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joansgarden.bsky.social
JoansGarden
@joansgarden.bsky.social
2.9K followers 570 following 1.9K posts
Unique knitting patterns, hand knits. Love to garden (US zone 5). A rural southern Oregon blue dot in a red sea. Born and raised in Adelaide, came to the US for 2 years, 50 years ago. Life happens.
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joansgarden.bsky.social
This week's garden article - Nov 10th. 🌱 #gardening
A newsletter article on some last jobs in the garden for the season, and moving a large iris plant.
November 10, 2025 at 7:13 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My garden column for November 3rd. 🌱 #gardening

Oh, & the result of the stewed pears experiment was that I decided these are really not worth canning & I now understand the reason that they are also called sand pears. The flavor is quite nice but the texture is not. I suppose I could try jelly...
A newsletter article on my neighbor's Keiffer pear tree and on my Staghorn Sumac plant.
November 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
#ShowMeYourKnits cable week. I used cables to turn this pussy hat pattern into an owl. You can find the owl pattern here. www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib... or I could knit one for you. 🧶
A hat knitted with light grey yarn, using cables to look like an owl's face, with large brown buttons for the eyes, and the cables ending in pointed ears. The same hat, knitted in a heathered darker brown yarn. The back of the hat, with a long cabled bottom border and garter stitch top.
November 1, 2025 at 5:01 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
Garden column for Oct 27th, 2025 🌱 #gardening
An article about cold weather and falling leaves, fruit that needs a hard freeze, shipping dormant trees in fall, and more garden gifts from neighbors.
October 28, 2025 at 1:30 AM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My garden column for October 20th. 🌱#gardening
An article about trees being cut, birds eating berries, picking apples, and planting bareroot trees.
October 21, 2025 at 12:07 AM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My garden column for October 13th, 2025 🌱 #gardening
A gardening article about disconnecting water lines for the winter, last minute harvests, planting trees in a new food forest, and ripening tomatoes on the back of a chair.
October 13, 2025 at 6:49 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My garden column for October 6th, 2025. 🌱 #gardening
An article about protecting tomato plants from a freeze with floating row cover, a neighbor felling dangerous trees, and the difficulties of getting an area weed whacked when it is filled with gopher tunnels.
October 6, 2025 at 9:47 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My gardening column for September 29th. 🌱 #gardening
An article that talks about digging the onions and potatoes before a rain, the other veggies still in the ground, and fruit about to ripen. Also ordering more plants and cleaning out a shed.
September 29, 2025 at 5:31 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
Some autumn leaves for #ShowMeYourKnits autumn projects. The pattern is available on Ravelry www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...
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A knitted beanie in a pale lemon shade with stranded colorwork green and brown leaves and wind currents swirling away from a lone tree trunk. This beanie, also a pale lemon color has stranded colorwork red-green-brown leaves flying about.
September 22, 2025 at 10:20 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
This week's gardening column, Sep 22nd, 2025 🌱 #gardening
An article from a newsletter about buying fruit trees mail order, and those being bought now that garden zones have changed. Also protecting tomatoes from fall frosts, with photos of tomatoes yet to ripen on the vines.
September 22, 2025 at 6:41 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My newsletter gardening article for September 15th, 2025 🌱 #gardening
An article about lack of pears because they were incorrectly pruned, growing plum trees in a hostile climate, and the produce still being picked in the garden.
September 15, 2025 at 7:22 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
Garden column for Sep 8th, 2025 🌱 #gardening
A newsletter gardening article about making room for a new freezer to store more of the harvest, the lack of bumble bees in my yard but not in more distant yards, and mail ordering new plants. Photos of bumble bees in a neighbor's yard.
September 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My newsletter article for Sep 1st, 2025. 🌱 #gardening
A gardening article about cucumber and apple bounty, the tomato varieties growing this year, success with corn, and being stung by a honey bee.
September 1, 2025 at 5:28 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
I'd been getting about 6-8 cucumbers a day, then it kicked up to 21 in 2 days, so I went recipe hunting. Minestrone soup with grated cucumber last night, followed by salad with sliced cucumber. Also made cucumber cake, & an addictive Indian cucumber/rice cake, plus lots grated & frozen for winter.🌱🍽️
A wicker basket with a tall handle sits on the edge of a raised vegetable bed filled with purple beet leaves and green nasturtium leaves. In the basket is a pile of about 10 cucumbers and several large and small tomatoes, all freshly picked. #gardening
August 31, 2025 at 5:32 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
A sweater for #ShowMeYourKnits. I knitted this one for a friend. This is Bev, wearing the sweater and a matching hat. I then decided to make the sweater pattern a free Ravelry download. You can find it here: www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...
