Totally Tomato

Color inspiration from my garden.

Love the distinct color bands.

Yes, joy really can be found from something as simple as a tri-colored tomato from my own garden.

Failure to Post

That's exactly what I'm suffering from a failure to post and regularly.  I just noticed it's been awhile since I've updated.

I've been busy writing content for the 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge, and for Almost Stitched newsletter series (24 newsletters plus 6 bonus surprises) that I forget that others cannot read my mind.

So here's a photo of Pepper, our oldest cat, sporting some attitude while sitting atop a stitched story I wrote up yesterday with my sewing machine.  In between bouts of stitching and writing I've been dodging rain storms trying to get the raised beds planted.

Right now I'm at 50% or so completion and I have to say it's looking good.  John brought one of the porch chairs out to the garden area so that I can sit and watch the birds, butterflies, bees, and paint, sketch, and write unto my hearts content.

WIP Sunflower

Sunflower over Black Birds in Tree Stencil with some sequin waste dots using craft paint on baltic birch panel.  I'll pull the Black Birds in Tree back out after I'm done with the sunflower and other embellishments.

Detail of Sunflower and Black Birds in Tree Stenciled image.

New Project in Progress

Black Birds in Tree Stencil and craft paints on baltic birch panel board... more later after I add more layers.

Garden Plot for 2014

Half scale of what the actual garden will look like, we are moving our raised beds to the back garden this year and the space is 16x29 feet.  If I planned everything correctly I will have enough room for six raised beds and four trellis panels with enough room for a minimum of 16 tomato plants.

The green panel to the left represents the asparagus patch, at the top and the rhubarb bed to the south, yes my rhubarb bed really is that big!  The wedge on the lower right represents lawn, I have to account for the garden shed door so I can get stuff out of the garden shed.

And as I look at this sketch those two herb beds could be one large herb bed instead, lol. I'll probably rework the sketch several times as we start to move the three raised beds we already have, and then start building the other two raised beds.

I'm guessing this was a good  year for us to decide to start over from scratch with our gardening efforts.  Only one of the five blueberry bushes survived the brutal winter, haven't seen any leaf buds on the current bushes yet, and none of the strawberry plants survived.  Yep, a great year to start over!

Spring has Sprung!

Angel and Oliver hanging out in the outdoor dog run last summer.

Remember all of the hard work John did last Spring to build up my raised gardens in the front yard, here is a photo from last year?  Well we are going to move them to the north garden because mostly we get more sunlight in the back yard than we do in the front yard.  

Soooooo, today began the long process of clearing out the north garden, John removed the fence posts, and the chicken wire fencing while I cleaned up all of the trash that blew into our yard over this past winter.  I also organized all of the fence posts, etc., and otherwise acted as his runner for tools and such, while Angel and Oliver hung out in the outdoor kennel.  

Hopefully next weekend I'll have new photos to share as we embark on this new journey, but we are both in agreement that we love the raised beds and this is the direction we want to go, that and a quarter or half CSA share which we need to make a decision on in the next week or so.  I will say that I was excited to see that my raised beds are completely thawed out, a minor miracle considering this years winter and the fact that we still have ice in the back yard!

Garden Path

Is in need of cleaning, etc., but I do love my native plants, and the pollinators that they attract.  This afternoon the thistles were visited by green hummingbirds, this morning goldfinches.

Common Phlox

Common Phlox Phlox divaricata

Not worth my time collecting to use in a dye pot, any color it would yeild would fade in a matter of days, if not hours.  The stems would yeild a weak yellow at best.  But given the current extreme heat Iowa is experiencing it is one of the few plants that has survived in my garden without needing watering.

Oliver's Run Part Two

All of the old garden fencing is now gone, everything is mowed and removed save for a few native prairie plants which will be transplanted sometime this week.

Half of the run is up, we will set up the rest of the run tomorrow evening.  I'm just too tired to do so tonight, cleaning up the old garden area also meant trimming back the trees, removing volunteer trees, and the like as well as more mowing which hubs did for me!

Oliver's Run Part One

Before, this is my garden that literally went to seed and to the weeds, this summer.  John mowed almost everything down, and now there's room for the new, to Oliver, dog run.  Our neighbor, Praise God, is giving us their dog run to add to our dog run so it'll go from being 12x16x6 feet to that size plus another 12x8x6 feet, I think it may actually be larger than that, we'll know for sure tomorrow once we have it all set up.

After, a few native plants were spared the lawn mower blade. Specifically the milkweed and the two white plastic buckets, which have their bottoms removed, are protecting my prairie dye plants.

Will post more photos tomorrow once we get the dog run up and usable.

