Cutting Flowers to Draw

I added this plant to my garden last year and was glad to see it both survive and thrive for this year.

I hosted another tea here earlier this week and was able to use these flowers along with a few marigolds to decorate the table.

As long as they'd been cut already it seemed like a good time for some drawing as well.

I'd also added some Marigolds to the flowers in this vase to fill in some of the extra spaces.

  I did a card to go with this envelope mail but it got mailed out before I had a chance to scan it.

Lemon Lilies

Many years ago my mother gave me some lemon lilies from her garden.  The bright yellow delighted us both and over the next few years I moved them and they spread, here there and everywhere in my garden.  Here are a few photos. 

  I started with a dozen plants and as you can see they've really liked it here and spread quite a bit. These are in the front garden.

These are along the side ramp.

 

These are along the front ramp.

And these are along the house.

This last area is out in the Butterfly garden

A tale of two Strawberries

I wrote some of you of one of my little adventures driving around town in my power wheelchair so forgive me if I'm repeating myself but my favorite trip of the summer was to a local greenhouse where I purchased the last two strawberry plants for just two dollars and fifty cents each.

I'm sure people wonder why in the world I was so excited about that except that they each had many daughter plants hanging from them so I rushed to get them re-potted where the daughter plants could grow into strong plants of their own.

In just the few weeks since then I have nearly a dozen new plants.
No berries, the birds and wildlife around here got to those but I'll find ways to prevent that by next year.

While I wait for my next planter to be built I just keep putting other planters up to the first one for the daughter plants to spread to.

Mothers and Daughters are doing well and I'm really enjoying nurturing their progress. 

Of course this lead to the photos and the photos lead to the art.

Again with watercolors, and finished with ink.

 This was the card.

And this was the envelope. This was just a quick scribble with markers. Yes, I was in a hurry to get to the mailbox.

The Veggie Garden as Art

On this day the first order of business is seeing what there was for lunch.There were pea pods and lettuce for salad. Black raspberries for dessert, some eaten fresh and later in the day some cooked a bit with strawberries and served over ice cream. The green and yellow beans were cooked up with some carrots for supper.

I admire those people who can make entire meals from their gardens but a few containers in the city aren't likely to get me there anytime soon.

Still, I do what I can and feel better for the effort.

After lunch I looked over the photos and was struck by the beauty of the contrasting shapes and colors.

I began to see some artistic possibilities and reached for my watercolors.

I did these raspberries on the corner of an envelope as I was answering mail to a friend who is interested in my garden.

I decided to include the photo to make my first card fast and easy.

  Here you see the photo and watercolor combined. After I got to this point I grabbed a black pen to do some outlining and define the idea a bit more.

I liked it better after that. What do you think? Did I take it too far?

Eating My Garden

I hope you're not expecting much because I've got to say that this years garden has been a real disappointment.

I have a number of reasons for the failures but will focus instead on the things that we did get.

Checking out the salad bar one day there were 2 different lettuces, parsley, pea pods and one pathetic little radish. Hardly enough to really interest the rabbits but we enjoyed it.

We often go out to the garden for morning coffee and can't resist picking a bit of lunch on the way back to the house.

Some of the green beans and yellow wax beans are finally getting big enough to pick and I can't mention those without showing you how amazing the plants are. I just love the delicate flowers on these, don't you.

It just goes to show that even a less than successful garden can still surprise and delight.

Strawberries, Roses, Daisies, and More

  These strawberries were one of my adventures this summer. I rode my power wheelchair over to a local greenhouse. Yes, I know it doesn't sound like an adventure but I had to cross about 3 blocks of very scary and uneven construction area to get there. Several times I had to rely on my husband to keep the wheelchair (and me) from tipping over.

I'm sure that sounds foolhardy to many of you but when you consider that I'm cooped up in a tiny house all winter you can see why I'm so determined.

This time I was well rewarded because what you see in that window box is just 2 plants that I got for half price that just happened to be surrounded by many runners and daughter plants. At last count it appears that I will get a full dozen plants out of this.

 I like this photo because it shows the roses, iris, daisies and wild geraniums all together.

My favorite thing about this photo is that the lattice you see at the bottom is the TOP of a five foot fence which gives you a hint on just how tall part of these rosebushes are.

These are just a couple of close ups of the container garden. I'm really loving having the herbs and the flowers together.

This is just beans and marigolds. I like the idea that when the veggies are gone there will be lots of flowers to fill the planter and make the garden pretty for entertaining.

The daisies are spreading slowly but seem to be overtaken by the creeping charlie. I'd do something about it but can't reach it from my wheelchair so it's on it's own.

I did get help one day moving some of them over to the edge of my driveway so I can tend to them. I'm hoping to have better luck there.

We built this path ourselves, it's the lifeline that gets me from the house to the garden, the driveway and the rest of the world. It's just gravel but I sometimes make it magical by adding agates, bits of rounded and iridescent glass and other bits that reflect the light and make it more interesting.

The Container Garden

As always I use the wagon for smaller plants so tht I can move it into the sun or shade as needed.

The smaller, round pots on the ground are 2 different types of sunflowers that will give me a bit of height and privacy at the end of the garden.