Oh She Grows: Garden Update

The garden has been growing wonderfully this summer. We cannot seem to keep up to all the food it is giving us! But, now it has reached a new phase.

The early crops - beans, peas and brocoli are all out and done now. So, I resowed 'short season' crops, and some frost tolerant crops, for another harvest. The lettuce all bolted (and got bitter) during the last extreme heat wave that we got. So I planted more here as well, and we should be seeing lettuce again shortly. Also planted: bok choy (I am watching out for those pesky ear wigs!!), carrots, beets, kohl rabi (haven't been successful with this yet), cilantro (my earlier plants have gone to seed) and choy sum. Along with this, a second round of short season green beans.

While those new seeds start to sprout, we still have plenty of good eating in the garden. The peppers are a little earlier this year - yippiee! We will have plenty of hot peppers to pickle, and maybe some prize winners for the fair in September! My chili peppers won 1st last year :)

The tomato jungle is just that - my wonderful tomato jungle :)

There is a bit more order to it this year - but not really, hehe. I have trimmed the lower branches to keep from touching the ground, and I trim out the dead branches. But other than that - it is a free-for-all, and it is growing wonderfully that way.

My Mountain Magic tomatoes have been the first to ripen. They are like oversized cherry tomatoes. James says they are the most delicious of what has come out yet.

The grightmire tomatoes were next - witha  ripe one here and there. These are so pretty - little heart shaped tomatoes.

They have dark shoulders when they are green, but then it all turned into a uniform red, with the slightest striping in it. So pretty!

My cumcumbers are sharing climbing space with my purple pole beans, and the relationship is going quite well. They seem to be able to 'grip' onto the pole bean plant better than the fencing, and have required less training to succesfully get them climbing. I have squished a few cucumber beetles here and there, but crops are still going well.

We have lots of flowers in the gardens too this year, and they have brought in so many bees! It was the smartest choice adding them in this year - and they just brighten up the garden so much!

We are getting food out every day. And trying to figure out what to do with it all. It's just wonderful to walk out to the garden and find dinner :)

Acrylic Landscape WIP (work in progress)

 

Last Saturday night was my 'change over' night - when I stay up as late as I can, because the next day I begin my night shifts at the hospital. I was trying to think up something to do as the night progressed, and inspiration hit me. I began a landscape painting on a longer canvas that I have. 

 

I really like how this piece started to come together quite organically. The drips from the sky shaping the tree line and giving hints of trunks.

 

I wasn't such a fan of the hard line separating the land and water, so I softened that up a bit.

 

The water still needs some work to create a sense of depth. I'm thinking pondering what to do there. I have definitely hit a 'block' with it. But hope to come back to it once all these tiresome night shifts are done. :)