This time of year, I am regrettably lazy about posting to my blog. I finally figured out why, and it's because my studio has moved outside and all my tools are different. Instead of pens and ink and glue and paper, my tools are shovels and gloves and bags of compost, and of course, plants.
This is a sort of side view of our front yard, which used to be impossibly dismall, after the loss of a huge Mugo Pine tree. The Mugo sat just about in the center of all that brown mulch you can see in the forefront. I've worked really, really hard to get plants to grow in that spot... the soil is waaaaay less than ideal, with a ton of little stringy roots to dig out and the dirt has to be amended before I can plant in it. It is still less than ideal, but it is much better than it was two summers ago.
The big rusty piece in the flower bed is artwork made by a local artist from steel and has a pendulum in the center of it. The pendulum houses a large piece of graphite (it's light grey, just to the left of the urn on the left in the photo), that was used originally in manufacturing to make a mark on something. (Sorry I can't be more specific, but that's all I can recall!).
The jury is out on the rustic looking cedar flower beds along the front of the house (there's an identical one on the other side of the steps). The cedar spans an area that just seemed like a perfect raised flower bed, I'm just not sure I'm really sold on the rustic look of the cedar. It's a north facing bed, so there are impatiens in it with hostas planted in the urn planters, and in pots down on the ground and on the steps.
This is a view of the front yard from a slightly different angle, and you can see the little garden fence we just bought from another local artist. You can also see the graphite pendulum better. I'll post photos of my back and side yard gardens next.
I miss my studio upstairs, but good weather is fleeting in Michigan, so I try to get outside whenever I can. Soon it will be much too hot to play in the garden and I'll migrate back inside and start working with pen and ink again. I'm really starting to miss being in my studio!!!
I hope your summer is a beautiful one!