Black Raspberries

 We've got about half a back yard full of black raspberry bushes that are keeping us pretty busy. These bowls were just one days picking.

Sometimes I invite them to tea.

Choices are nice so I put out a bowl of fresh black raspberries, fresh raspberry scones and some homemade black raspberry jam.

Lilies

I love the way these lilies wave hello as you enter the garden through the arbor.

These were a gift from my Mom and had been at the home place for decades.

They make me smile every year and inspire me to do something special for Mom every time.

I took this photo a couple of days ago but waiting for better sunlight and a few more blooms will make all the difference as I search for just the right image to use on some note cards.

I plan to make photo cards, cards from a drawing and then to painted ones. One in watercolor and the other in acrylics.

Tomatoes

I love tomatoes but usually don't grow very many because I hadn't planned on freezing or canning them. This year I ended up with extra plants and I'm glad that I did because the weather has been crazy and they never did grow as large as usual.

I had to squeeze the tomatoes in wherever I could find room. I'm growing 3 different varieties this year but only have one or two plants of each.

Three of them are in a raised planter box and the others are in pots. 3 of those ride up and down the driveway in the wagon to catch the sun and 2 stay in place on the sunny end of the garden. It's going to be a great way to see which places and methods work better than others.

Many of them already have blossoms or small tomatoes on them so I'm hoping for good results.

For me a garden is a learning place as well as a growing one.

I'm pleased with the results so far and when everything gets ripe I plan to wheel the potted ones to the end of the driveway and sell them where people can pick their own off the plants which should be both fun and satisfying for the people who can't grow gardens of their own.

Garden Gone Wild

This is the section of the garden where we sit for afternoon tea. We used to have a table and chairs in the center of that open area but I haven't been able to do that since the wheelchair so we sit over on the driveway beside it. 

As you can see there's always enough shade and breeze to keep it comfortable.
There aren't any flowering plants here except for a wild rose we dug up in the woods on the family farm where we were married, some lilies that were at the back of this house when we moved here and a lot of hosta gifted to me by a neighbor who didn't like it in their yard.

Over the last 15 years we've been dividing and moving them around until I managed to get a bit of a border around the area. It's a messy but starting to look a bit more like the garden I had planned.

Speaking of plants that have been divided and moved. This is the view out the kitchen window and Yes, those ARE some of the tallest black raspberry bushes I've ever seen and the DO cover most of the backyard.

Some 0f these bushes are actually taller than our 1 story house! We've been picking black raspberries for a week and freezing some while making jam with some as well. I've tried to give away or sell extra berries in years past but for some reason have had no luck in my neighborhood. it surprises me that some people have never even heard of black raspberries let alone have tasted them so I even offered small containers to sample.

Oh well, at least we like them and are grateful for the savings on groceries while we find more and more ways to use them.

A New Birdhouse for the Garden

This birdhouse was designed and painted to coordinate with the posts on the wheelchair ramp.

 
I'm always excited to add another birdhouse to the garden. Especially since the other birdhouses on this side of the ramp are already full of baby birds peeping and cheeping as I roll by in the mornings.

This design is quite similar to one of the birdhouses on the arbor at the front of the house.

I try to repeat some of the colors and patterns to pull the eye through the garden and pull things together with a theme of some of the flowers that I grow here.

The nice thing about mounting birdhouses to the posts on the ramp is so that we can watch them all from both the house and from our tea table in the front garden.

Lots of Projects with Daisies

I'm still wanting to plant a lot of daisies but not able to afford it to I'm adding daisies to the garden everywhere that I can. This season I'm doing it with paints.

I still keep changing my mind about the types of leaves that I want to paint on these so I'm trying everything and then outlining them with a paint pen so that they will show up from the street,

I'm getting a LOT closer to finishing the painting of my wheelchair ramp. It's the centerpiece of my yard and garden and will be joined with and arbor and trellis to match.

I even painted daisies on some of the garden gnomes to add more fun and energy to the theme.

Yes, I'd rather be planting daisies than painting them but this makes everyone smile and will have to be good enough for now.

I also took as many photos of then as I could so that I will have them for reference as I try to draw and paint them in the future.

Anew patch of Daisies popped up in the front yard and was a very welcome surprise.

Daisies are appearing everywhere here. I put some in the butterfly habitat so they can enjoy them too.

I painted some into a design I'm working on for fabric and plan to add a few other wildflowers to it before designing products with them.

I also added a few daisies to this old painting.