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A smiling older woman wearing a long sleeved sweater with stripes of bright green and different shades of brown, with a bottom band of green pine tree motifs. Her hat is dark brown with green pine tree motifs. A stylized pencil line depiction of the same sweater with muted colors to show other color possibilities.
August 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
The sagebrush has some lovely patterns in it now that the new flower stalks have emerged. I planted a small area in my yard with what I think is Artemisia cana (silver sagebrush), although apparently there are about 10 species growing locally. It had all been cut down on my lot. 🌱🌿
The new flower stalks on silvery sagebrush are a very silver gray/green color and here form an interesting swirling pattern. #gardening The flower stalks on this sagebrush shrub stand straight up. A clump of several sagebrush shrubs with their straight, tall flower stalks contrasting with the darker green of a bitterbrush shrub behind them.
August 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
The news today is so awful I can't read it, but luckily I have figs, plums, cucumbers, & apples from the garden to keep me busy. Here's my garden column for August 25th. 🌱 #gardening
An article from a newsletter about apples getting ripe, and picking cucumbers and other garden produce. It also talks about the smoke filling the sky, and thinking about fall mail order plants.
August 25, 2025 at 5:02 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
#ShowMeYourKnits is baby week. I made these car booties several years ago. The pattern is Car Booties by MarinaKlin available on Ravelry. 🧶
A side view and a front view of baby booties in the shape of a car. The car is purple with a green hood, green buttons for wheels, and white buttons for headlights. It has a white windshield with wipers embroidered on in black.
August 23, 2025 at 5:42 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
I think they're just not really ripe yet. Mine always ripen a few on a bunch before the rest of the bunch ripens, and then there can be a few shriveled ones. I don't thin mine at all and I still get large, juicy grapes. In my opinion it's the pruning that's most important.
Thick clusters of green table grapes hang down from the top of a trellis. The grapes are not yet fully ripe. I've lost the name of this grape.
August 20, 2025 at 2:19 AM
joansgarden.bsky.social
It's sea buckthorn time! I've been picking every morning for a week, not an easy task. They say to freeze the stems & the berries come off more easily, but they fruit on old wood so I don't want to cut it off! I usually freeze them & add to smoothies. I tried jelly, & it set up beautifully. 🌱 🍽️
Sea berries (sea buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides). The berries are in thick clusters and tightly attached directly to the older stems. Hard to get them off without a few stabs from the thorns! #gardening Juice extracted, sugar added, and cooking down to the jelly stage. It jells very well with no added pectin, and remains quite tart, regardless of sugar added. To me, it has shades of orange and pineapple flavors.
August 19, 2025 at 7:24 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My garden column for August 18th, 2025. (This is from the Chiloquin News). 🌱 #gardening
A newsletter article about the abundance from the garden right now, and picking sea berries and aronia berries.
August 18, 2025 at 5:39 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
After many years of trying I finally have success with strawberries. It has to be my new raised bed, or perhaps the warmer weather we get now, or perhaps just a little magic from somewhere. Anyway, I'm happy! There's nothing quite like the aroma of a basket of freshly picked strawberries🌱 #gardening
A round wicker basket with a tall handle and half filled with large red strawberries, sits nestled among the leaves of strawberry plants.
August 18, 2025 at 2:20 AM
joansgarden.bsky.social
Stripes for #ShowMeYourKnits A few versions of Crazy Colors Cleopatra Chapeau. The pattern is on Ravelry. 🧶
www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...
The back view of a hat designed to look like hair with large vertical stripes of reverse stockinette in rainbow colors, that stand out against a dark background. The side view of the same design but in colors grading from purple to green. A third view, this time with nubbly white and black stripes against a black background. This view is from the front and shows the shorter stripes on the bangs.
August 16, 2025 at 7:25 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
I was over at my zone 7 house while getting eye shots the last couple of days, and over there the first of the grapes are ripening. These are my favorites & they have outdone themselves this year! This is Jupiter. Lots more still on the vine. I see a busy time in the kitchen coming up!🌱 #gardening
A produce box piled high with large purple grapes, sits on a white chair next to the leaves of a grapevine.
August 14, 2025 at 11:26 PM
joansgarden.bsky.social
My garden column for August 11th, 2025 🌱 #gardening
An article from a newsletter on picking something every day, what to do with white currants, and working in a greenhouse in the middle of summer.
August 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM