

For Suilven Cowl:
Yarn: Juniper Moon Herriot Fine (4ply)
Colourway Travertine (75% Alpaca 25% Nylon, 422 m/461 yds per 100 g)
1 (2) 100 g skeins = 422 m/461 yds (844 m/922 yds).
 
Dimensions: 75cm/30” (120 cm/47”) around, 38 cm/15” deep for both sizes.


and for the Suilven Hat:
Yarn: Juniper Moon Herriot Fine (4ply)
Colourway Travertine (75% Alpaca 25% Nylon, 422 m/461 yds per 100 g)
One 100 g skeins = 422 m/461 yds, with plenty of yarn left over.
 
Dimensions: Smaller size stretches to fit heads up to 54 cm/21.5” around. Larger size stretches to fit heads 55 cm/22” around and up.


and for both:
Needles: 4 mm/US 6  75 cm/30” circular needle
 
Gauge: 16 sts and 28 rows = 10cm in stocking stitch after blocking.
 
Extras: Tapestry needle for weaving in loose ends, one stitch marker.

Patterns include both charts and written instructions for the lace pattern. You should be able to make a hat and smaller size of cowl from a single skein and you can make a larger cowl with a hat using two skeins.