Sunday in the Garden making flower beds
I was glad of my car today, backing it into the yard to unload soil and lumber.
I was bemoaning having to become a car owner again last month. After @winstonalden decided to return to working in the real world and took his dream job in the city, our one car family was really forced to consider becoming a two car family.
I don't really like owning a car.
More hassle, extra insurance, fuel costs et al. My last car, my dear old Volvo station wagon, had managed to last me the last 10 years. And finally gave out, though we did use it to move brush and trees on our property, but it wasn't road worthy.
Thus, when it was time to get another car I of course just thought, well another Volvo please, my good ole work horse. This time, however, I was lucky enough to find that I like the Volvo SUV which still gives me all the room the wagon did to put in lumber and plants, but with even more room! And here she is, full of soil and not pictured she was also full of lumber.
My Large veg garden here at Toad Hall was becoming too much work so this year I decided to downsize the veg garden consideralbly and place on the sea side of the house. Probably not the smartest decision due to wind and salt spray, but I am determined and I believe half of a successful gardener (or artist for that matter) is determination.
I posted before about putting up the old picket panels on a warm day about two weeks ago. I made a simple 8 foot by 20 foot area on one end of the house. Here we see @winstonalden helping and the panels going up.
Today I was laying out borders for perrenials around the outside of the garden up to the back of the house.
I've decided these pressure treated panels you buy as fence staves seem to be a good height and width to make the borders edges. I cut wood at an angle and hammer them into the soil and then can screw the panels into it making a nice 6 inch tall edge.
Structure is important to me when I garden. It is not unlike sketching and making studies prior to creating a final painting.
I feel if I get some good lines in with hardscaping (fenching, wooden trim, decking, gravel paths) that when it comes time for the fun bits of adding plants and bulbs the final piece will feel more flushed out. I'm probably just a process junkie and much like the layers of sketching, studies, and day dreaming, approaching gardening that way is probably just in my blood.
Our weather today was Typical New England Spring, We went from warm sun, to cool wind, to an hour and a half of heavy dark rain, and now back to sun again. That's fine though, as I simply let Mother Nature tell me when I needed a tea break. When it started to pour I simply put the kettle on and like any builder/handyman, sat on my unfinished work and watched the rain whilst drinking my tea.
Yes, I'm also attempting a small little raised deck to be part of this new garden area.
Why not, right? We recently lost our handy man (he passed away sadly) but I think, again, with some determination I can at least give it a go. It looks a right mess now, but better to see how lovely it shall be later on if the current state is a bit of a palaver.
At least I was able to get my Sugar Snap peas and various salad greens in their bed in the new garden. It is the one and only finished and filled bed in there at present, but it does make for a nice end of a wonderful gardening Sunday.
I hope everyone had a lovely Sunday and you were able to do something you loved to do, even if it was staring out the window or taking a good ole nap.
If you like my work please upvote and feel free to resteem and by all means leave comments.
Check out my other posts:
- Painting of my cat: Puss inspired by her snoring
- My Art Explosion37 Entry
- Singularity Study: The Awakening
- More work on Singularity Pandora
My bitcoin wallet as per the @slothicorn request to provide it with your artwork.
What on earth is a process junkie???
I spent my Sunday painting for 4-5 hours no stop. I'm officially addicted!
I hate cars and I hate parking. Paint your Volvo pink with flower and I might change idea =)
The process in my artwork, planning, looking at images for inspiration, doing a sketch, then making a watercolour out of it. When I was a print maker I used to spend hours looking at old family photos and then I'd scan things to play with on the computer then I'd make print after print with my little press playing with the colours and adding this or that all before I ever got to a finished piece. The process. It's what I really like about art. So, I kind of do that with gardening, make some wooden structrue, move some rocks around, dream about colour schemes, plant some seeds on the window sill, watch old Gardeners World episodes etc. The process. The foot path we take to goals in life. :)
hehe :) I liked the updates you made in the garden :)
I think it turns into a wonderful one. Mostly I like the idea of organic food you have grown there. I've always dreamed of having a house with a garden. Things are not like yours in our country. Unfortunately we have to live in tiny apartments. We have to be very rich for some self-contained gardens. So you know how incredible your idea of garden is to me ... whatever it is. congratulations on your wonderful work. I hope you will prepare the most beautiful garden in the world :)
big kiss
Do you have a balcony or terrace or even window ledge? you could try some veg and flowers in pots and window boxes? It's funny, because I love the city, but I also need to have a garden too. When I am in the city I always go to the parks for walks as I need grass and flowers and trees even there :)
I love growing food, it's always amazing to me that I can put a tiny seed in soil in the bleak Winter days and that Summer be eating warm fruit from them, especially tomatoes, that grow taller than me!
