Happy Mother's Day and happy a #sublimesunday in the garden dreaming of my projects.
I will be planting this rose in my new garden bed today in honour of my own mother, who sadly has passed a few years back.
I am going to be trying something new this year with any new roses I plant as well as those I've already established.
That is planting glads around the base of my roses in a circle and hope that they will grow up into the frame of the rose and act as the stakes for them. These are the colour I am going to be planting around this new rose. I thought the pink hues will look lovely with the deep pink of this rose.
Most often you do need to stake glads, but we really need to here at Toad Hall, as this garden is facing the sea and we get strong salty winds. Many things need staking, but I hate using stakes and never have enough. I thought of this the other day and wondered why not use a shrub or strong mid sized plant as the base into which I can plant my summer bulbs that need staking. I am going to be mixing in some lilies with this planting too, also in a pink tone.
As some readers may recall, I talked about a new garden/terrace/porch I am undertaking to make. I decided to move my far too large Veg garden (Which was partially walled facing sea side to keep out the winds and keep temps up) closer to the house and make it smaller. It was a bit of a hike from the house and it was far too large for just me to manage, so I decided this Spring to steal some of the picket fencing and make a much smaller sea facing veg/flower bed I could manage.
Here is a shot from when I first started. I took this disused corner of the house, sea-side, and began placing my fence panels.
@winstonalden helped my by clearing out all these lowgrowing evergreen shrubs that abutted the back of the house and really needed to go in order for me to start adding a little garden oasis here for us.
Now, this project is still underway but it has come along. I am doing the work myself so it has to go at the pace I can manage, but I am pretty good about dividing my days into tasks. Thus, after art and steem time in the morning, I spend the rest of the day in the garden really making this project come about.
Here is it's current state with the porch put in and a pergola just built.
Readers will hopefully forgive the amateur state of the thing, but as I am doing it all myself I am approaching it rather like I do painting: I plan it out, rough it in, and then add the details. This means the size and placement of things change as I go along. And when I am at the lumber yard I also might decide "Oh, it'd be easier to try that" or "This would work instead". In fact the little railing was bought in the reduced bin of the lumber yard for $4.50 if you can believe it. It had a small crack at the base, which didn't affect me, as I was screwing it into two other pieces to make the railing anyway. That is one of the benefits of just doing the project yourself, saving as you go along.
I will be staining the pergola mainly white and the porch will be stained weathered grey to match the old weathered cedar of Toad Hall's exterior (which needs so much love, but we try).
You can also see that the gravel terrace and paths are still in progress. But, one must understand that rather than just ordering a large pile of stone to be delivered to the house, which I should have done, I have been getting bags 10 at a time and adding them as I go. I just chalk it up to being a 'quirky artist'. This allows me to fudge my way through many such projects or social gaffs.
When it is finished the gravel paths and terrace will either terminate at the lawn in cedar garden timbers or in stone walls, depending on my energy and time I can allot to it.
Really as I go along I live for the moments to place things like this to get the view of the finished garden, which I can clearly see in my mind.
Case in point is this newly purchased vining honeysuckle and the configuration of clay pots on old timber set amongst a gravel path. This railing and post will be white, but the old garden seat will remain as is. I took this from my old veg garden as well and also made it. It's an old large slab of wood I scavenged from our beach after a big Autumn storm a few years back. The honeysuckle will be planted in the earth with the gravel around it and trained over the pergola.
To me, gardening truly is painting with plants and hardscape. I see a vision in my head and set about making it real in this case in timber, stone, earth, and seed.
I imagined these old cement pots that belonged to @winstonaldens gran, flanking this new terrace.
Right now they are filling up with the succulents I planted in them when we came to Toad Hall. Succulents are a sea-side gardeners best friend. They love to bake all day in hot sun and wind and salt spary seems to only make them flourish.
I also imagined this view, which is still in progress, of sitting on the little porch I made of a morning sipping my coffee and having a bit of the view framed with the posts of the pergola and the railing a catch all for my Summer treasures from my daily beach combing, shells, bits of sea glass and bits and bobs washed ashore.