Lilacs

The neighbor's daughter brought me a huge bouquet of these lilacs, he's 94 and they came by to do some yard work for him.  The heady smell of lilac now wafts throughout the house.  Not much in the way of studio work today, it's the rush to get the gardens planted before the rain falls.  Check out my other blog Survival Kitchen, linky in the right column, to see what we've planted.

Snow!!!

Woke up to some snow this morning.

Well at least the raised vegetable beds are getting some much needed moisture.

My more tender herbs are covered by plastic buckets.

Traffic is moving slow enough that I was able to get a clear shot of the intersection during rush hour.

Livestock Tank as Raised Vegetable Bed

Got these lovely livestock tanks this afternoon from an old friend of John's.  They are delightful in their shape, patina, and the fact that they will keep my madder root contained!

In addition to the livestock tanks, John also got a yard of composted horse manure for our gardens.

He's beat from all of the shoveling and moving of topsoil and manure, but I'm thrilled to have everything in place for the growing season!  This weeks forecast is rain, rain, and more rain.

All three beds are now dressed with composted horse manure.

Raised Vegetable Beds 042713 Part 2

Round two of off loading the amended topsoil.

 

Almost ready for the compost!

This raised bed holds a full two yards of soil. 

"I bettter get some pesto this year..."  I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that's what's going through his mind when I took this photo!

My babies!!!  All grown locally in a local greenhouse, and here I said I wasn't going to have a large garden this year... well this time we're gardening smarter by laying down cardboard and then mulching those areas heavily.

Filled and already sporting some plants.

So far two plantings of chives, one dill plant, two peppermint (with the dark purplish black stems) three jalepeno's and three purple cabagges in this bed.  The soil temperature is around 60 degrees.

All three beds need new bird netting, to be added this week, and will be painted a lovely color called Copper Pot, looks just like terra cotta. 

Raised Vegetable Beds 042713

Perinneal Leek and Garlic bed getting more topsoil, next up is a layer of compost and worm castings.

Topsoil layer is finished.  The top round of wood is the cover for the bed, this week John will reinstall the pvc pipe hoops and I'll help with the bird netting. 

John loading the middle raised bed, otherwise known as my salad bed, with topsoil.

Just a couple wheelbarrows more and this bed will be ready for compost as well.

We saved money by purchasing the amended topsoil locally and by picking it up from KCI Landscaping, we save even more by not having it delivered.  So far we've purchased two yards of the amended topsoil. 

My herb and kale garden, still needs topsoil and then a final layer of compost.  I'll probably tuck some beets, parsnips, and carrots in between the rows of kale in this garden.  I'm dreaming of a fresh sun kissed salad!

Immersion Dyeing

Spring has finally sprung here in central Iowa!  Rumor has it it's going to make it into the 60's today.  Starting next week, after I hang my upcoming solo show this coming Sunday, I will be hitting the dye pots and hard.  Also on the docet is the natural dye garden, I'm planting native dye plants, and if all goes well madder root in a livestock barrel to prevent it from overtaking the lawn.  Stay tuned for photos, video, and more.

Raised Vegetable Beds

From this, which was about ten inches deep...

To this which is about 18-20 inches deep; we need more soil though because...

The first thirty seven bags of organic top soil wasn't near enough to fill the box!  I will be planting leeks, garlic, parsnips, and a few other yummies later in the week.

Raised Beds Under Stress

This one just flat out collapsed and has taken on the appearance of a bathtub.

The bed to the far right is starting to lean.  The one in the middle has been over engineered so should stand up to the snow with no issues.

Garden Update 060912

Praying for rain!  Just finished watering the garden, by the time I was done it looked as if I hadn't even watered.  Tomorrow I'm putting down the final layer of heavy mulch along with the seaper hoses!

My grapevine has grapes on it for the first time in 8 years, mainly because the neighborhood thief didn't shear it off to the quick this past winter!!!  Yes I actually have someone who has been coming into my yard and cutting back my vines, and then stealing them!!! 

Anyway, we'll be putting netting on the arbor this coming week to keep the cardinals, and other birds, from stealing my grapes.  Mainly it's the cardinals that have been causing problems, they did a pretty good job of stripping the cherry tree that's just behind the grape vine, and the cherries hadn't even turned red yet.

New Raised Bed

I need to edit the photos and post them here for this particular bed.  John has been experimenting with several approaches to the whole sustainable garden, one of those is the back to eden method.  In this new bed we layered composted wood chips and leaves on the bottom and then some good soil on the top.  I've planted lettuce in this bed and then once it's up I'll layer in leaves atop the soil in between the rows.

John will build the lid for it tomorrow, this will ensure that the rabbits don't eat my baby lettuce plants and the neighbors cat cannot use it as it's litterbox.