It isn't even mid April yet my garden looks like it usually does in early May!

I took these today and it is cool and overcast....in the 50's.

These peonies were open fully in the sunshine yesterday!

Hosta's are looking lush....and a trillium is emerging here too!

Yesterday, beautiful and sunny in the low 70's, I got the gardening urge....(could be those steroids I had to take for my sinus infection...but I had SO much energy!) and worked on my little outside garden bed, sowing seeds for lettuce and planting annuals, salvia, alyssum, zinnias, a dahlia, coleus....so much fun! I know I will love watching these grow! [That is cilantro which survivied our brief winter and is wonderful now!]

Here is some lantana and some small bell flower ((like a mini petunia) nesting in the pot, a bright splash of red, is the latest broken coffee cup!

Finally, two tomatoes in the half whiskey barrel, an heirloom "Mortgage Lifter" and a hybrid "Early Girl". I will add a few marigolds and call it "good"!

Summer mornings, once again I'm out of the house to water everything...

It is still cool enough (barely) that the leaf lettuce is thriving! I love fresh salad from the garden!

It won't be long before the lettuce "bolts" and goes to seed as the cilantro is doing.
I'm putting in annuals for the duration of the summer back here. Zinnias are coming up among the coleus!

In a bed nearby, I have planted 4 tomatoes, 1 Black Crim, 1 Cherokee Purple and 2 Arkansas Travelers. I was surprised to see several coming volunteer from last year's tomatoes...what fun!

After the garden chores, it is time to be inside with air-conditioning. Mom and I are making a few charity quilts. I have lots of fabric to "work up"! Here Mom is taking a break from piecing 4 patches on the antique Singer Featherweight. I have the new Janome to "break in"!

A few photos from our weekend at home with daughter Laura and her family. [Artwork above a watercolor by granddaughter Lili, who is loving my studio!]

Friends came by to see everyone!

We "horsed around" with the energetic grandkids!

More wonderful friends and a boy out of the bathtub!

Early morning trip down to the backyard and garden....

"B3" picked a cucumber, looked at it for a moment and said, "pickle!"

More little offerings from the garden, on a towel decorated with red "yo-yo" flowers!

I am enjoying being home this morning! June 21st, the summer solstice.
I treated myself to some quiet time in my garden retreat.... just outside the studio door. This is a place of cool breezes and birds visiting. I wrote in my journal, read about Manet's still-life paintings and enjoyed a cup of coffee. [There is definitely a nice side to loosing one's day job!]


My silent companion, now twice mended, a little praying angel stands above an ornamental sweet potatoe vine.

Across the yard, in the sunshine of a layered vegetable garden, things are growing nicely. Small cucumbers growing almost before my eyes!

My first year to grow cherry tomatoes. They look so cute all lined up on the vine!

An heirloom variety, Anais noir, (or pineapple) tomato has grown a great deal while I was gone!

We are having hot summer weather now, I don't expect to have leaf lettuce much longer but was able to fill my salad spinner with enough for a large salad tonight!

It is cool and cloudy this Mother's Day. I feel it is past danger of frost and so planted some heirloom variety tomatoes and peppers in my new garden bed. [I still have the lasanga garden bed from last year, too. It is producing lots of leaf lettuce in reds and greens for out table right now, as well as dill which as come up "volunteer" and cilantro! The new bed is in a sunnier location.]

Having had good luck with the Cherokee Purple tomato (above) last summer, I have put in 2 plants this year. Below is a new/old variety called Purple Smudge. Being an artist, how could I resist????

Then some bell peppers, this one called Chocolate Beauty...yummm?!!

This beautiful red is Olena Red! Brilliant!

One last tomato variety, Ananas Noir, or Black Pineapple. This one can have up to four colors on one ripe tomato. The flavor is said to be wonderful....so I'm excited to see how these grow!

All of the plants are from Bean Mountain Farms in Deer Arkansas. You can also visit them here.

For anyone wondering about doing one of these layered, "lasagna" gardens. Here are the
current results we have had. See the garden above, yesterday morning.
I have lots of green tomatoes! These were planted before May 15th and should finally ripen at any moment. [We had two tomatoes from the Cherokee Purple heirloom about a month ago, they were delicious! I'm ready for more!]
It has been an easy garden to plant and maintain. Probably needs more hours of sunshine.
We have zucchini vines and flowers but no zucchini are forming. The cucumber has wandered, climbing everywhere and has so far given us 7 cucumbers in 6 weeks....more on the way, slowly!
The bell pepper plant produced one pepper ( to be fair, I moved it just as that pepper was developing. It seems to like the move ( it was under the tomatoes and cucumbers). I know I have planted a lot of things too close together....not knowing which would "take off" and grow.
My marigolds and ornamental pepper plant have thrived. The basil has done alright ...'though lots of it never came up....maybe need better seed? The rosemary is doing well too, it has been fun finding recipes for using some of this.
To sum up, I would say that this is a easy (no digging or tilling) fun way to garden (almost no weeding) and if you have a sunny place you could grow vegetables. If your yard is shady, try coleus and impatiens and experiment!
I used nothing chemical....just the layers of organic material, including mushroom compost. Fish emulsion has been the fertilizer if needed. (of course being new to this, I'm not always sure when it is "needed"!) I removed the few visible garden pests (hornworm and Japanese beetle) by hand and no more followed (thank goodness!).
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Pest update a few days later....another intruder showed up, the bright yellow spotted cucumber beetle and what I think were the "matching" worms....bright yellow too with spiky black "hairs". All were dispatched by a gloved hand! Uck!

A brief history of a tomato....
Young tomato plants are set out in the garden in early May. Here a week later, May 21st, they are happy.
The plant on the right side is the Cherokee Purple, heirloom tomato. [Click on photos to see more detail.]

June 11th, we have blossoms and 2 "babies"!
June 18th, they are so cute....but no more have formed.

A month later, July 16th, while treating the garden for poison ivy, the now large, heavy tomatoes are harvested. They are beginning to turn from green to dusky red.

Here is a close look. July 16th.

Now, on advice from an older gardener, they go into a brown paper bag........to ripen.

By the morning of July 21st they are ready for their close up....and smell like wonderful fresh tomatoes, too!
That evening, the largest one is sliced to reveal beautiful rich red flesh and a heavenly scent and taste! [Shown here with basil which was added to the lettuce on the BLT that was enjoyed moments later!]
Note: the vines are beginning to produce, but none of these newer tomatoes will be as carefully watched as these first two "babies"! [We will be eating the smaller of these, in the background above, with our supper tonight!]

Before I can eat these tomatoes....first from the garden, I have to sketch them in my watercolor garden journal! Cherokee purple tomatoes due to become "Basil BLT's" for supper tonight. That is fresh basil for part of the lettuce on a BLT!

Last night's baking project was PLUM KUCHEN. I read several recipes on-line then adjusted them for what I had in the pantry. I can tell you that my version used turbinado sugar and for part of the all purpose flour (always unbleached!) I used spelt flour. So this could be healthy, right???? Of course, I had to make a watercolor of one slice....love the red violets and ruby jewel tones that appear when the plums are baked this way!

Remember the tomatoes we picked on Thursday evening? Cherokee Purple heirloom variety?

Then we put them a paper bag to ripen.......

This morning we are definitely seeing some progress. I'll check again in a couple of days!