Right now this garden must look pretty ugly, just some old wood and mess, but I want to show it as it grows. Come Summer it will be more like a painting with colour and form.
Love the new, nifty garden. The recycled fencing is right up my alley too. Plus it should last, all that cedar. I'm guessing anyway. We look forward to garden updates this summer.
I can surely relate to the vehicle conundrum. So expensive on all fronts, and sometimes a pain, but at other time so VERY handy. I still have a truck from the late 90's, and it seems to get by. Biking all over helps keep it alive. Do you still have the old Volvo Yardmaster 2750 ? Or did you drive it into the pool area and give it a fine burial? Seems I've read someting about an old car in the past in dd posts, but it may just have been an interesting dream. Sometimes they mix a bit.
One last ??, is the fencing/mesh for rabbits or deer, cats, or what other gardeniferous vermin do you have in the area? Sneaky porpi? What a joy to live where you can just sit and watch the sea go in and out and in and out. I would get NOTHING done...
Yes, recycled fencing is a good way of putting it, or 'New England Thrift' both great terms for Cheapskate ;) And this fence was also 'recycled' from my little antique cottage I rent out in Summers. When we moved to Toad Hall I thought, I'll have that there, and it went 2 sections at a time in the back of the old 97 Volvo wagon.
We finally got rid of the old Volvo. Just this year too. I had it towed to our mechanic and begged him to make it 'road worthy' when I knew we had to get a second car and he laughed at me. His young assistant offered me 100 dollars for it as junk, so I took it. But, I used that cart for over 10 years and bought it rather on the 'cheap' even then. That was when we moved back from the city and also needed 2 cars again.
This new Volvo is 4 wheel drive and is a bit 'fancy' for me, but it's used and reliable and I can fill the darn thing with wood and plants and big things for painting/art (as in the Summer I still do some non digital art things and one never knows what one might find in a skip that needs to come home with you )
The mesh for the fencing is to keep rabbits out. It also helps with deer and Turkeys. We have Deer galore out here and most who have Summer veg gardens out here (not many do as most neighbours are only here for two months a year) have a 6 foot fence to keep out the deer. But, we are right on the point of the spit of land, so the deer don't bother us as much because we are more open to the sea, they tend towards the more deeper wooded neighbours. We do get them but none have breached my 4 foot fence yet.
As this new veg garden is an experiment in wind and salt spray considering it's position, it is also going to act a bit as a wind break. In my old veg garden, where some of this fence came from, I had one large wall of six foot fence that faces the sea (thus you couldn't see the sea from the veg garden unless you peered around) it stopped the prevailing wind and was a heat trap, but it was too large (I made it 20 x 45) and I wanted to sit in and look at the sea and my veg. Somethings might not do well, like my toms and cukes and melons might hate the wind, but I am going to plant a 'fruit' hedge around this little garden with cordon apples and pears and some double set soft fruit like blackberries etc to help keep the wind out. We shall see. I shall be sharing more. I need to share more of my chickens and quails as well, but I was too busy sharing art to do that too. :) In Winter I gave more time to posting, now I give less to posting so I can get out and enjoy the day!
And as regards the sea, I love it. I have always loved the sea and water and have attempted to be near, in or on it my entire life. I also use sitting on our beach with coffee, pets, and sketching as a carrot in the Summer. And every day in the Summer (unless raining) on my return from my walk I go straight to our beach and (in my walking clothes) go straight into the sea to cool down and then change into swimming togs and do my morning 'snorkel'. It's good it's private out here, as I must look a right nob sitting in 3 feet of water with my head under for half an hour (with snorkel to breath of course) watching the fish swim in and out of the grass. I love it.
That was a very fun reply. I shall keep this one short, as my pillow is calling out to me this late at night. (Actually not THAT late by Stanley's Steemit Standards). So glad you have a vehicle you can collect the necessities of nature in. That is key for anything I drive. We do the Audubon Bird Count each winter, and one year I found an enormous stainless steel domed machine thing out in the country. It is now, of course, in the back 40. Other birders thought I was nuts. Probably not far off.
