Raspberry hedge

We're working on a raspberry hedge right now. It's going to be next to the little herb box. When our house was built, the patch of ground to the front of the house was filled with sand to allow for terracing. Therefore we have to get rid of all the sand and fill the patch up with good growing soil. The sand comes in handy, because we needed sand to fill up our garden path anyway. :)

Raspberries, waiting to be planted

We're going to grow 5 different varieties:

1. Fallgold, a yellow fall raspberry variety

2. Autumn bliss, a pink fall raspberry variety

3. Glen Ample, a red summer raspberry variety

4. Black jewel, a black raspberry variety

5. Loganberry

Sowing pepper seeds

Februari is coming to an end, which means that it's time to sow pepper seeds indoors. The temperature has to be 20-30 degrees (celsius) for them to germinate, it usually takes 2-3 weeks. I sow them so early, because they have to recieve as much light as possible to grow into sturdy crops.

This year, I'm sowing the following varieties:

Sweet peppers (paprika):

• Red Marconi, long red sweet peppers
• California Wonder, classic bell peppers
• Marconi Purple, have a bell pepper shape with a deep purple shade

Hot peppers:

• Bird's Eye, little hot Thai peppers that you can buy at most toko's
• Prairie Fire, ornamental peppers with bright yellow-orange-red colours (not for eating)

Last year I went for more special pepper varieties, like Rocoto Orange and Monkey Face, but 2011 was a very bad pepper year in the Netherlands and the special varieties all withered. I also realised that, while hot varieties are fun to grow, I know no one besides my father who actually likes them. Therefore, I decided to focus on sweet peppers this year: we all love those!

Knitted cat

I'm getting better at knitting. I made this cat a few days ago, she's my first three-dimensional knit, and - to be honest - also my first piece where I used increases and decreases... I'm glad she turned out well. I knitted her while listening to Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther and thereafter Dicken's Great Expectations. Although the stories greatly absorbed me, I don't think they influenced my knitting much... She seems to be quite in spirits.

I used this easy pattern here