Red and Purple Carrots

Harvesting Lunch and Enjoying the Garden

I couldn't resist snacking on some ripe strawberries as I went out the front door this morning...and stopping to admire the roses on the way to my little veggie garden. We lingered over coffee and worked on a few projects before cutting a mixture of lettuces for lunch.

These are in our front border and wandering a few other places as well.

It's kind of handy to have the lettuce next to the chair and hardly like work at all to pick some.

The radishes failed this year but I believe in second chances and the flowers are so pretty that I'll try saving seed and seeing if I have better luck with that.

New Potatoes for Lunch Raspberries for Dessert

I had a chance to get out in my container garden today but forgot to bring my camera along. It will be a while before I figure out what I can and can't drag along with the wheelchair.

I trimmed up and re-arranged the Fairy Garden and then noticed my potato plants had more or less dropped over and were staring to shrivel up so I though I might as well pull them and make lunch.

When I've finished cleaning out that big pot I'll try some late season lettuce, radishes and maybe some peas.

That end of my driveway doesn't get a lot of strong sun so I think they'll be fine.

We've had enough black raspberries coming that I've been able to send pints home with everyone that's stopped by to visit.

I'm thinking about throwing some into muffins at tea time.

I need to be doing some drawing and painting but haven't quite gotten around to it lately

Lake Photos and Updates

Just after I splurged on pretty envelopes I was excited to find matching paper in the mail today from one of my sister's along with  a lot of fun pens,papers, note cards, letter papers notebooks and a clipboard so that things won't blow away if I decide to write my letters out in the garden.

I got a better fitting wheelchair and although it's rough going in the grass it will get me into my driveway container garden and that's a start.

My husband has been picking some of the raspberries and strawberries while I work on plans to try a few bushes and plants in my container garden next season so that I can take care of them myself.

I still haven't gotten my studio area of the dining room set  up well enough to work in but that's in progress too.

We're also investigating whether or not I can handle a riding mower to get me out in the yard and garden again.

A lot of us are facing challenges in the garden these days so I'll keep you posted if I find ways to make things go easier or better to grow your own personal food supply.

I'm evil, instead of staying home to weed the garden I took advantage of the perfect weather and headed to the lake.

Here are a few photos:

This duck was headed over to our table which was a few feet behind the gals on the bench.

 There were a lot of ducks in the park today and this one's stroll was interrupted when a couple of little girls came running up to it.

As you can see, midweek things are pretty quiet here. I'm planning to bring my paints to the lake soon.

Lemonade Project:Making things out of whatever comes your way

I'm always making things out of anything that comes my way. In between all of the things I'm doing with the garden, the computer and the mail there's always some crocheting. It doesn't get much respect but it's really one of the ultimate "something out of nothing" projects. All you really need is a long strand or string of anything that's handy (I recently saw a show on television where a woman was crocheting large scale sculptures out of wire and fishing line...and people say I have crazy ideas...). The actual crocheting can be done with your hands, a regular crochet hook or a stick of some sort with a notch in it to pull the yarn with. As far as I'm concerned it's a magic trick of sorts that can be accomplished by almost anyone.

This week I finished another hat for charity and 4 potholders for various members of my family. There are no photos here because they're the same type that I always make and because I gave them away as soon as they were finished so there wasn't time to scan them.

I found the designs in my last post to be a "lemonade" project too. They all came from a corner of a photo of  lily leaves on the edge of my driveway. There are 3 or 4 iris that pop up over there in the course of a summer too but there won't be anything blooming over there for a couple of months and those will all be orange.

Orange is not my favorite color so I do consider that "life gives you lemons" so I loved the idea that I could create an abstract design out of them in so many different colors..."lemonade" indeed.

The garden at the center of the universe

Everything comes from my garden. Food, inspiration, art, relaxation, exercise...the list is endless and of course includes the businesses where I market some of the artwork I create on various household items.

It made me laugh this week to create over 1/2 dozen new designs simply based on the unmowed grass in the corner of one of the photos that I took of my tulips a few weeks ago.

As I changed the image over and over again I eventually reduced it to what appears to be a perfectly conventional neutral tweed pattern and it really amused me to create something so classy out of a yard that's wildly grassy.

Oh dear, I find myself starting to rhyme so I'll sign off for mow before I drive us all a bit crazy.

Have fun! Don't take life so seriously, you'll enjoy it more.

Tangled Tulips

I can't begin to tell you how many years it's been since I wanted to dig this whole mess up and move it but it's nothing I'm really able to do myself so I've made peace with just appreciating the struggle between the roses and the tulips as I document it with photos, drawings and paintings.

Many people want some of the rosebushes but none of them are willing to come over here and dig them up themselves.

I've gone from being upset about the situation to noticing the amazing contrast between the thorns and twisted stems of the roses and the fresh colors of the tulip leaves and budding flower.

So many birds and animals live and shelter in the thicket that these bushes have become that it would be a shame to disturb them so for at least another season things will remain as they are.

Picking supper, peas and strawberries

The garden hasn't yielded much more than enough to make meals but it's nice to have things fresh from the garden.

I tossed the peas n a casserole and had the strawberries for dessert.

Next summer we'll plan on planting more.

too hot for pictures and too busy to take them

The last few days only the shady corner where my table sits would be good for the camera and there's been far too much work to do in other parts of the garden to bother with it.
It's surprising how fast the plants that you don't want can spread while you struggle to get the plants that you do want want to grow started.
There seem to be volunteer trees everywhere and some of them are getting pretty tall. I've tried to find people that want the bigger ones while I remove the small ones when I can.
Lunch yesterday included lettuce, radishes and pea pods from the garden in salads.
The last of the sunflowers have finally been planted. I had thought they were all in but found a handful of seed left in the kitchen where I'd been shaking it out of my pockets at the end of the day. Yesterday we removed a tiny strip of sod next to the flower bed at the front of the yard so I planted them there.
There are an entire pound of sunflower seeds planted here, there and everywhere in the front and back yards. I can't wait to see how many of them bloom this summer!

picking radishes

It's nice to be getting things out of the garden for a change. I forget the name of this mix but there are an assortment of nice shapes and colors that really liven up a salad. I went back out later to do some thinning and picked a few purple ones to snack on.

Yes, these are the ones planted in the 4x4 garden boxes/raised planters. I'm having pretty good luck with them this year. Last year I had them in round pots and they didn't do nearly as well.

The Sunflowers are back

I've only got a few sunflowers this year. 1 in the back  yard and and 8 in the front garden so I'm hoping there will be enough to work with as I try to finish the 2 sunflower paintings that I started last summer and do at least one more acrylic before I move on to pencil or ink drawings and watercolor.

The most amazing idea

I can't show it to you yet(the pencil lines I've sketched in don't show up on a photo) but I'm so excited about the idea of my new painting that I had to write it down somewhere.

As you know the name of this blog is paintersgarden but I'm not sure that I've really explained why I call it that.

For me the gardening and the art are so connected and intertwined that it's hard to tell which really came first. It all seems to sprout up together which gave me the idea for a painting where the garden tools, fruit, veggies and flowers all sprout out of the ground along with paintbrushes, pencils and paintings.

I can't wait to get back to it and I'll post pictures as soon as I take a break from adding some paint

Painting today's picks from the garden