Here I have placed two chairs that I will use at either end of a table to sit under here. I have place them thus because I wanted to imagine the table, what it would be like. And I have decided that I will make a long thin table of the old wood and set the legs in deep enough that these two metal arm chairs can still sit under it. I'm going to be getting some great little metal garden chairs, of the kind you always see in public gardens in France or England. Then, if we have more people over, we can pull out my odd long thin table and place more of these seats around them, but mostly it can stay there where I can sit and type away on Steemit or draw and dream of art to be made.
This isn't a very technical way to work, no architect nor builder would subscribe to my odd building and design, with quick actions and then quiet contemplation.
Cities would not get built with this method, but for our weather worn old shack stuck up over the sea, it works just fine for me.
Now, I will close with this sweet little gift @winstonalden gave me today.
Although I am not "technically" a mother, that is to say I have no human children, I certainly have a large brood of animal children; chickens, quail, fish, cat and dog. So, today I got this nice little antique young adult book from 1916. @winstonalden knows I love old books, old illustrations and especially those with ladies and animals. Here is one of the darling illustrations.
A girl and her dog with a lovely cottage in the background. The sort of world I love to get lost in.
Well, I hope all have a lovely #sublimesunday and if you are in the US a happy Mother's day.
If you like my work please upvote and feel free to resteem and by all means leave comments.
Check out my other posts:
- Another Singularity Sketch
- Entry for Crypto challenge: Steem
- Enjoying a #sublime sunday in the garden
- Commission piece of a Basset Hound in a Chair
- To Bot or not to Bot: Singularity Drawing
Such a wonderful Mothering Sunday and #SublimeSunday, I really adore your Pergola and Decked Porch - it's so much more special knowing you put your own effort in to design and build it.
So much to enjoy throughout this post, and more importantly the message it holds - sometimes in life the greatest satisfaction is from creating something yourself - and sitting back and enjoying it after. Honestly from the pictures you have created a fantastic space to sit out in the summer and reap the rewards of your own effort - something far better then if you had paid someone to do it for you.
I really need to make more time for your posts, thank you so much for sharing in the #SublimeSunday tag because it reminds me to call by - but you really do share some incredible content through your art, homesteading and animals it's special and deserves to be shared far more then it is currently.
#thealliance
Well thank you @c0ff33a, Again I don't expect you to have to stop by because I used your tag. I think it a good idea so have decided it is a nice bookend to my weekly posts :)
I really do love sharing my art and my garden obsessions here, as we really have a truly engaging community and I look forward to comments like letters in the post.
It is very true that I do get a big thrill out of enjoying things I did myself. Obviously, there is an economy to it as well, one loves to pinch a penny and thrift is the way around here, but it gives me the same sort of rush and joy as making art. Knowing there is something now in the world that was not before I took a think from my imagination and brought it into being. Powerful stuff sometimes, of course I like simple things, so am simply amused :)
Thank you again for stopping by and for the great idea of #sublimesunday.
Such a beautiful garden! I love your pergola, I need to build something like this for my backyard ^_^
I thought of you a few times when I was down in my Summer studio cutting wood. As the pile of small off cuts piled up I wondered what great little houses you'd make. I'm saving them up and we'll see if I get inspired this Summer to make some fun little wooden pieces inspired by you:)
I often end up doing such projects because I find something I'd like to do and just figure I might as well try it myself. It saves money and is usually an interesting challenge. I think it's part of being an artist, wanting to create the thing you see in your mind.
Lovely garden, especially like the succulents in the concert planter.
I love succulents, they are always a good thing here with baking sun and wind in the Long summer days.
WOW. An excellent idea.
I always like roses. ! I appreciate your careful work in the garden!
nice sharing my dear friend!
Thank you. Me too, I LOVE roses. I have a small little collection, but I do like to add a couple new varieties each Spring.
wow! That looks amazing!! I'm always so impressed with your 'quirky' construction projects!!
Resteeming out of sheer admiration!
aw, thanks for the admiration. You know me, determined is my middle name. Really, you know us, we can pretty much create anything, we just have to focus hard enough :)
WHOOAAAA!! Awesome Post!! Thank you for the tour around. Those roses are to die for, and I had no clue about succulents being great by the sea, I have to get on those. We have to stake our gladiolas too, I like the method you are going to try with them this year, looking forward to seeing the results.
