I had always wondered how they kept the flowers in these boxes from drying out. Now I know: there is a built-in drip irrigation system. Last weekend I attended Franklin's Beautification Day, where I helped the garden club and other volunteers put flowers into these and other planters in our downtown.
I have to say, I feel a little lost when it comes to standard non-native garden plants, but the garden club members were a lovely bunch. They really bring a needed touch of beauty to our town center, and I didn't get any funny looks from them when I talked about native plants. I had such a good time working with them that I'll be going back for more! Garden club, here I come.
Welcome. I am so glad that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in, relax and have a cup of tea. Today we are going to paint a little cottage with a picket fence and pink roses. First, let's leave my garden and take my studio assistant, Bentley, for a walk looking for inspiration.
Finding Inspiration . . . . . .
Here . . . . .
There . . . .
Everywhere . . . . .
I loved the blue windows and door on this cottage and decided to paint the door and shutters on my cottage blue.
This large cottage reminds me of a real English Cottage. Note the green bushes and hedges around the cottage.
We will paint lots of green bushes around our cottage.
I like the brick sidewalk and will paint one leading to our little cottage.
Now that we have seen lots of cottages and climbing pink roses, let's go back to my studio and paint a cottage together. We will paint a small cottage to make it easy for beginners. I sketched out a little cottage with my paints (I use Liquitex acrylic) on a 9X12 canvas. You are welcome to copy my painted sketch. Note I put lots of green bushes around the cottage similar to the ones we saw in the above photographs.
Sky is painted with Prussian blue mixed with lots of white. I base coated the door and shutters with darker Prussian blue and painted a brick sidewalk. I paint in the French Impressionist style and do not paint a lot of detail. I added lots of colors to the roof and painted a lighter color where the sun is hitting the roof.
Next I painted a vine around the fence and base coated the roses with red. Always paint dark to light and put in your darks first. I also added roses around the door and on the roof. I started putting a lighter color over the dark red roses on the roof so you can see how to build up the color. Add some dark green under the roses on the fence and house - this will create the depth. Put different shades of green around the cottage for your bushes - then add touches of lighter green on top of the bushes where the sun light is hitting the bushes. Add darker blue to the top of the door and shutters - this will create the look of a shadow as the roof and roses will cast a shadow on the areas right underneath them.
The completed painting - notice I went back and added some white highlights to some of the roses where the sunlight is hitting them. The painting is so small it does not have a lot of detail on the roses - the Impressionist style gives the impression of roses without the detail. You can paint with a small brush and add as much detail as you want to - it is just a matter of the style you like. For me, light, soft edges and loose edges are my style.
Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. As soon as I find Lilacs at the flower market we will paint them.
Next week we are going to Florida to visit "The Children's Garden" that my sister is bringing back to life after the big freeze in Florida this past winter.
This year’s Chelsea Flower Show seemed to mark a return to horticulture, rather a relief after the show becoming increasingly dominated by sculptural assemblages (I’m trying to be polite here) or flocks of statuary. A lot of the gardens were just well planted, with a refreshing lack of pretentiousness. Andy Sturgeon’s winning Mediterranean Garden (for The Daily Telegraph) was a model of all that is best about British garden design – the classic balance between strong structures and exuberant planting – but all in a very contemporary style.
No cow parsley though. I’d like to put in a bid to do a cow parsley garden. Queen Anne’s Lace to American readers (I think). This cream-white flowered umbelliferous plant dominates a vast proportion of British roadsides, seemingly able to compete with the grasses which, fed on nitrogen pollution, more or less suffocate the rest of our limited wildflower flora. In my last garden, I conducted an experiment in letting it seed one year, and then controlling by pulling up after flowering. It worked, in that I got a respectable amount of cow parsley but without it competing with anything else. So, now I’m repeating the experiment here.
What I like about cow-parsley is the delicate flowers and, because it is such a common element of the British countryside, brings the landscape into the garden. The colour is also a buffer, toning down and blending the brighter colours of border plants. In theory I’d be quite happy for the stuff to distribute itselfaround the garden, but only if it isn’t going to become a weed and out-compete my border plants.
Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is a biennial which survives year to year by seeding and apparently (though I have not verified this myself) by the production of bulbils at the base of the plant. It has a very narrow profile, doesn’t spread sideways or sprawl about, and dies from July onwards. Not something which could become a major problem then, and its reproduction can be controlled by pulling out before it seeds. Welcome to the naturalistic border!
Welcome. I am so glad that you stopped by. We are still having cool weather in Southern California near the coast and I am still serving tea. My garden gate is always open to welcome you. Would you like to sit and relax while sipping a cup of mint tea? My garden is all decked out with flags to celebrate Memorial Day and to honor our Service Men and Women who have given up so much to secure our Freedoms both here and abroad.
I have some fun "thrifty finds" to share with you. The red and white check chair cushions came from Wallmart - - Two for $10.00 or $5.00 each. They are made from a weather proof fabric and are perfect for my flea market garden table and chairs. The red and white check table cloth was $5.00 and it also comes in blue and white check.
Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, is already in the garden looking for inspiration for a little flag painting to celebrate Memorial Day.
My flea market Radio Flyer wagon is all decked out for the holiday.
One of my favorite flea market finds is this window with a mirror and little window box. I love using mirrors in my small garden to create the illusion of a larger space.
With so many flags around I could not resist painting a small pot of flowers all dressed up with flags.
Flags flying on the bridge entrance to Balboa Island honoring our Service Men and Women.
Bentley and I are off to Balboa Island to look for climbing pink roses and cottage inspirations for us to paint next week. I received so many e-mails and comments on having a little art lesson on how to paint a cottage with climbing pink roses that we will paint a little cottage together next week. We will paint lilacs after we paint a cottage.
Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog.
This weekend (and much of the future season) I'll be playing with my succulents. I can't help it, they just call to me.
Earlier this morning I posted on my Melanie's Perennials blog, it too was about succulents and some of the plans I have with them.
There are so many different varieties of Sempervivum and Sedums. I don't claim to be an expert on them, I'm not even super careful about keeping their names. If I have a name, I put it in the pot. If I don't, I still grow them and love them. Many varieties were sold to me without names. They are as beautiful as the named varieties so I really just don't care.
This one I've had for 4 or 5 years now. It's been divided each and every year and makes these soft little tufts. The name on the pot was TBA, probably just stood for "to be advised".
One of the reasons I love these plants so much is because they are so forgiving of harsh conditions and so darn easy to grow! This Sedum acre is in a small, cracked plastic pot. It's grown out of the pot and along the ground, rooting in tiny cracks in the concrete.
Here's the same plant, it just crept it's way along the concrete and wound around a nearby planter. You would never know that there's no soil under here.
Every now and then an escapee finds a foothold. This is a tiny Sedum, I'm pretty sure it's name is Sedum dasyphyllum. I have no problem with it having caught hold in the cracks here, in fact I'm going to encourage it to grow!
Pots of these babies are for sale, there's not than many potted up yet and each and every one is different. The watering can is not for sale, I just adore it and can't part with it!
This afternoon friends are coming over with their children. If you do any gardening with kids you have to try these Hens & Chicks. Kids love them! I've done programs at schools and brought in pots of Sempervivum (Hens & chicks). They are so touchable, not thorny or prickly but soft and fuzzy.
The kids especially love the cobwebbed ones and love the fact that they can take them in their fingers and tease the plants apart. The whole idea of the mother plant (the hen) and her little babies (the chicks) appeals to them.
Here's a close up shot, these are just about to send out little babies and we'll be making three different pots from this one piece.
Here's one that was divided out a week ago. You can see how I left room for it to fatten up and for any babies that pop out to find a place to root.
I always add in a few non-succulent plants. This is a Saxifraga 'Cloth of Gold' that I bought yesterday. I haven't had luck with them in the past but this is a new variety for me. It's going to be paired with a beautiful blue foliaged Allium (you can see it in the top photo in the right side of the hypertufa trough).