Your car story is sad, and funny. Hard to give them up after all the time spent behind the wheel and stuffing things into the boot. My sister had her car stolen (due to the bad ignition thing I wrote to you about awhile back), and when the police found it, they called and said to "come get your car, it's stripped, and has no wheels, and is up on blocks". So she had to pay to have it towed to the tow truck place, and just gave it to him for payment. Sad how those things work out. Cant' you fix it. NO.
I love that you recycle all the wood and other things for use around the house. So thrifty indeed. I am sure gardening is a real chore by the sea, and requires all sorts of adjustments . All the weather and salt and other things lashing about on your lawn. You are truly a pioneering sort of wilderness woman. I can just imagine the scene of you bobbing about in the sea grass. "What IS that woman up to, dear?" "I have NO idea, just let's move along quickly now."
What a beautiful place you live in.
Personally I am all for the coming future of self driving fleets of autos so you can use one when you need one without having to own one. Then we can jackhammer all those parking lots and plant more trees, perhaps. 😁
I'm a little scared of those, but the mechanized future is coming, thus my singularity paintings ;)
Wonderful. I can't wait to have a garden one day. For now, I will carefully plan & plant each square inch of my little shady patio! :) Happy Sunday!
The good thing about a small garden is more impact straight away and you have to get more creative. Actually for me here I made my veg garden much smaller. I had made a fenced in area that was 20 feet x 40 feet and it was a LOT of work and I struggled to keep up. So one of the main reasons for doing over this little area of our place was to have my veg flowers and an eating and sitting area close to the kitchen and with our lucky sea view. I'm excited to have a smaller area to really focus on and fill up. Then if I make over small areas every year all my little gardens can finally make a big one! At least that is the plan.
Have fun with your patio planting, next to painting, gardening is my zen. In fact they are pretty neck and neck as they both give me that suspended moment of time and joy mixed with frustration but good pay off.
wow! that is the first I've seen the new car! it IS fancy for you!! the garden and deck look great! i was thinking of moving my beds to the front yard, along our fence but jason is worried about exhaust from our cars, all over the veggies, since it's right there by the driveway/parking :/
Because your back yard has a force-field that stops exhaust pollutants from going through the old wooden fence? ;) He's coo coo :)
IDK...it's basically like planting in the middle of a parking lot, where as in the back yard, the car isn't parked ON the garden...?
Honestly, though, I think wherever the is the most sun you should plant your veg unless you sit your drive with your car running for hours, which I hope you don't ;) But, as Renee says: "You do YOU boo boo" ;)
haha! well, you know what I say: who's gonna stop me, anyway! haha
Hi @donnadavisart, I've been working through your posts and catching up...you're doing some wonderful work including your garden project! It's great to see photos of the space in process.
I'm really enjoying your pandora series by the way. I don't always comment these days but it's not for a lack of interest ;-), just having to target my energy into little bits of time. Your explorations are fascinating to me - like how you took an old piece and added in the sketch for your art explosion entry, the combination of styles and the story created really speaks to me. And the whole robotic+victorian woman character is brilliant - she has so many stories embedded in her aura!
Also, I sent you a message on discord....want to facetime chat later this week to get our conversation going? Hope you're having a wonderful May day!
I know how busy you are and now with the move, I'm surprised and impressed you have given yourself some Steemit time. Though, I think it is important and is probably a big player for our 'dreams of the new virtual art scene'.
I answered you there with my email address we can start there. I've never facetimed so we shall see if I am capable, but if you guide me I can ask @winstonalden to help with the technical bits :)
Facetime is SUPER easy, you won't need my nor anyone's help, all you need is an iphone :-), I'll try you later today. Also, regarding making time for steemit - it's an essential for me in the present and I see it as a key player in my future (all of our futures!), so I am doing as much as I can to keep my relationships alive and well and keep posting even just a little.
Sorry I don't have an iphone, I just can't own apple products :( But, I'm glad we texted and I will get back with you, I just had more on my plate and by the time I remembered I was sleepy and ready for bed, where I am now. Early to be early to rise for me :)
Nice garden, lovely ocean view. Where is this?
New England Coast, Massachusetts Buzzards Bay/Cape Cod area.
It looks like a lot of work and a long interesting post!!!!
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