Friendly flowers

Posted on September 23, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colourful, Decorations, Flowers, Food, Gardening, Growth, Nasturtiums, Plants, spicyLeave a comment

Nasturtiums like poor soil. They have large seeds about the size of a pea. I think they would be great for children to grow. You can plant them in succession over a few weeks and they first put out tendrils with umbrella shaped leaves. When it rains droplets gather on their leaves. Then in late summer, or early autumn the flowers appear. Trumpet shaped, the flower from pale yellow to deep red, with diffeepatterns and stripes as well as full colour ones. You can eat the spicy leaves and flowers in salads or on cold soups. I think the victorians used to use them as food decorations.

Seeds

Posted on September 12, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged clones, Flying, Gardening, Growing, layering, Plants, Seed heads, seed pods, SeedlingsLeave a comment

Fluff that flies

Aren’t plants amazing? So many ways of spreading seeds around the world. From coconuts, to tiny seeds, and ones that have their own parachutes attached so that they can fly miles. Some plants have built in springs, like himalayan balsam. The seed pods pop when they are touched casting the seeds around all over the place. Obviously some plants don’t use seeds, they can create new roots just by touching the ground. It’s called ‘layering’, basically the new plant is a copy or clone of the original.

Green memory

Posted on September 7, 2022September 7, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Fine Art, Gardening, Green, Green man, Hubby, Memory, Planting4 Comments

Three years ago I painted my hubby ‘my green man’. It came up on my Facebook memories today. He is a green man, gardening does him good, helps him to try and relax. He is a bunging in gardener, there’s no rhyme or reasoning to his planting, and he just plants things where he likes, but he must have green fingers. That’s why I painted him as a green man. Acrylic on canvas.

My favourite poppy painting

Posted on September 6, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Fine Art, Flower, Gardening, Life, pale centre, Poppy, Red, Ten years ago2 Comments

Ten years ago I painted this beautiful flower. I think it’s a type of poppy called Shirley, I grew some from seeds. What I like is the pale centre instead of the usual dark, or black pattern in the middle. I deliberately used a pale background to compliment the light reflected on the petals. When poppies unfurl from their buds they look papery but they are quite strong, not delicate, its just a shame they don’t last very long and soon fade.

Garden in sunshine

Posted on August 28, 2022August 28, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colours, Garden, Gardening, Growth, Heat, Humid, Moist, Plants, Summer, Water, WetLeave a comment

A less blurry shot of the yard. People asked me why its not as dried out? I think we have a microclimate. The yard is enclosed by bushes and the houses. The sun comes round in the afternoon but doesn’t stay on it for too long because we are on the ‘wrong’ side of the hill so it gets shady at East an hour before sunset. I also think because there’s a wall and we cram plants together everything stays moist. I have trouble drying my washing because it gets quite humid. Also because I put one hanging basket under another when one gets watered it flows through to the bottom one. And as they are underneath they are a bit more protected from the hot sunshine. Each pot has a bowl or a saucer underneath to catch and keep the water and I make sure each pot has crocks or broken polystyrene in them so the roots don’t get swamped.

Cherry tomatoes

Posted on August 28, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged cherry tomatoes, Food, Fruit, Gardening, Hanging basket, Harvest, Plants, Tasty, TomatoLeave a comment

Cherry tomatoes from a little hanging basket in the yard. They ripened over the last few days. Each one is a little burst of flavour. Sunshine in a red, shiny, tiny globe. Held in a yellow bowl. Delicious in today’s salad. We don’t grow much of our own produce but it is great to harvest things like this.

Ivy fairy

Posted on August 27, 2022August 27, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bushes, Colours, Fairy, flower fairy, Flowers, Found, Gardening, Hidden, Ivy, Laurel, WoodLeave a comment

Found in the garden under a bush. She was wrapped in ivy and laurel leaves. Lost in our garden. A wood fairy or sprite, turned not to stone, but sadly only resin. Still, she slowly danced through spring and autumn, summer and winter. Slowly submerged in vegetation. I’m glad she’s rescued. Now she’s in the yard, surrounded by petals and colours. Nasturtiums, petunias, fushias, begonias, a true flower fairy. Blooming lovely.

Blurry back yard

Posted on August 27, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colours, Gardening, Happy, Ill, outdoors, Planting, Plants, pleasure, plethora, Shaking, shingles, TiredLeave a comment

Mad back yard. The heavy rain has pepped up all the plants. You have to avoid the baskets. I want to put some washing on the line but it’s clouded over again. I’m tired and hot. A friend came round and after a cup of tea helped cut back part of a large bush that had layered itself (spread outwards with side shoots). Of course I stayed inside for most of the time, but decided to say hi after a rest and ended up helping a bit by cutting off small twigs. By the time I came back in I was exhausted and tired out, hence the shaking. But looking at this really cheered me up. A real plethora and pleasure of flora!

Gladiolus

Posted on August 22, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, brilliant, Colour, Gardening, Gladiolus, Hoto, Life, Plant, Possible painting, Red, YardLeave a comment

This brilliant red flower spike broke off a gladiolus that was growing in the yard (there are all sorts of plants out there) decided to bring it into the kitchen o we can enjoy it for a fee more days. It’s also an opportunity to consider painting it. I think I might paint it with texture and in close up. Flowers are amazing aren’t they?

Pears on the tree

Posted on August 18, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Crop, Fruit, fruit tree, Gardening, happy nature, Pear tree, Pears, Tree, View, WindowLeave a comment

View out of a side window, heavy with pears the branches are bending down on our pear tree. The trunk is propped up because its gone over to about a forty five degree angle partly caused by strong winds and partly just from the weight of pears on the branches. This from a tree bought from Woolworths twenty five years ago as a small sapling. Every year I marvel at the productivity of the plant. And looking out the window at them? Makes me proud of what you can do if you let nature take over.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Gardening