School Days In the Garden: Daily Art Practice
Couch Talk
My children start back to school this week and it will be a time of re-arranging and learning a new routine. The school days goes quickly and I learned last year that it is easy to squander what little time there is.
On another note, my garden is doing well despite having planted everything late. I am getting a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, herbs and zinnias. Unfortunately, my raspberries and strawberries did not produce well at all. Maybe next year. I planted eggplant, watermelon and cantaloupe for the first time this year, so I am eager to see if I get anything from those plants. Usually if things do well, I will give them a try the next season as well.
Any tips to keep berries and melon thriving?
StencilsGirl Column
My column was over at StencilGirl Talk this past week. I shared a project using only stencils and watercolor. If you care to see the stencils that I used and a little of my process, you can see the post HERE. Here is what I created. All of these are in my sketchbook.
Tea Day
I am joining the tea day ladies, hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard. My tea today is Nspire Organic Tea Silver and Spice. This is a delicious white tea with a bit of spice. I highly recommend it.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate
Your garden looks amazing — so neat and tidy! And I like the bunnies (though you don’t want them in your vegetable garden).
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Your garden looks wonderful! I once tried to grow Charentais, but they need too much water, so I never tried again. It is not that easy to grow veggie without too much water. Your sketchbook with all the stnciled artwork is lovely. I especially like the giraffe. Happy T day.
Are your kids excited to be going back to school? Or should I ask if you are ready for them to go back ? Your garden looks great. I’ve never done raspberries but I do have wild blackberries, and I don’t do anything but pick the berries. And wonderful art today too. I think I have that farm animal stencil. . I hope you enjoy your week and get into routine quickly. And Happy T day too. hugs-Erika
Your garden looks very neat and tidy! Nice bunnies — I hope they don’t steal your vegetables.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
(Second attempt to comment)
I found it interesting how you used the stencil and how you looked up online the rabbit on hind legs side view. And the resulting drawings in your sketchbook are beautiful. Maybe when I finish all my other projects, I will start doing this. I really enjoy your sketchbook art. Happy T Day!
Ohhh I am so envious of your garden! It is a nice layout and everything looks so healthy. Sorry I can’t help you with the garden question. It’s so wet here that melons don’t fair well. I have never tried berries. I am sure you will have a good crop though. My garden is already turning so did some cleaning up today. It was a very different garden year for us. But come by my blog on Thursday. I have a stellar cabbage I grew to show off. 🙂 I just love your art. That cow is adorable but the giraffe just makes me happy. Have a nice evening.
Hi Kate, your beautiful watercolour art is a joy to see, love it! Your garden looks fantastic, too – enjoy your harvest! Happy T Day! Valerie
I absolutely love your sketches! I cannot pick a fav and my watercolors scream “try me”…
Have a happy T-Day!
Happy T-day, Kate.
Fab looking garden. I wish I could give you tips but I have no knowledge or skill in gardening – I can only look at your garden and say, “I wish.”
Your art work is super beautiful and so well done. You seriously have so much talent! Amazing stuff.
The tea sounds super interesting. I looked it up and have it on my wish list.
Hugz
Kids don’t go back to school here until next week. Love your sketches.
What an attractive garden! I’d imagine the bunnies think so, too 😉 Happy T Tuesday
Dear Kate, your vegetable-flower-garden looks so pretty!
For melons (very sensitive, very thirsty, use water at the right temperature, do not pour on the melons!) and berries I can recommend coffee grounds, of course compost, horn shavings and horse manure (well ripened).
So beautiful, your sketches – I am particularly happy about the animal pictures! <3
All the best from Austria,
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2022/08/blackout-teil-3-noch-fragen-offen.html
I’m having trouble leaving comments,, but I certainly enjoyed seeing your garden. It looks much better than mine. Really loved the sketches and the rabbits were quite wonderful. Thanks for sharing your sketches, the stencils, and your Silver and Spice tea with us for T this Tuesday, dear Kate.
Hi Kate, your garden looks so neat and looked after lol. I have raised beds too but it doesn’t look as good as yours (must do better). I have strawberries growing in the garden for years now, and one of my friends started growing them this year and was not getting any fruit so I told her the same thing. You might know this already though, but strawberry plants will want to produce runners to make new plants, and if the plant is busy making runners then it will not have enough energy to make fruit, so if you want more fruit cut off the runners, but if you want to make more plants, peg them into the ground and then next year you will have even more plants ready to make fruit – just cut off next year’s runners.
I love your watercolour pages this week, they are very beautiful. I will go check out the Stencil girl post when I am done catching up with tea posts. Sorry for my lateness, end of month is always a busy time for me. Happy T Day! Elle/EOTC xx
Your garden looks wonderful – so productive! The only thing I know about raspberries is that you have to cut out this years fruiting stems to allow the new ones to have room to grow. I have stencil envy , although I think it’s the way you have used them that I really think is especially brilliant! Silver and spice tea sounds very exotic! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx
Your garden did great. I saw some eggplants in Himself’s garden so I’m looking forward to making some Parmagiana. Your watercolors are fabulous. I especially love the bunnies. Happy T Day
Hi Kate, I actually thought I left you a comment here. Could it have ended up in the spam folder? But maybe I’m wrong. In any case, I think your vegetable garden is beautiful and structured, and your drawings with stencils and watercolor are very successful and pretty!
All the best in September
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2022/09/juli-august-2022-teil-1-was-fur-ein.html