OH, @lyndsaybowes, you have to get succulents. They are the best. They are obviously grown for their foliage, though some will flower, but they come in so many interesting shapes and colors and are so easy to propogate.
They grow in hot low water high wind places like high up on windy mountains or in hot dessert areas. I have even transplanted some of our native succulents from our beach up into my succulent bed near the house and they do fine. They store water in their waxy leaves so as long as you don't over water them and they like free draining rather poor nutrient soil, so great in shallow pots. Mind made it through this winter out in those cement pots under snow in and 10 below 0 F weather. You'll get hooked when you buy your first one. :)
Oooh that's so awesome, many people here have them as house plants, I don't see them in gardens very often, definitely going to give it a shot, I have a LOT of poor nutrient soil by the ocean hahaha!
In the US the most popular are called "hen and chicks" in the UK they use the proper latin name sempervivum or house leeks. These are a good 'gateway' plant into succulents. They are low growing and cool almost geometric and you can just pull off their little 'chicks' (babies) and put in a pot of grit and low quality soil with good drainage and they root. They are very hard to kill. SO many varieties though and great colours cool blue/green, bright chartreuse. Check them out!
Awwww!! They sound amazing too haha! I bet we use the latin name here in Canada, I don't know what looks I'd get if I asked the garden store for hen and chicks hahaha!!
I'm not sure why, but Americans tend to use the old 'common name' for things whilst in the UK you use the latin. I like both, really.
The garden is coming up very nicely. Nice furniture for outdoor. I would paint it all in glitter purple and pink ^^
Roses need a lot of protection from bad weather. Keep us update how it goes!
My parents grow wild yellow roses in our land and they are beautiful.
<3
I bet you would paint it all bright cheery colours too! I love colour in my paintings, but I guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist in my surroundings, I like the calm and serene so that my mind has the resting place to create the bright colourful worlds I want to paint :)
Roses are actually hardier than most people realize. They can take a lot of abuse. I have an old rose on this side of the house that gets constant wind and salt spray that @winstonalden's grandmother planted probably 30 years ago and it grows like a weed. I just really pruned it hard when we moved here and as long as I keep cutting flowers through summer it blooms and blooms :)
Moment I saw your porch and pergola, first feeling was, o man what a place for painting, and than when you showed next image with a view that was it, I totally envy you @donnadavisart :)
What a place, like a small castle for good thoughts and nice feelings :)
Thank you @jungwatercolour. I appreciate it everyday, believe me. I never take it for granted. True, the Winter is not always as good as now, but Spring Summer and Autumn are SO amazing here. I honestly thank the view and this place for allowing me to be here daily. It is a lucky spot and I have always loved the sea and water and to be near in or on it, so we are a good pair, Toad Hall and I. :)
Maybe one day you could visit. I'd love to have an artists fortnight or something with some Steemit artists, it'd be so amazing and fun!
Who knows what life is bringing to us @donnadavisart :) Maybe one day we will really have coffee and smoke under your pergola :)
I'd love that and also visiting your country too! The world is full of possibilities.
I love your new outside digs. Looks like a grand place to sit about and watch the world go by as you think of some more art to conjure forth. The ideas you come up with are so fun. And I FULLY subscribe to your building method. The old 'plan as you go' sort of thing. Makes it so unique. I made a huge wood-storage shed building out of 6x6 and 2x6 construction, with only a simple sketch. It has some funky things about it, that wouldn't even be used as examples of what not to do in the code book. But it's all mine. And sturdy as a flat rock in a stiff Noreaster (is there such a thing?) It surely won't fall down!!
Very nice of W.A. to give you the book. You are definitely a mother, in the furry feathered sense of the word. I'm pretty sure your children are well cared for too. When I saw that illustration, it did ring totally 'on' in what I think of you and your world. I just LOVE the old books too, all hand illustrated in ink or ink and watercolor. Nothing like it. I have an old wildlife book with line drawings, even has the Passenger pigeon in it. Sad to think of the reality of that one, but the drawings are way cool.