A Look Around The Veggie Garden

I'm happy to say I've finally been able to get radishes to grow here after failure for three years. Each year I would change the location and soil mix. The key to success here was to add a lot of peat moss to lighten up our heavy clay soil.

Here are some variations of a recent painting of lettuce leaves. i was trying to catch the way the light looked as it showed through the leaves and remind everyone how beautiful the simple things in life can be.

The painting is an acrylic on stretched canvas. In this case I manipulated it on the computer to see what it would have looked if I had drawn it instead.

This is the what it looks now. I'll be waiting for another day, when I feel more inspired to capture light in a better way.

These planters hold an assortment of things. Tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, cucumbers and a number of other things.

Yes, I've also poked a few flowers in between things to make it pretty for afternoon teas and other events.

Yes, I also want to grow the peace and the happiness here and harvest joy. It's my little world ands I love it dearly no matter what anyone else thinks.

 

Projects from the Scrap Heap

 I'm cleaning up my studio area so that I can get a fresh start at the new year. The question becomes "what do I do with the odds and ends that I don't want to toss?"

The small painting had been used for a floormat design and some others. the horse pattern was left from another project. I was considering combining them to create a unicorn painting to be used on children's merchandise.

I hated to work over that painting so i found the start of another one to paint over. I tried tracing the drawing over it but it didn't turn out so I painted white over the center before I tried again

Now I'm deciding how I want to paint it.

So far it's a mess but I think it's got potential. The great thing about these scrap projects is that you can unleash your creativity without worrying how much it's going to cost you.

 

To make this project fast and easy I decided to paint the unicorn white and hide it behind bushes to save myself the trouble of drawing the rest of the body then all I had to do is paint in a sky,

After that it was just a matter of adding some flowers and painting the mane.

A few more leaves and a bit of outlining finished the look that I was going for.

So far It's being used on Birthday and Get Well cards for little girls. I'm looking forward to find other ways and places to use it.

It sure beats having thrown it out. Don't you think so?

After all you never know where your best ideas will come from.

Hints of Spring

Being stuck in doors can get tedious and with stay at home orders in place in many parts of the world we try lots of diversions.

With restaurants closed to dine in . I occasionally resort to finding videos with background sounds that set the mood. 

If you crop a photo close enough it almost looks like you're there. 

  morning

It doesn't look like much for company but I'm raising caterpillars so that I can do another butterfly release this summer. They move around and get their exercise and remind me to get mine.

evening

Finally, the weather has been nice enough to be outside and here are the very first blooms that I spotted in my garden.

I've managed to salvage about a dozen strawberry plants so far and continue to do that whenever I can.

I'm not sure what these plants are but I added more soil and replanted them just in case they were the flowers that I remember over there.

It doesn't look like much here but there are several small rosebushes, some iris and some lilies so at various times this season the area will be pink, purple, yellow and orange.

Until then it's mostly a mater of waiting, watching, working and hoping.

My First Day in the Garden

I sat for a minute deciding where to start and the easy choice was to clear out the biggest planters first.

  I took a break to check on a few things with my phone before getting back to work.

I had another long planter moved over and filled one long planter and one of the round ones with peas, carrots and flowers. It felt like a good start to me.

Lazy Garden Afternoon

I was having coffee at the table in my favorite corner of the garden this afternoon and relaxing a while before I started watering the plants when I noticed a lovely, ripe tomato which is being made into BLT's as I write this.

We spent some time wandering around the front garden decided which flowers we wanted where.

We've got some HUGE clump of seedum that should have been divided and transplanted ages ago, those will be a nice pink, and my yellow lemon lilies
need the same as well as a number of orange lilies and a few other things.

I attempted to sell off extra plants earlier in the season but didn't have much luck so I gave a lot of them away but the plants keep coming. hundreds more than I really need here.

Until I find a better solution the best I can do is keep moving them around to keep things looking as nice as I can.

The breeze is lovely and blows through from a lake at the end of our street a few blocks away. There are many mature trees here that often provide more shade than I care for but can be counted on to keep the garden cool and pleasant no matter what the weather is all around us. 

We are spotting more different species of Butterflies and Moths all of the time.

Painted Lady

???

Monarch

Before I headed back to the house I stopped to cut some flowers to do some watercolor and pencil drawings with.

Yes, there's a lot to love about a garden.

Monarch Caterpillars, Butterflies, Wildlife and Flowers

This little guy seems to pop up to say hello as we sit at the table with our morning coffee quite often.

Here a few petunias dancing around a pot with squash and tomatoes.

These lemon lilies were from my Mom and make me happy each year when they bloom again.

I really love how this garden brings together reminders of all of my favorite people. It seems to give the place a certain sense of serenity that everyone who's spent any time here always comments on.

These lilies were a gift from one of my sister in laws and have made a nice addition to the garden.

My wheelchair seems to make a handy little fork lift for helping me move some of the larger flower pots around as well.

Pulling Ideas Together: Hats, Flowers etc.

There are a lot of things I've been wanting to try for a long time and I've finally gotten around to working on them.

I started with a red hat and a purple hat to honor my Grandmother and my Mother.

Next I added a straw hat to honor my other Grandmother who used to take me to her little County Fair.

I threw in cups, saucers and a teapot to honor my friends who visit me for tea.

As you can see here part of the designs that are on the purple hat are the same ones that I used on the wheelchair ramp that I painted in front of my house.

So is the band on the red hat.

Of course the daisies began to creep in too.

Did you figure out why I put stripes in the background? I just had to continue with the theme I used on my wheelchair ramp project. I guess you could say the stripes represent the posts.

Grandma Julia, the straw hat is for you.

The design is still evolving and I'm working in some fun touches that remind me of my siblings as well.

I've wanted to include all the favorite things about my family and my garden so I needed to add roses here as well.

Things were looking pretty good at this point but I decided to add some lilacs because as kids we loved to play in the lilac bushes and I continue to grow them now because they make me feel happy and young again.

There are so many other things I want to say and do with paint but only so much room on this one canvas so I'm wrapping this one up and moving on to 2 other paintings.

All that remains now is to take this to Zazzle and find as many ways to share it with others as I can.

As always I will start with postage stamps, cards and stickers so that I can write everyone that's been asking me about this. Then on to all sorts of products for everyone else.